ABSTRACT
The small retail grocery stores of Spanish America, the pulperias, were largely urban businesses. Their immediate supervisory agency was the town council, which regulated such matters as weights, measures, hours of operation, and what might be sold legally. The few pulperias situated in truly rural areas for the most part functioned outside municipal supervision. The pulperia served as provider of merchandise, purchaser of products, banker, and sole dispenser of credit. The most important group of censuses of grocery stores for Caracas are the visitas, the censuses resulting from visits carried out annually by the town council from 1799 to 1809 to check the business practices of various categories of stores. Although local custom and government interference produced regional variation, small retail grocery stores in the cities investigated stocked basically the same items. Mexico City held the fewest grocery stores in comparison to population.
