ABSTRACT
The venta was a Christian-Islamic institution of Medieval Spain, providing overnight refuge for travelers, their transport cargoes, and pack-animals. In New Spain, Cortes promptly set up ventas on the Veracruz to Mexico City road, and in 1524 issued ordinances for their management almost identical to those of Carmona (Prov. Sevilla) from the 1400s. Primary documents trace the establishment, function, and institutional role of these roadside inns. The ventas are discussed in regard to regulation and control, maintenance by individual innkeepers, contributions to their upkeep by local Indian communities, tax or rent payments, as well as location, physical layout, construction and the amenities provided. The role of ventas is discussed with respect to the expanding commercial, road, and settlement network, involving both Indians and Spaniards. The network of ventas documented for New Spain by 1585 is mapped to illustrate the interlinkage of settlements in the early colony.
INTRODUCTION
The Spanish colonial enterprise in New Spain began with conquest and the appropriation of indigenous institutions that would channel wealth to the conquerors and to the government in Spain (Prem 1992). But control also required an infrastructure of harbors, roads, and towns to facilitate communication and the transport of goods and precious metals (Butzer and Butzer 1992). In 1519, Cortes founded Villarica on the Gulf of Mexico as a port for European shipping, later shifted to "Old" Veracruz; five years later he was engaged in improving the road up to Mexico City, in rebuilding that city's administrative center, and in developing a Pacific Ocean harbor for trade with East Asia.
The Iberian Peninsula represents a large landmass with few stretches of navigable rivers, so that during late Medieval times overland freighting assumed greater significance than in most other countries of Europe. That experience immediately proved important in the mountainous countries of the Spanish colonial realm. In Mexico, for example, Prehispanic roads were little more than footpaths, since all goods were transported on the backs of human carriers (tamemes). Although pack-horses and mules served immediate needs during and after the Conquest, roads and mule-drawn carts soon proved indispensable for hauling mining machinery and precious metals (Ringrose 1970; also Menéndez PidaI 1951). In Spain, small, two-wheeled vehicles (carretas) were either drawn by oxen or mules. In Mexico, the burgeoning mining demands of the 1550s saw the development of a much larger, ungainly carro with very large, spoked and iron-tired wheels that could handle rough roads and carry up to two tons of freight, four times that of a carreta (Powell 1950). It required up to 16 mules, as many as 22 on mountainous passes, and 30 or more commonly traveling in convoys. This posed logistical problems in regard to overnight feed or pasturage that were met by the concurrent establishment of roadside inns or ventas.
There indeed had been resthouses for traveling merchants in Prehispanic Mexico, and in urban areas there also were appropriate storehouses for goods in transport (Hassig 1985: 31--40,113-26; Rees 1975). Thus the Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary of 1571[end p. 1] translated venta as oztomecacalli ("traveling-merchant house"), with alternative terms equivalent to "house where people are attended to" and "travelers' sleeping place" (Medina 1970; see also Dibble and Anderson 1959: 47-8). These appear to have consisted of simple structures.1 But they only served small numbers of middle-class merchants (pochteca), not the tamemes, and they could not anticipate a squad of muleteers and the needs of several hundred mules. In functional terms, therefore, the venta had no direct indigenous counterpart.
The early trunk roads from Veracruz to Mexico City have received detailed attention from Rees (1971),2 Trautmann (1981) and Driever (1990, 1991), while Siemens (1990: 95-112, Fig. 1) provides a broader landscape context for the ascent from coastal Veracruz to the interior plateau at Perote, but drawing from nineteenth century descriptions. The sparse documentation for other royal roads (caminos reales) beyond Mexico City has been partly assembled,3 yet reconstruction of the communications network is often ambiguous without the complementary information provided by the specific location of ventas. Indeed, travel accounts of the 1500s and 1600s give only peripheral or indirect information on roads, roadside inns, or transportation. For the early years, therefore, one must search in the vast and complex body of archival documentation.
The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the introduction and early development (1524-1585) of the venta in New Spain as an instrument of commerce and administration during the formative decades of the colony. The venta was both a functional facility as well as a public institution. It was leased to either Spaniards or Indians, and Indians provided much of the labor required in both construction and operation. It had antecedents in the Old World, but its adaptation to the particular circumstances of the New World and its links to government policy have never been examined.
The study presented here is based on archival records, specifically some 250 original documents from the published municipal archives (Actas de Cabildo) of Mexico City (Actas 1889: vol. 1-7) and the vast corpus of unpublished land grants and various licenses known as mercedes, found in three different repositories: the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, the Ayer Collection in the Newberry Library of Chicago, and the Kraus Collection in the Library of Congress in Washington (see Butzer and Butzer 1993). Although numerous, like most documents of the sixteenth century, the archival records are terse, and do not allow strong generalizations. Woven together in an empirical narrative, they do however provide a rich qualitative record of how, why, and where roadside inns were approved, built, and operated. They clarify the different roles of Spaniards and Indians, and provide explicit information on the physical appearance and even the facilities and comforts of such early "hotels." Finally, this information contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the transportation system that emerged in early colonial New Spain.
OLD WORLD ROOTS
Roadside inns are known in the Old World from the earliest times. They grew out of the need for safe lodging and protection of travelers and merchants, and offered people and animals overnight accomodation, food, and often the opportunity to buy and sell merchandise (Elisséeff 1978; Le Tourneau 1965).
In the Near East, the medieval caravanserais of Anatolia, the khans of Persia, and the fonduksof North Africa replaced older Roman, Byzantine, or Sasanid post-stations (Erdmann 1961: 115; Lapidus 1967: 59-62, 123-25). With the extension of the east-west trading routes, a network of such inns had been well established by the twelfth century throughout the Islamic world. They were "indispensable in regions where sources of provisions were not regular, and where watering places were few" (Elisséeff 1978: 1010-11). Under whatever name, roadside inns were usually built at a distance of a day's journey, about 20 kilometers apart on level terrain. Anchored in the organized highway trade of an earlier era, they were an integral part of overland travel in the Islamic world and played an important role along the pilgrimage routes to Mecca (Sauvaget 1937).
