One of the hallmarks of Spain’s empire in the Americas, the hacienda was a large rural estate that combined the medieval concept of the seigneurial manor with feudal and capitalistic practices. Haciendas became the dominant social and in some areas political organizing units in Spanish America.
Most of the large haciendas found in Spanish America originated in the 20 or 30 years after a specific territory or region came under the control of the Spanish. Many of the CONQUiSTADORes and early settlers from Spain received land grants from the Crown. Others seized land from its indigenous inhabitants and eventually legalized their claims through payments to the Crown. These early grants and seizures laid the foundations for most of the haciendas that developed throughout Latin America. Most added to their holdings through various legal and illegal acquisitions through the centuries.
In Latin America a hacienda referred to large rural property or estate. These entities dominated the political and economic scene during the entire colonial period. Generally, those haciendas located in desolate, less fertile regions became quite large, and at the same time those situated in healthy agricultural areas tended to be smaller because of competition for the best land. Most sent what they produced to specific markets, and in some cases haciendas laid the foundations for significant wealth for individual families. This eventually translated into political clout and prestige. Over time haciendas came to represent the highest status in a community, and many who achieved wealth through other enterprises invested in haciendas to improve their standing in local communities.
Haciendas needed a dependable labor force, and these workers came from several different sources. Owners of haciendas that grew labor intensive crops such as SUGAR cane usually invested in large numbers of African slaves (see slavery). Some of these plantations became quite large and operated as small towns. On other haciendas Natives worked as part of an encomienda or repartimiento requirement, or Spaniards, creoles, mestizos, and mulat-toes labored as wage earners.
Three types of haciendas existed: the staple crop farm, the mixed crop farm, and the livestock ranch. The staple crop farm usually produced one type of agricultural product for market. These products included sugarcane, rice, cacao, and wheat. Most of these crops required some form of processing before they could be sent to the market. These haciendas thus needed some type of mill, animal - or water-powered, on the estate. This type of hacienda needed significant outlays of capital before it could become fully operational. For this reason most staple crop haciendas evolved from the mixed crop farm or the livestock ranch or developed from the exploitation of an encomienda or repartimiento indigenous labor requirement.
Owners of mixed crop haciendas grew several varieties of food plants for market, and in the early years they depended upon crops that did not need a significant amount of processing. This type of hacienda required some initial investment of capital but not as much as the staple crop farm.
The livestock hacienda required the smallest investment and fewest workers to begin operations. Furthermore, transportation costs were minimal because cattle could be driven to market. In the 16th century this type of farm needed only a few units of titled land on which the owner built a house, a shed, and corrals. The cattle grazed on the public domain and were only periodically kept in the corrals. As a result, livestock haciendas during the 16th century remained relatively small in size, although over time the Crown began to sell public pasture lands to raise money for the government.
Further reading: Robert G. Keith, Conquest and Agrarian Change: The Emergence of the Hacienda System on the Peruvian Coast (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976);-, ed., Haciendas and Plantations
In Latin American History (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1977); James M. Lockhart, “Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish Indies,” Hispanic American Historical Review 49 (1969): 411-429; Eric R. Wolf and Sidney W. Mintz, “Haciendas and Plantations in Middle America and the Antilles,” Social and Economic Studies 6 (1957): 380-412.
—Dixie Ray Haggard
World History
