Rural Society throughout Spanish America: Haciendas and Communities

First, finished lecture on mining in 2009.

I. Introduction: Images and Complexities

A. Landowning not primary base of wealth
B. Indigenous people have access to land
C. Both conflict and symbiosis/coexistence

II. Haciendas:

How did hacendados try to maintain profitability?

A. Adaptation to Market: diversification and flexibility

1. Diversification

a. different types of land
b. types of production (crops, livestock), both for market and self-sufficiency
c. combine with other enterprises (extended family strategy)

2. Flexibility

a. over long term, shifting among products and land use
b. short term, playing the market: storing grain until price got higher

B. Labor: primarily private vs. state labor draft

1. Core of permanent workers

a. forasteros
b. tenant laborers (offered plot of land for their own use)
c. debt peonage

2. Seasonal workforce:

a. from communities
b. needed cash to pay tribute (head tax)

C. Compare and contrast the Brazilian engenho and the Spanish-American hacienda

III. Indigenous Communities

Along what lines were Indigenous people united and divided?

            A. Internal Organization

1. Formed to aid colonial exploitation: “reducciones”
2. Used as a defense against exploitation

a. Protected by Spanish Crown
b. Land base
c. Community leaders (Andes: kurakas)

            B. Relationship to Society outside community

1. Conflict as common as cooperation among indigenous communities (Stern)
2. Haciendas

a. Symbiosis

i.  Community members pool of seasonal labor
ii. Hacendado might shelter seasonal workers from other demands (e.g. mita)

b. Conflict

i. water rights
ii. land: especially 18th century with the rise of indigenous population

Questions:

How did hacendados try to maintain profitability?

How do the primary units of economic production in Spanish America compare to those in Portuguese Brazil?

Along what lines were Native Americans united and divided?

I.D. Terms:

hacienda/hacendado
reducciones
forasteros

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