Lecture 10
Hacienda System

In some places in South America, the the modern plantation developed after the collapse of the colonial empire in the 1800s.

In countries such as Haiti and Dominica the large holdings reverted to small holdings.

In many Spanish-controlled areas, where the colonial plantation had never been highly developed, an institution called the hacienda developed.

The Hacienda has Unique Social & Economic Implications

The hacienda system began with minor nobles getting large land grants from the Spanish crown.
Stock raising had been practiced with no great emphasis on plant agriculture.
Large land holdings were required to be profitable but the emphasis was not on efficient economic development but a cultural and status system.
Hacienda is still a drag on development.
It is based on the economics of scarcity:

The owner is called the Patròn, the peasant is called peòn or campesino.
Pé is the word for foot in Spanish indicating the peasant worked on foot not on a horse (cavallo); hence cavallero or cavalier which is equivalent to the English word knight.
Campo is the word for field, hence campesino refers to field hand.
The campesino is in debt to the patròn for their entire lives; children inherit parent's debt.
The peòn lives on land of the patròn but owe their labor.

When they need funds (weddings, funerals, etc.) they borrow from the patròn, fall into debt and typically remain in debt.
By comparison to the peòn who owns nothing, the patròn is enormously wealthy yet usually has little cash.
Under this system, agricultural technology is always antiquated.
In Venezuela 400-year old plows were still in use in the 20th century.

A dual economy operates in many South American countries such as Venezuela.
Highly capitalized modern oil industry developed and people associated with it had high incomes.
Alongside this was an antiquated, debt ridden impoverished agriculture (particularly in the mountainous areas).
Incomes are very unevenly distributed as the wealth of oil (and land) is concentrated in a few hands, and much of this money returns to North America in the form of apartments and investments.

Under a hacienda system with its associated stagnation there is a feeling of fatalism and hopelessness.
The most common phrase in Brazil is: Se Deus quiser (If God wishes) which is uttered after almost any sentence.
The peòn has no long range goals.
The peòn assumes that wealth is a condition of nature, not something to be gained.
There is no thought that things could be different or better and the patròn does not encourage these thoughts.
Any capital obtained is expended immediately—on fiestas for example.
We view this as profligacy, the peòn views this as the only reasonable course of action.

Peòns, typically of Indian heritage, are very devout and the church is an important part of their lives.
The Catholic church with its emphasis on things spiritual rather than temporal had served to sustain the hacienda system.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, there was a movement in the Church to support peasant rights but under John Paul II the Church has moved away from political action.
At the present time Protestant evangelicals are making large inroads in a population that was almost exclusively Roman Catholic.