Inns of architectural prominence became common in the Near East during the thirteenth century, but the oldest example dates to the early 700s. These are elaborate structures, many strongly fortified, that become increasingly opulent by the 1500s (Elisséeff 1978; Le Tourneau 1965). Typically square and measuring 40 to 75m on a side, they [end p. 2] enclose a large courtyard to shelter pack-animals; the two floors face inward with portico galleries; the lower level is lined with storerooms once designed for merchandise and to accomodate at least some of the muleteers, while the upper story had lodgings for traveling merchants. Although the basic arrangements are sufficiently consistent to be considered representative, such examples have only survived because of their prominence and prestige,4 and can hardly have been typical of the many hundreds of much more modest and ephemeral structures spread along the roadways of the Islamic world.
The common thread as to form is a secure enclosure, with a central courtyard and two floors around the perimeter. As to function, these were places of public commerce as well as lodging, and they were commonly built and leased by religious foundations, wealthy individuals, or rulers. Beyond that their primary roles were highly variable, ranging from long-term storage, enclosed bazaars, and elite hotels, to extraterritorial residence-warehouses for foreign merchants within towns; in the countryside they more typically provided short-term accomodation for pack-animals, muleteers and merchants, while not precluding on-site commercial exchange.
The various Arabic designations are mainly regional or time-specific, and do not elucidate the range of primary functions. The term fonduk (from Arabic, al-funduk), derived from the Greek via Aramaic, is first verified A.D. 1033 in Islamic Spain and 1045 in Cairo and may be the oldest (Torres Balbás 1934; Goitein 1967: 349; Le Tourneau 1965). Entering Castilian as alhóndiga, it long retained its multiple meanings but eventually came to designate a public granary. New words emerged for "inn": mesón or posada for those located within towns, and venta taberna en el camino for the road inn that sold wine.5 Ventas remain visible as small settlements in the toponymic landscape around Sevilla, sometimes also preserved in the names of roadside restaurants. They probably appeared along road stretches between older towns during the demographic and economic expansion of the 1400s (Borrero Fernández 1983; Butzer 1988).
There can be little doubt about the institutional transfer of the public inn from Islamic to Christian Spain during the reconquest. As documented in 1257, the fonduk of the Muslim town of Biar (Valencia region) was awarded as a licensed royal concession to a Christian merchant, but a decade later transferred to the local Muslim community. This royal grant literally describes the inn" ... with stables, beds, and everything necessary for merchants to lodge comfortably with their merchandise, animals and possessions" (Burns 1971: 447, also 1975: 64-78). Inns represented a lucrative monopoly that yielded substantial revenues; after the reconquest, innkeepers paid the Crown the same share of their income previously given to the Islamic authorities.6
The venta was sufficiently important in fifteenth century Spain that town councils issued special rules and regulations in regard to operation and maintenance. The Book of Ordinances of the council of Carmona, a town 30 kms east of Sevilla, fortunately includes a list of rules that the innkeepers (venteros) had to observe (González Jiménez 1972: 154-57). They date from the late l400s, and it is significant that very similar rules were directly transferred to New Spain when Cortes issued the Ordenanzas sobre ventas in March of 1524 for innkeepers on the road from Veracruz to Mexico City (Cortés 1963: 356-58). The principles of Cortés' ordinances were underscored in successive royal decrees of 1538 and 1550, subsequently codified in the Laws of the Indies with respect to public roads. Posadas, mesones and ventas were to provide travelers with food and other necessities, at fair prices, without extortion or ill-treatment, so as to facilitate transport and commerce, as well as bring in tax revenues on sales and services (Recopilación 1987: Book IV, Title 17, Law 1).
Points stressed in the ordinances for both Carmona and Mexico City included fixed prices for pork, chickens, rabbit, venison, or wine- -as consumed or sold in a venta. Bread is not mentioned, but maize (Mexico City) or barley (Carmona) are listed in a different section, suggesting that maize was the standard New World fodder. Tariffs for overnight stays for travelers, with or without animals, were to be posted. Other regulations concerned the use of honest weights and measures, as officially approved by the city. Ventas also had to be neat, and beds had to have mattresses, clean sheets, pillows, and covers. Animal cribs were not to have holes, otherwise the fodder would fall through. Pigs and chickens were to be kept in an enclosed area. Whores and pimps were not allowed to stay in ventas, and a suspicious person could not stay over more than three[end p. 3] days. On items sold, innkeepers could earn at most a fifth on the price of sale in either Carmona or Mexico City (González Jiménez 1972; Cortés 1963).
VENTA LICENSING IN A DUAL SOCIETY
Licenses for ventas or mesones in New Spain were granted on the request of individual Spaniards as well as Indian communities, for specified or indefinite periods oftime. Before 1565, documents show that three out of four of venteros or mesoneros were Spaniards, compared with a quarter of the inns operated by Indians (see Table 1), primarily in areas with persistingly dense, indigenous settlement. None of the licenses were granted to women, except possibly through inheritance, but no women played the role of innkeeper. Although women could hold property under Spanish law, innkeeping was a rough and tumble profession.
