The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974 Page: 294
568 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
came to the borderlands looking for social and economic improvement, par-
ticularly after 1749, when the vicekingdom underwent a great agrarian
crisis, resulting in an intense internal migration. The sequels of the dramatic
economic crisis suffered by New Spain in 1785-1786 were even more large-
ly effective in the increase of the borderland population. These effects were
principally felt in agricultural and mining areas, where the scarcity of food
and work, as much as the extremely high cost of living, triggered the "giant
migrations"-as they were appropriately called by Enrique Florescano-
which enticed some groups of people from northern Mexico to move in
search of a better way of living, even to such isolated areas as Texas.5 Ac-
cording to Silvio Zavala, "the frontier was not a safety valve, but it was a
land of opportunity."'
As a consequence of the mixture of races and classes, Texan society ex-
perienced an increasing upward mobility, a phenomenon about which cen-
sus reports and parochial registers frequently bear witness. It is remarkable
that, along with the continuing concept of a caste society, differences due to
skin color and other related circumstances were reduced to such a point
that a society definitely heterogeneous, both in its origin and in its composi-
tion, emerged in Texas.
The information relative to the population of Texas available in printed
sources, which refer to that province or to the vicekingdom of New Spain
in general, is relatively abundant, although quite contradictory. The period
considered was recorded through one of the initial stammerings of statis-
tical techniques, since the first general census was carried out to fulfil the
Royal Order of November i o, 1776, which demanded periodic census re-
ports for all inhabitants of America and the Philippines.' Examining the
5Additional information relative to demographic movements and tendencies, epidemic
diseases, and agrarian crisis periods in New Spain, is provided in Enrique Florescano,
Precios del maiz y crisis agricolas en Mexico, 17o8-181o (Mexico City, 1969), 151-152;
Elsa Malvido, "Factores de despoblaci6n y de reposici6n de la poblaci6n de Cholula
(1641-181o)," Historia Mexicana, XXIII (July-September, 1973), 52-58, 67, and 96-
Ior.
6Zavala, "The Frontiers of Hispanic America," 45.
7"Estado general que manifiesta el nimero de vasallos y habitantes que tiene el Rey
en esta provincia de Texas, con distinci6n de clases, estados y castas de todas las per-
sonas de ambos sexos, sin excluir los parvulos." Bexar, November 6, 1777 (Biblioteca
Nacional, Mexico City), Archivo Franciscano, legajo Ioo, n. 5, f. 24. The same census
report with additional information relative to the economic and populational character-
istics of Texas was sent by the commander general of the Interior Provinces, Teodoro de
Croix, to the Minister of the Indies, Jos6 de Galvez, Chihuahua, September 23, 1778,
including the "Plan que manifiesta el n6mero de vasallos que tiene el Rey en esta Pro-
vincia de los Texas o de Nuevas Filipinas con distinci6n de clases, castas y destinos,
armamento y bienes que poseen, expresandose por notas lo correspondiente al estado,294
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974, periodical, 1973/1974; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117148/m1/344/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.