Back to Hist 353 Home page
Back to Hist 353 Lecture Index page Mines and Haciendas in Early New Spain I. The Hacienda System

• A. Development of Latifundia/Minifundia pattern
  • 1. Depopulation, reducciones, other factors produce growing shift in land ownership
  • 2. Indian nobles faced increasing restrictions, downward mobility
  • 3. A relatively small group of Spaniards able to benefit, leading to concentration
  • 4. Some estates reached 1 million acres or more, particularly in north
  • 5. One in Nuevo Leon even reached 14 million by 1760
  • 6. But varied widely - "large" depended on local conditions
• B. Hacendados become the elite of colonial society
• C. Economics of the hacienda
  • 1. Combine self-sufficiency with sale to local markets
  • 2. Depended on creole desire to eat European products
    • a. wheat
    • b. barley
    • c. wine
    • d. olives/olive oil
  • 3. European agriculture centred around Puebla, but found in many areas
  • 4. Ranching predominant in arid north
• D. Complex social organization of hacienda
  • 1. Some land rented out to smaller farmers (often Indians, mestizos, etc.)
  • 2. Few permanent workers - artisans, maybe a priest
  • 3. Peons often indebted but also often wealthiest, most acculturated peasants
  • 4. Highly diversified - mills, granaries, ranching, farming - which brought social diversity
• E. These estates are an exaple of Weber's patrimonialism
  • 1. Hacendado has authority over people on his land, though not sovereignty
  • 2. Authority enforced through arbitrary use of violence
  • 3. Patron-client relationships (highly personalized and not institutionalized)
  • 4. Hacendado controls all outside commerce

II. Mining

• A. Became the great motor of economic expansion in the 16th-17th centuries
• B. First great discovery in 1546 in Zacatecas. Most mines found in central area north of Mexico City
• C. While initial mining took place on the surface, deeper mines called for heavy investment
• D. Often tied to haciendas that supplied them
• E. Labor
  • 1. 10,000 workers in 1500s; 45,000 in 1600s
  • 2. Some use of corvee (mita) labor, but not as much as in Peru/Bolivia
  • 3. Depended on skilled wage labor -- forced labor not good for technical tasks
    • a. mostly Indians, mestizos, free blacks
    • b. Beginnings of a new class
• F. Crown
  • 1. Crown increasingly ravenous for silver (mostly to support European wars)
  • 2. Theoretically owned anything underground - gave permits in exchange for quinto (one fifth)
  • 3. Kept control through credit, monopoly on mercury

III. Trade

• A. In early days, Mexico depended on Spain for everything (European foods and manufactured goods)
• B. Crown sought to control trade through monopolies
  • 1. All trade run through the Casa de Concentracion (Board of Trade)
  • 2. All trade supposed to run in annual convoys to Seville (later Cadiz)
  • 3. Spanish merchants controlled these convoys and the trade fairs connected to them
  • 4. Many trades and manufactures officially banned for benefit of Spanish monopolies
  • 5. In other direction, it takes a long time for chocolate, sugar and tobacco trades to develop
• C. Trade situation changes in 1600s
  • 1. By early 1600s, Mexico able to supply most of its own needs
  • 2. Spain increasingly unable to supply manufactured goods Mexico wanted
  • 3. Convoys become increasingly erratic
  • 4. Combined with ports system and monopolies, this produces much smuggling
  • 5. Increasing direct trade with Philippines, and through there, China
  • 6. Direct trade with Spain drops dramatically after 1620

Back to Hist 353 Home page
Back to Hist 353 Lecture Index page