In Spain, ventas were looked upon as suitable rewards for successful crusaders who participated in the Reconquest, while in New Spain such licenses were often given to prominent conquistadores. Grants for sitios de venta sometimes included one or two caballerías (each 43 ha) of agricultural land, intended for the planting of maize. This corn would be sold in the venta and used for the preparation of meals. At least some innkeepers were asked to keep an exact accounting of their sales, and to write down all transactions in a book.7
As in Old Spain, the innkeeper himself was not the owner of a venta but a concessionaire; the premises (but not a separate land grant) remained public property. This becomes evident when in 1530 the city council (cabildo) of Mexico City decided to build more inns on the new road under construction between Veracruz and Mexico City -as property of Mexico City- emphasizing that a title, rather than a license, for a venta could not be granted to any person in particular.8 It was only a franchise. The cities of Mexico and Veracruz profited fmancially from ventas in their jurisdiction, and concern about their revenues becomes evident from several disputes about administrative boundaries between the spheres of the two cities.9
While individual colonists in New Spain sought revenues through management of a venta, Spanish stockmen on estancias near the roads complained that travelers and passersby pestered them with demands for shelter and food. 10 Indian communities had similar reasons to request a meson or venta. In 1543, Viceroy Mendoza granted the Indians of Cinapecuaro a "license to build a meson where travelers can rest and eat, because Indians are often molested and maltreated by travelers who come through their town, want to stay in the [Indian] governor's house or that of the principales (other prominent men), taking away their food or supplies by force, without paying the Indians."11
Before 1560, many licenses for ventas or mesones were explicitly granted to address such complaints.12 Sometimes the suggestion to build a venta came from the viceroy himself. When the miners of Izmiquilpan and Zacatecas in 1551 asked for permission to extend the road from Izmiquilpan to where the roads from Mexico City to Zacatecas met, the viceroy not only granted their request to build the road through an unutilized stretch of land (tierra muerta), but he also found it advisable that a venta or meson be constructed in the Indian village of lzmiquilpan to avoid harassment and maltreatment by travelers.13 Selection of a Spaniard or an Indian community as innkeeper reflected local circumstances along the new roads. When the Indians of Pátzcuaro received a license for a venta in 1544, the viceroy noted that either a Spaniard or the Indians could be in charge of it.14 But in the case of Izmiquilpan (1551), the viceroy made it clear that the sale of goods and services to travelers should be entirely in the hands of the Indians in order to stop the kinds of "inconveniences" 15 mentioned above.
These examples illustrate that although ventas functioned primarily through individual initiative, the viceroy and also the city councils repeatedly took initiatives of their own, either to serve the best [end p. 4] interests of commerce, transport, and revenue --as proclaimed in the Laws of the Indies-- but also to minimize friction between the conquerors and the conquered, another explicit policy at the highest levels of government in Madrid.16 The matter of regulation will now be outlined.
REGULATION, INNKEEPERS, AND LABOR
The concessionaire had to pay a fixed, annual rent to the authorities in addition to a certain percentage of the income from the sale of goods and from room and board for people and their animals. Andrés Rodríguez, a muleteer, and Juan González Gallego received a license for a venta two leagues from Texcoco for a rent set at 50 gold pesos in perpetuity, but Andrés Rodríguez had to build the inn at his own cost.17 In 1527, a Rodrigo Gómez was granted a meson for 37 pesos (10,000 maravedís) annually, in addition to a percentage of the revenues. 18 If an innkeeper failed to pay the municipal authorities on time, his dues might be doubled; if he did not pay at all, he was likely to lose his license and his investments.19 Few of the licenses give figures for rents, and those that do show no discernible temporal or spatial patterning.
Much like a modern hotel, price lists for all services rendered and items available for purchase had to be posted at the door or in a public place where they could easily be seen and read by the travelers. Otherwise, the innkeeper could be severely punished by a fine of 100 pesos to the royal treasury.20
It was the role of the cabildos in Mexico City and Veracruz to regulate the ventas, and they kept a close eye on prices for supplies and services provided. Although prices were commonly uniform, they were allowed to vary in some districts, depending for example on the distance of a venta from Mexico City or Veracruz. But in 1531, many muleteers and other people complained that on the camino real from Veracruz, but still within the jurisdiction of Mexico City, innkeepers were overcharging their customers and demanding excessive prices. This was considered sufficiently serious that three city officials --a councilman (regidor), the royal notary, and the constable (alguacil)-- were all sent to check out these ventas.21
In 1543, the chief magistrate of Veracruz was ordered to visit the ventas of Encero, Sedeño, del Río, and Rinconada on the road from Veracruz to Jalapa, to check whether the innkeepers were complying with the rules to post the price list appropriately, whether the prices were fair and not excessive, and whether certain card games were indeed prohibited because "God, our Lord, and his Majesty do not approve of such games." The magistrate was instructed to proceed against any culprits according to the law, to castigate them, and to do whatever justice required.22
Other problems in the ventas along the Veracruz road came to the attention of the viceroy in 1544. Innkeepers had bought cattle and other items from Indians that earlier had been stolen from estancias owned by Spaniards. The venteros in turn had sold the stolen cattle to Indians and other persons. Between ten and twelve stolen mares reportedly had also been found, and the local Indians were being forced to provide the animals with fodder (yerba). A regidor from Veracruz, Rodrigo de Salazar, was ordered to visit the ventas and estancias in the area immediately and to remedy the situation. The brands of the animals had to be checked for their proper owners, and if animals were found to be stolen, the delinquent person was to be punished. In addition, Salazar had to make sure that animals of the innkeepers did not encroach on Indian fields.23
Ventas and mesones were usually built at the expense of the contracting innkeeper or Indian community within a set time. Both Spaniards and Indians might also find themselves responsible for road construction or repairs in return for a venta license. 24 But the Indians had to contribute significantly not only to the building and upkeep of their own ventas but also those of the Spaniards.
In Iztapalapa, Indians each day had to supply the venta of Francisco Morcillo with one fanega (c. 55 I.) of maize, two chickens, salt, and garlic. Twelve Indians were responsible for water and wood, and they also had to deliver fodder for the animals.25 In most cases, Indians did not go without pay for their work, however little. In 1533, the magistrate and the villages around Perote agreed payment for carrying water from the nearby river to the inn. 26 When the venta of Tepeapa in the Jalapa area needed repairs and an enlargement of its facilities (1551), neighboring Indians received a pittance of 12 maravedís daily for their work; they also had to be reimbursed for their time spent walking from and back to their homes. 27 These rates improved slightly[end p. 5] to 17 maravedís by 1566,28 and the workmen had to be supplied with food. 29 Such nominal wages recall Old World corvée obligations, whereby peasants were obliged to spend two or three weeks a year on public works, reinforcing the interpretation that ventas were regarded as institutions in the public good. As privileged members of the colonial society, Spaniards had no such obligations.
