ABSTRACT
For seventeenth-century Quito, discussion shifts from social and racial interaction to an examination of the textile industry which had an important role in shaping the social structure which characterized late-colonial Quito. The category of "poor Spaniard," however, would lose much of its precision, as many artisanal occupations were progressively subject to a socio-racial transformation exemplified in contracts between Spanish artisans and Indian apprentices. Great estates made full use of their Indian labor and saved cash expenditure in what was increasingly to become a demonetarized economy through vertically-organized enterprises which combined sheep-grazing with textile production. In calling attention to mobility as an imposed response to economic difficulties, they certainly emphasized a real feature of colonial society. The widening of social barriers between elite and popular society took on a clear racial dimension. The Mestizo litigation of the 1770s will show the extreme socio-racial confusion of pre-Bourbon reform society.
