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Luis de Velasco y Castilla, viceroy of Peru from 1596 to 1604, promulgates this decree in 1603 (where he mentions Antonio Ricardo as a printer). Like many documents of this type, the news was also spread through town criers in Spanish and in the general language, Quechua.

This document refers to the treatment that should be had with the Indians to summon them as means of loading. It is mentioned that previously norms had already been established to protect indigenous people from these activities that entailed, as mentioned in the order, physical damage.

Decrees like this allow us to analyze and substantiate what the relationship between the different viceregal social classes was like. In addition, it is possible to know the ways in which the viceregal administration sought for people to have access to legal information.

Enrique Urteaga
Proyecto Estudios Indianos