STRUCTURES AND FACILITIES
Documents from the early 1500s rarely give information on the physical layout and type of construction used for a venta or meson. The earliest examples of roadside inns in the outlying parts of New Spain probably were very modest buildings of poor construction and perhaps only one floor, enclosed by a walled compound similar to simple counterparts in Spain and the Near East. Some did not even have a courtyard, but just "a communal hallway, with one or more aisles, whose archways or lintels, with openings for light, rested on columns or pillars" (Elisséff 1978: 1011; also Torres Balbás 1934). Travelers would sleep or sit on a raised platform or on benches along the interior walls, judging by medieval examples preserved in Spain.
A 1580 map in the Relaciones geográficas for the district northeast of Mexico City depicts both the venta of Tequizistlan and a mesón in the center of Acolman. Each building had access to the local market (tianguez) (see Acuña 1986: vol. 2, facing p. 214). The venta of San Juan Teotihuacan, also shown on the map, was situated just outside and north of the village, at the intersection of the road coming from Mexico City and another going to Otumba.
Built after 1552, according to land grant documents,30 the venta of Tequizistlan had a rectangular plan (Figure 1), with approximately a third of the space in a walled enclosure, possibly for the sale and storage of goods, while the remainder, including an arched gallery that enclosed a central courtyard, was evidently designed for lodging and for stabling of animals. The inn was reached by two roads, one leading directly to it from the market place, the other leading off the main road coming from Mexico City. While the latter entrance may have been designed for merchants and travelers with animals and loads who wanted to avoid the center of town, the former may have served single passengers.
According to the report included in the relación of Tequizistlan (Acuña 1986: vol. 2, 231), houses and other buildings in town had a rock foundation, with walls of adobe, covered with a flat (terrado) roof. Wood for the construction was brought in from the mountains behind Texcoco, four leagues away. A useful contemporary sketch of a mesón is preserved in the litigation documents.31 Dating from 1616, it shows a more urban inn at Cuautitlan at an intersection on the main road running north from Mexico City (Figure 2). This is a fairly impressive, two-story building with a frontal arcade supported by pillars and two bacony-style windows opening above.
Another good description of the construction and arrangement of a venta is provided by a set of documents (dated 1527--43) pertaining to one of the earliest and most important of these inns, on the road from Mexico City to Veracruz, the venta of Perote.32 Because Perote was an exclave within the jurisdiction of Mexico City, and the main staging point for travelers coming up from the coast, its documentation is unusually good and provides some specifics on the plan, type of construction, the building materials used, and how rents were assessed.
As early as January 1527, the first venta on this site had burned down, but was to be rebuilt "for the common good of all travelers (caminantes) and muleteers." It was in use again in 1531 when it was[end p. 6] offered to the highest bidder at auction. A document from 1533 implies that the inn had been relocated to a new site. Had it been destroyed again, or was the site changed because of a redefinition of the jurisdictional boundary? In October 1537, the city council discussed the construction design, giving the commission to the architect Juan de Entrambas of Mexico City, with Juan de León and the Indians of Jalacingo responsible for building it. In June 1538, the new inn was finished and again up for auction. It was not until May 1540, after the inn had burned down once more, that we learn why the previous ventas had been repeatedly destroyed by fire: the building materials were wood, adobe, and thatch, which would have been quite vulnerable to prairie fires on the edge of the vast grassy plain where Perote is situated. The new innkeeper, Lucas de Gallego, offered to rebuild the venta at his own cost within three years; he argued that "making it [the venta] of straw like the other times would run the risk of being destroyed by fire again." He therefore proposed to rebuild it with a rock foundation no less than one yard (vara of 83 cm) above the ground, on top of which he would use adobe brick for the walls, set 2-1/2 adobes wide, that is, the standard form used in Mexico City. He explained that using stone for the entire construction was too expensive, since it would have to be hauled from far away. Good and dry wood, wide and long, would also be used, presumably for ceiling beams.
The design adopted included lodging for travelers, with an additional story (entresuelo), as well as stables for animals and portales in front of the entrance for the unloading of mules. The whole building was to be covered with a flat roof (azotea). Although the plan for the roadside inn of Cáceres, also located on this road, was similar, it had neither upstairs lodging nor covered portals. But Lucas Gallego had died by September 1543, when construction had only just begun. A Pere Alvarez took over and agreed to build the venta totally of mortared rock (cal y canto), with a flat roof, and according to other specifications in Gallego's plan. Under the condition that he finish construction within 18 months and reside in it, Pere was promised that he could keep and enjoy its revenues for eight years, except for the payment of five pesos to the city of Mexico in the first year and ten pesos for each of the remaining seven years. The Perote documents imply that rents were competitive, with concessionaires willing to pay high start-up costs for a lucrative site. Elsewhere the city councils probably derived most of their income from a cut of the cash revenues of the innkeeper.
The architectural layout described in these documents recalls Mediterranean prototypes, which consist of a rectangular or quadrangular structure, with arched galleries enclosing a central compound or courtyard. The rooms for accommodation of travelers were upstairs, while the lower floor was assigned for stabling of animals and the storage of goods (Torres Balbás 1934). But Perote appears to have had an unusually elaborate venta. This is suggested by the much simpler plan preserved today by the former venta of Tecoac, a little east of Coatlinchan.33 Although much later converted into a small hacienda-style structure, the original subdi visions of the single-story structure at Tecoac are still partly preserved, but one section was torn down to make way for a chapel. There were at least nine guest quarters, roughly square in shape, with an internal area of about 20m2, opening onto an inner courtyard, separated by a wall from a large enclosure (Figure 3). The rooms, recalling the arrangement of a simple motel, may have been reserved for "better" guests, while muleteers bedded down in the courtyard and the draft animals were kept in the large enclosure. Located on secondary roads that bypassed the eastern shore of Lake Texcoco, the venta of [end p. 7] Tecoac probably was comparatively small and simple. But it may well be a representative prototype.
