We saw many difficulties encountered with the supply of beef to the capital during the colonial period. It was, as we know, an activity controlled by the system of rent of the obligation supply to a person.
By carrying out this function was called on a mandatory butcher "and then simply" provider. " Its core mission was to provide the capital of mutton and beef, and tallow for the manufacture of candles. His term was 10 months, during which it should buy from various suppliers enough cattle to meet the needs of the city .
was a very complex activity and also required a large capital to develop it. The "bound" needed to get the cattle, priming (usually in "El Novillero" par excellence was called the meadow of Bogotá), manage and oversee the operation of the butchers and monitor the sale of meat and tallow .
One of the higher costs that lay ahead was the lease "El Novillero". When it is considered that the use of Santa Fe was about 4,000 cattle a year, the rent ranged between 5,000 and 8,000 annual patacones. The caterer brought cattle, fattened on "El Novillero" and, once accomplished this stage, led him to Santa Fe to the slaughter.
the late eighteenth century were slaughtered between 65 and 100 livestock per week. By grouping the detailed figures for 25 weeks for 1751, we have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe business components of the slaughter of livestock. For each steer the provider obtained a total of 9.8 pesos as produced gross sales. (This figure, of course, does not include costs). In 25 weeks, ie, for half a year, the butcher threw a movement of 24,189 pesos, which is a pretty significant figure. Could easily be one of the busiest business in the economic orbit of Santa Fe.
addition to meat, the slaughter of cattle byproducts produced some less important. Chief among them was the fat, highly valued for being the raw material for domestic lighting in Santa Fe. Other minor products, as the "cut" used in the Colony, was the language, the "often" or "tripe", leather and, to a lesser extent, the bladders. Leather was an important input in the manufacture of various household items: jars (to store liquids), furniture, cabinets and boxes, seats, saddles etc. For each steer was obtained in the flesh, free of fat, 6.7% of the money he obtained the product supplier for the sale of livestock. Next in importance after the fat, which constituted 31.8% of the total. Leather represented only 3.8% of total value. The office needed a great economic strength and almost took a lot of social splendor. The most respectable members of society took it santafereño Creole century XVII.
For example, Alonso de Caicedo, owner of "El Novillero" and encomendero Bogota, was provider in 1694, Jose Ricaurte, treasurer of the Royal House Money and assistant mayor of Santa Fe, it was during the decades of 20 and 30 of the eighteenth century.
Data on livestock slaughter in Santa Fe show no explicit trend. The information obtained can be charged defects, however, show a stagnant supply of meat, for even grows in line with population . Show addition to the evidence encontradas en los documentos, un sub abastecimiento en materia de carne para la Santafé del siglo XVIII.
Con dificultades para obtener carne, el cargo de abastecedor se fue haciendo menos codiciado hasta que llegó el momento en que empezó a sufrir largas vacancias porque nadie quería rematarlo.
El inflexible control de precios y los crecientes riesgos contribuyeron en primer término a que se produjera esta situación. Como consecuencia de ella, el Cabildo se vio precisado a ofrecer estímulos adicionales, como un atractivo apoyo financiero con dineros de la “Caja de Bienes de Difuntos”. Inclusive en 1721 el Cabildo asked the Jesuits to take charge of supply, but the shrewd Jesuits declined the "honor" that gave them, arguing that their status as servants of God was incompatible with the exercise of an occupation profitable. For most of the seventeenth century was the Alto Magdalena, the major supplier of beef and Santa Fe. Neiva, Timana and La Plata were areas of good pasture and favorable ecological conditions where cattle was in abundance. These livestock did not receive almost no care for what the production costs were particularly low. The main problem was the difficulty of mobilization. The journey of the flocks of Neiva to Santa Fe took an average of twenty days.
Relations between the two regions were complementary to the late seventeenth century, a period in which other areas (other than Santa Fe) with equal urgency demanded the production of Neiva. Quito region, which until then had been successfully served by the cattle from the Cauca, increased demand, due to which the Quiteños began offering higher prices for cattle in the Alto Magdalena.
Logically, farmers in Neiva and surrounding areas preferred to send their cattle to Quito, which immediately generated a conflict, because el ganado de mejor calidad tomó el rumbo del Sur mientras el menos apetecible fue enviado a Santafé. Empezaron entonces el forcejeo y las presiones políticas de la capital para obligar a Neiva a remitirle la totalidad de su producción. Finalmente se llegó a un acuerdo consistente en que Neiva y las regiones adyacentes se comprometían a enviar anualmente una cuota mínima de 4.500 novillos a Santafé.
Los ganaderos de Neiva y Timaná suscribieron el convenio pero no bajaron la guardia y de inmediato procedieron a llevar la querella ante el Rey. Esta pugna fue prolongada y tenaz. La balanza se inclinó alternativamente hacia uno y otro lado, hubo infinidad de pleitos; la Corona favoreció en principio Neiva, but at last legal counteroffensive santafereños got the crown back in 1712 to give priority in supply to Santa Fe. Lastly
won compromise system based on quotas, which replaced the old disputes with advantage. Neiva in 1733 pledged to provide 1,500 half-yearly steers the pastures of staying in Bogotá unfettered freedom to negotiate their surpluses with other regions that claim.
In a way we can say that major advantages obtained Neiva negotiation. Got reduce its share of the 4,500 annual steers were agreed in principle to only 3,000, which increased its capacity to supply other markets. He also received an increase of 17% in cattle put in the pasture. But , Santafé continued to pay lower prices than those offered Quito.
In other words they made concessions, finished laying their prerogatives of capital. During the second half of the eighteenth century broke the Jesuits vigorously as a supplier of beef and Santa Fe. Your organization supra and numerous rural properties allowed him to build a real bridge between Neiva and Santa Fe to perform the entire process, without losing money. The release of the cattle was made in Neiva, the final phase (priming) was in place and the Cerrado . But the intermediate would meet along the chain of farms owned by the Jesuits between the two ends of the road. The hacienda "Villavieja" (now the Department of Huila) and the estate "Doima" in the jurisdiction of Ibague, were the sites of release of skinny cattle. From there they passed the cattle to the farm "El Espinal", in whose pastures rested and recovered animals avoiding large weight loss. The final link in the chain was the farm "The slash and burn", to the west of the Savannah, where he rested and fattened cattle.
This system normalized and regularized the meat market. But in 1780, and expelled Jesuits, Santafé experienced an acute shortage of meat. The situation became critical to such an extent that colonial authorities finally had to give up on your old and obstinate policy of monopolies, tobacco-control to make way for a progressive liberalization of trade and the supply of meat and dairy products.
the end of the colonial period, the system had reached a crisis. With neighbors pressing an absolute freedom to the sale of meat and the exemption for payment of sales taxes and own the imminence of continuous periods of shortage, the authorities have many alternatives. Gradually the system was languishing forced monopoly supply of meat.
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