Partnership and Profit in the Early Andean Trade: The Experiences of Quito Merchants, 1580–1610
Quito was an international trading city in the late sixteenth century. It was one of several commercial centers strung along the Andes that aided in the adaptation of Old World economic techniques to New World resources. By the i58os, agricultural and manufacturing surpluses had helped Quito emerge as a dominant trading center in western South America, second only to Lima and Potosi. Quito's bustling commercial life was sound testimony to the skills of Spanish merchants who had so carefully fashioned an elaborate Andean and trans-Atlantic trading network. The network remained an essential feature of the Quito economy until the late eighteenth century. This article evaluates four aspects of the commercial life of Quito from I580 to 16Io: the conditions which influenced commercial success, the organization of merchant enterprises, the profits earned from trade, and the way merchants disposed of their profits. These are complex dimensions of the economic life of Quito. The purpose here is to make some preliminary observations and, where possible, to provide information from the Quito experience which may have value for a comparative understanding of the economic history of the New World.