The documents studied here are initially silent on specific services to be offered, giving the impression that roadside inns were very simple. That is supported by the minimal facilities specified in the documents from 1545-64 (see Table 2). But half of the licenses granted in 1564-85 noted upstairs and downstairs lodgings, while a quarter of them specified stables for animals. In fact, a third of the grants even indicated the number of rooms, beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, and blankets.34 This suggests that ventas were fairly primitive during the first two or three decades, but then rapidly upgraded their facilities, at least along the main roads.
LOCATION, DISTANCE, AND THE ROAD SYSTEM
An important aspect in the selection of a site for a venta was proximity to a water source. Of 75 references with environmental context, twenty sites were adjacent to rivers, twelve to seasonal streams (arroyos), eight to seasonal water bodies (ciénegas, lagunillas, charcos), three near springs, two close to a lake shore and another next to a valley-floor dam (jaguey) ---a total of 46.35 Most locations of this group were in proximity of lands cultivated by Indians. The remaining 29 site referents emphasize topographic elements, without implying that such situations lacked water, of course. Thirteen indicate expanses of level land (sabanas, llanos, llanadas), i.e. open plains; the others were located on interrfluves, on or among hills or ridges (cerros, lomas, cuestas), below a forested slope, or near a pass.36
This second, "topographic" group overlaps with locations referred to as despoblados, i. e. either uninhabited places or abandoned villages. This finds clarification in examples. As early as 1525, Juan de Cáceres Delgado received two pieces of farm land (86 ha) in a despoblado near a venta he had already built or that was just under construction.37 In 1560, mercedes for two ventas were conceded to Doña María de Mendoza "in the despoblados of the Acapulco road," one at the edge of the plain of Quacoyula, and the other in Macatlan, in the districts of Muchitlan, Atliaca, and Tixla.38 This suggests that both the despoblados and the larger "topographic" category represented road segments not in proximity of Indian settlements.
Although the location of the ventas was partly dictated by distance, it was modified by proximity to water sources, cultivated lands or "waste," crossroads, or entrances to mountain passes. Distances between ventas along the Zacatecas road (Figure 4) shortly after it was opened to the mining centers during the 1550s were five or six leagues, effectively 25 to 30 kms.39 But on the established Veracruz-Mexico City road, one-and-a-half to three leagues were typical during the same period, and two leagues (about 10kms) appears to have been the ideal. 40 Even so, the density of ventas in 1585 was notably greater along difficult, climbing stretches of road: average distance was 6 kms along the ascent from the coast to the rim of the plateau at 2400m; on the level plains beyond, that distance increased to [end p. 8] almost 10 kilometers. More peripheral roads, particularly those radiating out from central Mexico to the Pacific coast, have few documented roadside inns. Less frequently traveled, they may not have been so attractive to enterprising innkeepers. The road to Acapulco, although of great commercial importance, may have been used only when ships embarked for or docked in from the Philippines or Peru.41 Running great distances through often rough and unevenly inhabited regions, the above example of María de Mendoza's venta suggests that inns here were targeted for uninhabited stretches.
Figure 5 complements the overview map of sixteenth-century ventas in New Spain, and their functional interlinkage, with a more detailed, ecological transect of ventas along the road from old Veracruz to approximately modern Oriental (Puebla).42 Many ventas are only mentioned once or twice, and by 1578 (Ciudad Real 1976) several key ventas had either been abandoned or changed [end p. 9]
their name. The number of inns operating at any one time was therefore considerably less than the total of those shown in Figure 5.
As already shown by Powell (1952) and Rees (1971), the ventas serve a critical role in demarcating the road system,43 since documentation on the construction or even location of the camino real network in colonial Mexico is incomplete, apart from the trunk road leading from Veracruz to Perote. Ventas were commonly built during or following road construction, so that the spatial and temporal patterns of such licenses provide valuable proxy data on the emergence of the early road network in New Spain. In as far as the sites of ventas can be located, they also help to fix the initial position of particular roads whose trajectories otherwise would remain conjectural.
The distribution of the identified roadside inns, broken down into two periods, before 1550 and 1551-1585, shows the filling in and growth of the network (Figure 4). Roads indicated by full lines have additional forms of documentation,44 while those indicated by broken lines either lack further documentation or are known only to have existed from indirect references. The patterns that emerge from Figure 4 support the impression that the early system of roads was limited to a well-defined axis from Veracruz to Mexico City, with some variants, continuing westward through Michoacán to Jalisco. Commerce via Acapulco was recorded as early as 1524, but it appears that this Pacific Ocean port could not be reached by primitive trails until much later. The same may also apply to whatever overland transportation connected Mexico City to the Pánuco lowlands.
Most of the available documents on road building date to the very early 1550s, suggesting that much of the rudimentary network was laid out at this time, in part in response to the major silver strikes at Zacatecas (1546) and Guanajuato (1557). While it is known that Viceroy Mendoza issued more than 50 decrees in regard to road construction during the l540s (Zavala 1984: vol. 1, 162, n. 243), the impleementation of those plans during the next decade leaves important, unanswered questions: although the viceroy was perenially strapped for money, the available documents do not explain who paid for this monumental undertaking. Did perhaps the mining magnates, who stood to profit from the road system, share i the expense, or was some of the royal "windfall tax" on silver production (the king's fifth or quinto re-invested on infrastructure? 45
By 1585, the road network had visibly expanded, particularly to the great mining centers of the northwest. There wera also new, alternative roads along the east-west artery to the coast, and Puebla was more tightly interlinked. But above all, there is unambiguous evidence for the development of new roads to Acapulco as well as to Guatulco, Tehuantepec, and Guatemala (Borah 1954).
