A hacienda ( or ; or ) is an estate (or finca), similar to a Roman latifundium, in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, haciendas were variously (perhaps including animals or orchards), Mining or Factory, with many haciendas combining these activities. The word is derived from Spanish hacer (to make, from Latin facere) and haciendo (making), referring to productive business enterprises.
The term hacienda is imprecise, but usually refers to landed estates of significant size, while smaller holdings were termed estancias or . All colonial haciendas were owned almost exclusively by Spaniards and Criollo people, or rarely by mixed-race individuals.Ida Altman, et al., The Early History of Greater Mexico, Pearson, 2003, p. 164. In Argentina, the term estancia is used for large estates that in Mexico would be termed haciendas. In recent decades, the term has been used in the United States for an architectural style associated with the traditional estate manor houses.
The hacienda system of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, New Granada, and Peru was an economic system of large land holdings. A similar system existed on a smaller scale in the Philippines and Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, haciendas were larger than estancias; ordinarily grew sugar cane, coffee, or cotton; and exported their crops abroad.
During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the hacienda model was exported to the New World, continuing the pattern of the Reconquista. As the Spanish established cities in conquered territories, the crown distributed smaller plots of land nearby, while in areas farther afield, the were allotted large land grants which became haciendas and .Villalobos et al. 1974, p. 87. Haciendas were developed as profit-making enterprises linked to regional or international markets. Estates were integrated into a market economy aimed at the Hispanic sector and cultivated crops such as sugar, wheat, fruits and vegetables and produced animal products such as meat, wool, leather, and tallow.James Lockhart, "Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish Indies," Hispanic American Historical Review, 1969, 59: 411–29,James Lockhart and Stuart Schwartz, Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 134–142.
The system in Mexico is considered to have started when the Spanish crown granted to Hernán Cortés the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca in 1529, including the entire present state of Morelos, as well as vast encomienda labor grants. Although haciendas originated in grants to the elite, many ordinary Spaniards could also petition for land grants from the crown. New haciendas were formed in many places in the 17th and 18th centuries as most local economies moved from mining toward agriculture and husbandry.Villalobos et al. 1974, pp. 160–165.
Distribution of land happened in parallel with the allocation of indigenous people to servitude under the encomienda system.Villalobos et al. 1974, pp. 109–113. Although the hacienda was not directly linked to the encomienda, many Spanish holders of encomiendas lucratively combined the two by acquiring land or developing enterprises to employ that forced labor. As the crown moved to eliminate encomienda labor, Spaniards consolidated private landholdings and recruited labor on a permanent or casual basis. Eventually, the hacienda became secure private property, which survived the colonial period and into the 20th century.
The work force on haciendas varied, depending on the type of hacienda and where it was located. In central Mexico near indigenous communities and growing crops to supply urban markets, there was often a small, permanent workforce resident on the hacienda. Labor could be recruited from nearby indigenous communities on an as-needed basis, such as planting and harvest time. The permanent and temporary hacienda employees worked land that belonged to the patrón and under the supervision of local labor bosses. In some places small scale cultivators or campesinos worked small holdings belonging to the hacendado, and owed a portion of their crops to him.
Stock raising was central to ranching haciendas, the largest of which were in areas without dense indigenous populations, such as northern Mexico, but as indigenous populations declined in central areas, more land became available for grazing.Altman et al. (2003), The Early History of Greater Mexico, p. 163. Livestock were animals originally imported from Spain, including cattle, horses, sheep, and goats were part of the Columbian Exchange and produced significant ecological changes. Sheep in particular had a devastating impact on the environment due to overgrazing.Elinor G. K. Melville, A Plague of Sheep: Environmental Consequences of the Conquest of Mexico, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. Mounted ranch hands variously called and (in the Southern Cone), among other terms worked for pastoral haciendas.
