“Just Passing Through” in 16th century Peru

What struck me most about the reading from James Lockhart’s Spanish Peru: 1532-1560 was the chapter devoted to transients, that is people without jobs, houses of their own, or a source of steady income.  He starts by debunking sources (letters from colonial officials of other Spanish colonies) that claim that Peru had thousands and thousands of transients (7,000 plus) and only a few gainfully employed colonizers and some encomenderos.  Using notarial records he shows that in fact there were not nearly that many (only really 2,000-4,000).  Which is really surprising, because that’s a pretty significant although not 7/8 like previously thought.  Its hard to understand how a couple thousand people could live without working in what was basically the edge of the world they knew.  Lockhart says that encomenderos would take on up 20 or so semi-permanent “guests” to show his wealth and have a group of people he could obligate to do things.  Which seems to be a real awk situation.  He also says that others just gambled away the time and looked for expeditions to unexplored regions that they could latch on to.  It is really surprising that such a stiuation could go on for years without anyone putting a stop to it.