CONCLUSIONS
The emergence of the roadside inn of New Spain as a facility and an institution illuminates the fine-grained texture of historical process in the early decades of the colony. The ventas were modeled directly on Old World prototypes, immediately forming an indispensable part of the communications network. At the same time, by customary praxis and government policy, they were rapidly adapted to New World realities, providing the necessary infrastructure for Spanish-style transportation in the context of an unequal, bi-ethnic society with partly autonomous economies. While the viceroy encouraged construction of ventas to facilitate commerce and limit harassment of the Indian population, the municipal authorities sought to regulate the leasing, operation, services and tax revenues of these public inns. Initially primitive in terms of their facilities, the physical amenities of the New World ventas eventually became more elaborate.
The location of ventas was in part dictated by distance, but it was modified by proximity to water sources or by steeper gradients, and varied according to both the volume of traffic and the presence or absence of Indian cultivation along the road. Roads and ventas were indivisible, and ventas represent a key element in documentation of the transportation network. Equally so, roads and ventas were critical to the mail service inaugurated in New Spain in 1579 (see Doenges and Robinson 1996). Finally, the ventas represented small nodes of settlement activity between Spanish towns during the first years of the colony, and sixteenth century land grants to Spaniards concentrated along the transportation axis between Veracruz, Mexico City, and the mining centers (see Butzer and Butzer 1995). [end p. 11]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Carlos Córdova kindly showed me the vestiges of the venta at Tecoac and Karl Butzer drew up the plan. Critical suggestions by David J. Robinson and two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The illustrations were drafted by Susan E. Long. A preliminary version of this paper was given at the joint meetings of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and National Council on Geographic Education in Santo Domingo, 1992.
NOTES
1. According to the eyewitness account of Diaz del Castillo (1984: 305): "fuímos a unas caserías que eran como a manera de aposentos o mesones, donde posaban indios mercaderes ... " In southern Spain a casería is an outbuilding to accomodate workers on an estate. Posada and mesón are standard terms for an inn, usually located within a town.
2. For a similarly early study of transportation in the Spanish Americas see Robinson (1970).
3. Zavala (1984-87) deals with many aspects of transportation, highlighting some of the key documentation in chapter 3 of each of three volumes; for an overview, with minimal sources, Hassig (1985: 171-177 and Map 7). For regional discussion of north-central Mexico, Powell (1952: 16-31); for the Pacific sector, Borah (1954: 26-29). The two major travel reports of the first century are Ciudad Real (1976), including a systematic itinerary for 1584-88, and Mota y Escobar (1987), providing observations for the years 1609-23.
4. For example, in the Turkish Kursumli Khan of Skopje, Macedonia, the merchant quarters on the second floor measure about 4 by 4m, and all have windows, fireplaces, and built-in seating; the structure, dating to the 1550s, had an attached bath-house and mosque. In its day, this would have represented a "five-star" hotel. The only elite counterpart surviving in Spain is Granada's Casa del Carbón (14th century), the interior of which has been greatly modified.
5. Torres Balbás (1934: n. 2), with reference to the Arabic-Spanish dictionary of Pedro de Alcalá, published in 1503. In practice, the distinction between mesones and ventas was not clear since travelers could take lodging in both, stable their animals, as well as store or sell merchandise. In colonial Mexico, however, the mesones did not generally offer furnished rooms, and were rarely used by upper-class travelers who, while forced to stay at ventas en route, were able to find private accomodations while in a town (Palacio 1944: 25).
6. Both as a facility and an institution, the Islamic fonduks appear to have differed from the mesones-hospitales along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela (Vázquez de Parga et al. 1948: 301-50), at least with respect to the accomodation of pack-animals or the buying and selling of commodities. Whether the inns of northern Europe were operated differently than their counterparts in Islamicized Spain is uncertain.
7. Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City), ramo Mercedes (cited hereafter as Mercedes) vol. 4, f (folio) 231 v (verso), 1.10.1555.
8. Actas vol. 2, 66,30.10.1530.
9. In 1530, the cabildo of Mexico City received a complaint that a site for a venta, granted by the city of Veracruz to a certain Alonso Benavides, was located in the jurisdiction of Mexico City, and that the city should not allow this venta to be built, Actas vol. 2, 34. In another case of 1532, the carpenter Martín Pérez presented a carta de venta e censo to the cabildo of Mexico City. The council members then realized that the license for this venta, although in the jurisdiction of their city, had been awarded by the city of Veracruz. The cabildo declared angrily that Veracruz had neither right nor jurisdiction over the land where Martín Pérez' venta was located. He was ordered to pay taxes to Mexico City, or would face confiscation of the property, Actas vol. 3, 9.
10. During road construction near Sichu, Mercedes vol. 8, 77r (recto), 24.7.1565.
11. Mercedes vol. 2, Expediente (hereafter Exp.) 133, 50v, 27.2.1543.
12. Examples include Axapusco, Mercedes vol. 1, Exp. 204, 97v-98r, 5.7.1542; Tecoac, Mercedes vol. I, Exp. 307, 142r, 4.9.1542; Calpan, Mercedes vol. I, Exp. 492, 20.12.1542. The flagrant abuses at Tecoac continued even after the venta was built, so that in 1551 any muleteer staying over in this pueblo on the Tlaxcala road was threatened with a fine of 10 pesos de oro. See Zavala (1982: 151) (Kraus folios 218r-218v). Note: With deference to Mesoamericanist practice, Nahuatl toponyms are not accented here since all syllables are stressed equally. Spanish rules of accentuation imposed later during the colonial era distort the pronunciation of such place names.
