Mexican Agriculture 1521–1630
Transformation of the Mode of Production

This book examines the dramatic impact of Spanish rule on Mexican society and agriculture, in terms of the demands of world capitalist development.

Andre Gunder Frank (Author)

9780521085687, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 October 2008

108 pages
21 x 15.1 x 0.6 cm, 0.17 kg

`The conquerors wanted Indian labour, the crown Indian subjects, the friars Indian souls.' Thus the importance of the natives of Mexico to their Spanish conquerors has been described. In this book Andre Gunder Frank examines the dramatic impact of Spanish rule on Mexican society and agriculture, in terms of the demands of world capitalist development. Mr Frank traces the rapid transformation of the dominant institutions of Mexican labour organization which occurred after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521: from a form of slavery, which lasted until 1533, through various forms of forced labour (the encomienda and the catequil or mica), to the establishment, after 1575, of the hacienda, with large-scale latifundia lands worked by serf-like ganan labour.

Part I. The impossibility of the dual economy: 1. Introduction: the economic genesis of social institutions
2. 1521–1548: the encomienda
3. 1548–1575: the repartimiento
Part II. The development of the hacienda: 4. 1575–1580: demographic and economic crisis
5. Growth of the latifundium: alternative theses
6. 1580–1630: profit-generated latifundium growth
7. Commercial crop and livestock production
8. The monopolization of land
9. The organization of labour
10. Some characteristics of the hacienda.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]