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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Earth and Material Sciences THE GOVERNANCE OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE FLOWS: CONNECTING MILLS, WATER, WHEAT, AND PEOPLE IN COLONIAL LIMA, PERU (1535-1700) A Dissertation in Geography by Martha G. Bell © 2013 Martha G. Bell Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2013 The dissertation of Martha G. Bell was reviewed and approved* by the following: Karl S. Zimmerer Professor of Geography Head of the Department of Geography Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Deryck W. Holdsworth Professor of Geography Brian H. King Professor of Geography James P. McCarthy Professor of Geography David L. Webster Professor of Anthropology Brent Yarnal Professor of Geography Associate Head of the Department of Geography Graduate Program Officer *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes interrelationships between technology change, environmental resource flows, and environmental resource governance as part of the broader social-ecological and landscape transformations of the Columbian Exchange period. It takes the example of the Spanish introduction of gristmill technology and related wheat/bread production and water management practices to Lima, Peru during the early colonial period (1535-1700). Mills are analyzed in a historical political ecological and landscape perspective; they are conceptualized not as isolated mechanical devices, but rather as components of extensive water management systems, far-reaching grain markets and economies, and broad social networks of resource access. They were physical sites of intersection between flows of water, grain, and people. One remarkable archival collection was the main source used to trace these flows. The Libros de Cabildos de Lima (LCL) contain the records of Lima’s city council, the Cabildo, over the course of the entire colonial period. The Cabildo was the branch of colonial government in charge of regulating gristmills, distributing water rights, and provisioning the city with grain. Consequently, the LCL include a nearly unbroken record of the Cabildo’s governance strategies for mills, water, and grain across the entire period of interest. Cabildo data was compiled, analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, and mapped. This dissertation is divided into three major case studies on mills, water, and wheat, each one exploring a different aspect of Technology-Flows-Governance relationships. Overall, this analysis demonstrates that technology, the creation and growth of urban spaces (and their related environmental and resource flows), and the governance practices associated with these technologies and flows contributed significantly to the socio-ecological and landscape changes of the Columbian Exchange period. It argues that these features, and their change over time, are vital to fresh understandings of colonialism and environment, while the general approach can be applied in diverse geographic and historical contexts. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. x Chapter 1. Technology, Environmental Flows, and Governance: Connecting Water, Wheat, and People in the Urban Space of Colonial Lima, Peru (1535-1700) ...................... 1 Introduction and Background .................................................................................. 2 The Technology-Flows-Governance Framework, and its Application to the Historical Political Ecology of the Columbian Exchange ....................................... 13 Research Design ...................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Outlines ...................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 2. Technology in a Landscape Perspective: Following Flows of Water, Grain, and People through Gristmills ................................................................................... 61 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 62 Nature-Society-Technology Relations and the Columbian Exchange .................... 64 Molinological Research and Gristmill Analysis ..................................................... 67 Background: Empirical Data on the Construction and Use of Lima Gristmills....... 73 “Every miller draws water to his own mill”: Interactions and Conflicts in Flows of Water through Mills ................................... 82 “Safe as a thief in a mill”: Interactions and Conflicts in Flows of Grain through Mills .................................... 92 “A Principal Part of the Sustenance the Republic”: Mill Governance in a Complex Colonial Society (Flows of People) ...................... 98 Discussion and Conclusions .....................................................................................109 Chapter 3. Historical Political Ecology of Water: Intersections of Water Flows, Infrastructure, and Municipal Governance .............................................................. 139 Introduction: Historical Political Ecology, Hydraulic Archaeology, and Water Flows in Colonial Lima ......................................................................... 140 The Water Judge and the Definition of Lima‘s “Hydraulic Space”......................... 147 “For the shortness of time and the lack of money”: Seasonal and Financial Cycles in Levee Projects (Case Study 1) ........................... 153 “From the source of the water until it arrives to the city”: Flows of Drinking Water through the Municipal Pipeline Network (Case Study 2).............................. 161 “Señor San Marcelo the city‘s patron and lawyer for the rains”: Divine Authorities, Religious Processions, and the Heavens as Part of Lima‘s Hydraulic Space (Case Study 3) .................................................................. 173 Discussion and Conclusions..................................................................................... 176 Chapter 4. The Governance of Urban Wheat Flows ............................................................ 196 Introduction: The Governance of Environmental Resource Flows, The Columbian Exchange, and Wheat in Colonial Lima ........................................ 197 Background and Methods: Historical Sources on Wheat in Lima .......................... 205 Phase 1: The Introduction of Wheat to Lima and the Establishment of the Cabildo‘s System of Wheat Governance (1535-1569) ............................................ 208 iv Phase 2: The Cabildo Supplies the City: Trips to Purchase Wheat and the Alhóndiga (1570-1622) ........................................................................................... 215 Phase 3: Governance via Price Control: The geography of grain prices, and mediation between farmers, bakers, and merchants (1623-1687) ........................... 220 Phase 4: The Wheat Crisis of the Late 17th Century in the Libros de Cabildos (1687-1705) ............................................................................................................. 225 Discussion: Space and Scale in Lima‘s Wheat Flows and Implications for Studies of Urban Environmental Resource Flows and the Columbian Exchange ............... 231 Conclusion: An Epilogue for Maria Escobar .......................................................... 237 Chapter 5. Conclusions: Contributions of the Technology-Flows-Governance Framework in and beyond the Colonial Period .................................................................... 252 The Technology-Flows-Governance Framework .................................................... 253 The Lima Case Studies and the Columbian Exchange............................................. 258 Mill and the Technology-Flows-Governance Framework beyond the Colonial Period................................................................................................... 265 Appendix A: Sample data collection form ........................................................................... 274 Appendix B: Ethnographic survey of gristmills in Ancash, Peru (2010-2011) ................... 275 Appendix C: Water Authorities in Colonial Lima listed in the Libros de Cabildos de Lima (LCL) (1600-1699) ................................................................................................. 295 Appendix D: Petitions and concessions of drinking water rights for Individuals, Groups, Religious Orders, and other institutions included in the Libros de Cabildos de Lima (LCL) (1588-1699) ................................................................................................. 310 Appendix E: Trips by Cabildo representatives to buy or inspect wheat listed in the Libros de Cabildos de Lima (LCL) (1549-1700)................................................................... 326 Appendix F: Alhóndiga officials and operation in the Libros de Cabildos de Lima (LCL) (1555-1687) ................................................................................................................ 334 Appendix G: Wheat and Bread Prices set by the Cabildo