13. Indians were to be in charge of selling provisions. In regard to participation of Indians in road construction, the viceroy emphasized that the miners should take special care to treat the Indians well, that their work input be moderate, and that they not be required to work during times when they had to attend to their fields. See Zavala (1982: 144-45) (Kraus folios 106r-107v).
14. Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 741, 323r and v, 24.3.1544. 15 Kraus folios 106r-I07v.
16. According to the Recopilación (1987: Book VI, Title 1, Law 1), Indians should be favored and supported by the judiciary; furthermore, damages sustained were to be remedied, so that they might live without molestation and harrassment. Book VI, Title 10 spells out some details of these principles. [end p.12]
17. Actas vol. I, 176,20.7.1528. 18 Actas vol. I, 150,22.11.1527.
19. In 1532, García Núñez, operator of the venta of Caceres, owed Mexico City the annual rent from his venta. He was ordered to appear before the cabildo within eight days and pay his debt, Actas vol. 2, 194,23.9.1532.
20. Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 741, 323r y v, 24.3.1544.
21. Actas vol. 2,93,3.3.1531.
22. Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 434, 180r and v, 5.10.1543. A similar order went to the corregidor of Tlacotepec who was to visit the ventas of Cáceres ("Ceres"), Oliveros, Perote, Aguilar and Verdugo, Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 568, 230v-23I v, 24.12.1543. Also, Mercedes vol. 3, 25v-27r, 26.3.1550; Ayer 273-74, 7.6.1553 and Ayer 282,27.6.1553.
23. Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 635, 255v and 256r, 1.2.1544.
24. Re Spaniards, Actas vol. I, 58, 10.10.1525; Actas vol. I, 63-64,1.12.1525; Mercedes vol. 6, 207v-208r, 23.4.1563; for Indians, Mercedes vol. I, Exp. 307, 142r, 4.9.1542.
25. Actas vol. 2, 57, 4.7.1530. In 1555, the Indians of Maravatio and Taximaroa were asked to supply the Venta de Soto with 100< i>fanegas of maize, because many travelers stopped there for provisions. In addition, each community had to provide said venta for three months with ten Indians to repair the casas and stables of the venta, Mercedes vol. 4, 264v., 12.11.1555. For their mesón in Huehuetoca, Indians of the surrounding villages in 1563 delivered ten cartloads of grass weekly; ten Indians were required for the construction of rammed mud (tapial) walls, while six women were asked to mill bread for the travelers (pasajeros) who stayed in the mesón, Mercedes vol. 7, I 42r.
26. Actas vol. 3, 58, 30.10.1533.
27. Zavala (1982: 134) (Kraus 35v), 31.1.1551. Like the Indians of the Jalapa area, those of Xupana, west of Huejotzingo, were paid for the construction of the venta as well as their walk to and from work,Ibid. 135 (Kraus 40r and v), 31.1.1551. Indian day laborers (jornaleros) of Taximaroa and Maravatio also received 12 maravedís, while the supervising official was paid double that amount (see n. 26), Mercedes vol. 4, 264v, 12.11.1555.
28. Fifteen Indians from Querétaro and dependencies were asked to build "casa and corral" for the venta, four leagues outside of town; while laborers received half a real for a day's work, the supervisors earned one real de plata, Mercedes vol. 8, 230r and v, 18.1.1566. Again, in August 1580, eight Indians were commissioned to repair a venta near Jalacingo, for a period of 20 days; they were each to receive 3 reales (100 maravedís) per week, in addition to food, see Zavala and Castelo (1980: 321).
29. Mercedes vol. 6, 207v and 208r, 23.4.1563.
30. Zavala (1982: 161) (Kraus 362r), 8.1.1552.
31. Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City), ramo Tierras vol. 2687, Exp. 21, 12 (1616).
32. Actas vol. I, 119 (1527); vol. 2, 129--42 (1531); vol. 3, 62 (1533); vol. 4, 101 (1537); vol. 4, 196-98 (1540); vol. 5, 6-7 (1543).
33. Located by Córdova (1997) on the basis of a colonial lienzo (pictoral map) of 1603, although a local venta of that name is not identified in the documentation used here.
34. In 1567, when Melchior Pérez received a license for an inn in the village of Tepocotlan, the document states that the venta should have stables, four rooms upstairs and also downstairs, each with four beds. One bed had to have two mattresses, two sheets, two blankets, and two pillows, while the other three beds would have one mattress, two sheets, a pillow and a blanket each, all of them clean, Mercedes vol. 9, 48v--49r. In the same year, the inn of Acalhuacan, near Chiconautla, had to have four beds made of wood, while the innkeeper Melchior Dávila at San Bartholomé Tlaxcala, was able to provide seven beds strung with rope, including one with two mattresses, Mercedes vol. 9, 79r-79v.
35. So, for example, while the location of the ventas in Amecameca, Cuautitlan, Tlalchichilpa, Tepozotlan, Apaseo, Xiquipilco and Tequizistlan were close to rivers, those of Tixtla, San Bartholomé, Temascaltepec, and Sultepec were to be built next to arroyos de agua: Amecameca, Mercedes vol. 9, 153r-153v, 3.9.1567; Cuautitlan, vol. 2, Exp. 695, 279v-280r, 1.3.1544; Tlalchichilpa, vol. 11, 3r, 17.1.1581; Tepozotlan, vol. 9,48v--49r, 10.4.1567; Apaseo, vol. 8, 82r, 4.8.1565; Xiquipilco, vol. 9, 121r-121 v, 11.7.1567; Tequizistlan, Ayer 307v, 16.8.1553; Tixtla, vol. 9, 123r-123v, 12.7.1567; San Bartholome, vol. 9, lr-lv, 9.1.1567; Temascaltepec, vol. 5, 161v, 26.11.1560; Sultepec, vol. 2, Exp. 318, 126, 23.7.1543. All but the last two mining centers were Indian towns within traditional cultural landscapes.