Where the hacienda included working mining, as in Mexico, the patrón might gain immense wealth. The unusually large and profitable Jesuit hacienda Santa Lucía, near Mexico City, established in 1576 and lasting to the expulsion in 1767, has been reconstructed by Herman Konrad from archival sources. This reconstruction has revealed the nature and operation of the hacienda system in Mexico, its labor force, its systems of land tenure and its relationship to larger Hispanic society in Mexico.
The Catholic Church and orders, especially the Jesuits, acquired vast hacienda holdings or preferentially loaned money to the hacendados. As the hacienda owners' mortgage holders, the Church's interests were connected with the landholding class. In the history of Mexico and other countries, the masses developed some hostility to the church; at times of gaining independence or during certain political movements, the people confiscated the church haciendas or restricted them.
Haciendas in the Caribbean were developed primarily as sugar were dependent on the labor of African peoples slaves imported to the region and staffed by slaves brought from Africa. African Aspects of the Puerto Rican Personality by (the late) Dr. Robert A. Martinez, Baruch College. (Archived from the original on 20 July 2007). Retrieved 13 July 2012. In Puerto Rico, this system ended with the abolition of slavery on 22 March 1873. "Abolition of Slavery (1873)" . Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. 2012. Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
In Bolivia, haciendas were prevalent until the 1952 Revolution of Víctor Paz Estenssoro. He established an extensive program of land distribution as part of the Agrarian Reform. Likewise, Peru had haciendas until the Agrarian Reform (1969) of Juan Velasco Alvarado, who expropriated the land from the hacendados and redistributed it to the peasants.
Beginning in the late 17th century Chilean haciendas begun to export wheat to Peru. While the immediate cause of this was Peru being struck by both an earthquake and a stem rust epidemic,Villalobos et al., 1974, pp. 155–160. Chilean soil and climatic conditions were better for cereal production than those of Peru and Chilean wheat was cheaper and of better quality than Peruvian wheat.Collier, Simon and Sater William F. 2004. A History of Chile: 1808–2002 Cambridge University Press. p. 10. Initially Chilean haciendas could not meet the wheat demand due to a labour shortage, so had to incorporate in addition to the permanent staff. Another response by the latifundia to labour shortages was to act as merchants, buying wheat produced by independent farmers or from farmers that hired land. In the period 1700 to 1850, this second option was overall more lucrative.Gabriel Salazar. 2000. Labradores, Peones y Proletarios. pp. 40–41 It was primarily the haciendas of Central Chile, La Serena and Concepción that came to be involved in cereal export to Peru.
In the 19th and early 20th century haciendas were the main prey for Chilean banditry. 20th century Chilean haciendas stand out for the poor conditions of workersSalazar & Pinto 2002, pp. 106–107. and being a backward part of the economy. The hacienda and inquilino institutions that characterized large parts of Chilean agriculture were eliminated by the Chilean land reform (1962–1973).Rytkönen, P. Fruits of Capitalism: Modernization of Chilean Agriculture, 1950–2000. Lund Studies in Economic History, 31, p. 43.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, attempts to abolish the hacienda system in the country through land-reform laws have not been successful. The expiration of the Laurel–Langley Agreement and the resultant collapse of the Negros sugar industry gave President Ferdinand Marcos the opening to strip the hacenderos of their self-appointed roles as in national politics. Hopes were short-lived, however, as protests revolving around Hacienda Luisita, as well as massacres and targeted assassinations in the Negros provinces, continue to this day. The opportunity that had earlier arisen was squandered and any significant gains stillborn.