36. The venta at Tepeapa (near Jalapa) was "very conveniently located" because from there travelers could reach "the pass [puerto] early the following day," Zavala (1982: 134) (Kraus 35v),31.1.1551.
37. Actas vol. 1, 63, 1.12.1525. That same year, Francisco de Aguilar was granted a merced for a site, also specified as despoblado, "to make and build a casa for travelers that come from and go to the towns of Medellín and Villarica," ibid. vol. I, 63, 1.12.1525. In 1543, another venta for Sultepec was constructed in the despoblado de los Ranchos, Mercedes vol. 2, Exp. 72, 29v, 31.1.1543.
38. Mercedes vol. 5, l77r, 10.12.1560.
39. Mercedes vol. 3, 54r-54v, 2.5.1550; Zavala (1982: 168) (Kraus 417r--418r), 27.4.1552; and Mercedes vol. 7, 288r-288v, 25.1.1564, all for the Chichimeca country around San Miguel Allende. Although a Spanish league technically represented 4.2km at the time, true distances using identified points along the Veracruz to Mexico City road average 5km or more, so Ciudad Real (1976), whose remarkably consistent distance estimates sometimes stretch a league to 7km on smooth, level roads. Leguas simply represented rough guesses based on travel time, and were always underestimated.
40. Both in 1525 and 1563 it is clear that a minimum distance of 2 leagues between ventas was desirable on the Veracruz-Perote road: Actas vol. l, 63-64,1.12.1525; and Mercedes vol. 6, 207v- 208r, 23.4.1563.
41. For the roads via Oaxaca to the Pacific coast, see Borah (1954). The technical difficulties of road construction can be seen from the fact that the new highway from Oaxaca to the coast, opened in 1994, took seven years to complete.
42. The venta of Cáceres no longer existed in 1584--88, while those of Oliveros and Rodríguez had brackish (salobre) water (Ciudad Real 1976: voI, 12-13; vol. 2, 268-69). From Rodríguez to Perote there were unos campos y llanos muy largos, anchos y penosos, with a stream of good, cool mountain water [end p. 13] at Perote; from about Sierra de Agua to Las Vigas, the road ran between pine forests (pinares), presumably on the adjacent slopes; from Las Vigas the road initially descended entre llanos, implying savannas, and then a malpais of loose rock, resembling iron slag (basaltic badlands) to La Joya (Ciudad Real 1976: vol. 2, 269-71). Other documents refer to çavana encaliendo del monte (forest) (Mercedes vol. 4, 149r, 4.5.1555) or a çabanilla (Mercedes vol. 9, 248r, 31.12.1567) near La Joya. The difficult pass between La Joya and Aguilar (? Venta de Roman) is at first called the Puerto Pinavisapa (Actas vol. 1, 45, 20.6.1525), perhaps with reference to a particular species of pine, then later the Puerto de Aguilar, a la salida del monte (Mercedes vol. 5, 326v, 20.5.1561). Below that pass was an uninhabited stretch (Actas vol. 1,58, 10.10.1525), then a çabana junto a un monte (Mercedes vol. 8, 40v, 13.6.1565), approximately where Ciudad Real (1976: vol. 2, 271) placed the upper limit of the tierra templada (c. 1800 m). Below Aguilar the road was good in 1587-88, and passed through mainly open vegetation, then unas çavanas on a llano between Lencero and Cerro Gordo (Mercedes vol. 6, 207v, 23.4.1563), and La Rinconada, situated en la çavana (Mercedes vol. II, 39r, 7.7.1581), while the Río Chico (Tilapa) at (Plan) del Río was fordable (Ciudad Real 1976: vol. 2, 272) below the cuesta at La Laja (Mercedes vol. 9, 86r, 27.5.1567).
43. This should not preclude that older ventas might be bypassed by newer roads, as implied by a law of 1568 prohibiting innkeepers from forcing travelers to use older routes that passed by their establishments, see Recopilación ( 1987: Book IV, Title 16, Law 2).
44. Beyond the direct but fragmentary documentation (see n. 3), the most useful cross-check for the road network of the period is provided by the multiple itineraries of the Franciscan inspector-general, Alonso de Ponce, during the mid-1580s, described in the classic travel report of his secretary, Ciudad Real (1976).
45. Only one document examined here alludes to the costs of road-building, namely that a Juan González Gómez was contracted by Mexico City to repair the road from Veracruz, Actas vol. 2, 175, 8.4.1532. But compare note 24, for cases where the beneficiaries of venta licenses either offered or were required to improve the roads. In 1588-90, viceroy Villamanrique attempted to pay for an alternate road down to Veracruz, by increasing taxes on Indians; that sparked considerable indignation in ruling circles and contributed to his dismissal, see Driever (1990).
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RESUMEN
La venta fue una institución cristiano-islámica de la España medieval, que proporcionó refugio nocturno a viajeros, la carga que transportaban, y sus animales. En la Nueva España, Cortés, en su momento, estableció ventas en el camino de Veracruz a la Ciudad de México y, en 1524, expidió ordenanzas para su administración casi idénticas a las de Carmona (provincia de Sevilla) del siglo XV. Algunos documentos originales sirven para rastrear el establecimiento, el funcionamento, y el papel institucional de esas posadas. Se discuten las ventas en relación a las regulaciones y el control, el mantenimiento por indivíduos venteros, las contribuciones a su mantenimiento por comunidades indígenas locales, los impuestos ó el pago de rentas, así como su localización, trazo físico, construcción y servicios ofrecidos. Se discute el rol de las ventas con repecto a la expansión comercial, los caminos, y la red de poblaciones, involucrando tanto a españoles como a indios. La red de ventas documentada para la Nueva España en 1585 es cartografiada para ilustrar la interrelación de poblaciones durante el inicio de la colonia. [end p.15]