The 1861 Hacienda Mercedita was a sugar plantation that once produced, packaged and sold sugar in the Snow White brand name.Nydia R. Suarez. The Rise and Decline of Puerto Rico's Sugar Industry. Sugar and Sweetener: S&O/SSS-224. Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, December 1998, p. 25. In the late 19th century, Mercedita became the site of production of Don Q rum. Rum: The Epic Story of the Drink That Conquered the World. Charles A. Coulombe. New York: Kensington Publishing, 2004, p. 99. Retrieved 13 July 2012. Its profitable rum business is today called Destilería Serrallés. "Our History" . Destileria Serralles. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 13 July 2012. The last of such haciendas decayed considerably starting in the 1950s, with the industrialization of Puerto Rico via Operation Bootstrap. "Operation Bootstrap (1947)" . Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. "History and Archaeology." Fundación Puertorriqueña para las Humanidades. Retrieved 13 July 2012. Informes Publicados: Central y Refinería Mercedita. Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. Oficina del Controlador. Corporación Azucarera de Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Informe Número: CP-98-17 (23 June 1998). Released 1 July 1998. Retrieved 13 July 2012. At the turn of the 20th century, most coffee haciendas had disappeared.
The sugar-based haciendas changed into centrales azucarelas. "Economy: Sugar in Puerto Rico" , Encyclopedia Puerto Rico, "Economy." Fundación Puertorriqueña para las Humanidades. Retrieved 13 July 2012. Yet by the 1990s, and despite significant government fiscal support, the last 13 Puerto Rican centrales azucares were forced to shut down. This marked the end of haciendas operating in Puerto Rico.Suarez (1998), The Rise and Decline of Puerto Rico's Sugar Industry, p. 31. In 2000, the last two sugar mills closed, after having operated for nearly 100 years. Benjamin Bridgman, Michael Maio, James A. Schmitz, Jr. "What Ever Happened to the Puerto Rican Sugar Manufacturing Industry?", Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Staff Report 477, 2012.
An "estancia" was a similar type of food farm. An estancia differed from an hacienda in terms of crop types handled, target market, machinery used, and size. An estancia, during Spanish colonial times in Puerto Rico (1508 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Accessed 9 July 2019. – 1898), was a plot of land used for cultivating "frutos menores" (minor crops).Guillermo A. Baralt. Buena Vista: Life and work in a Puerto Rican Hacienda, 1833–1904. Translated from the Spanish by Andrew Hurley. (Originally published in 1988 by Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico as La Buena Vista: Estancia de Frutos Menores, fabrica de harinas y hacienda cafetalera.) 1999. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press. p. iii. That is, the crops in such estancia farms were produced in relatively small quantities and thus were meant, not for wholesale or exporting, but for sale and consumption locally, where produced and its adjacent towns.Guillermo A. Baralt. Buena Vista: Life and work in a Puerto Rican Hacienda, 1833–1904. Translated from the Spanish by Andrew Hurley. (Originally published in 1988 by Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico as La Buena Vista: Estancia de Frutos Menores, fabrica de harinas y hacienda cafetalera.) 1999. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press. p. 1. Haciendas, unlike estancias, were equipped with industrial machinery used for processing its crops into derivatives such as , , , etc., for wholesale and exporting.Guillermo A. Baralt. Buena Vista: Life and work in a Puerto Rican Hacienda, 1833–1904. Translated from the Spanish by Andrew Hurley. (Originally published in 1988 by Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico as La Buena Vista: Estancia de Frutos Menores, fabrica de harinas y hacienda cafetalera.) 1999. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press. p. 1. Some "frutos menores" grown in estancias were rice, maize, , Ipomoea batatas, ñames, Eddoe, and ; among fruits were Cooking banana, , oranges, , and .Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Verdadera y Autentica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce: Desde sus primitivos tiempos hasta la época contemporánea. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultural Puertorriqueña. 1913. Reprinted 1987. p. 67. Most haciendas in Puerto Rico produced sugar, coffee, and tobacco, which were the crops for exporting. Some estancias were larger than some haciendas, but generally this was the exception and not the norm.Ivette Perez Vega. Las Sociedades Mercantiles de Ponce (1816–1830). Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia. San Juan, PR: Ediciones Puerto. 2015. p. 389.
Other locations
Philippines
Puerto Rico
Other meanings
Notable haciendas
See also
Notes
Further reading
General
Haciendas in Mexico
Haciendas in Puerto Rico
South America
External links
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