Abstract
In the British American colonies the shortage of labour during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was met by white contract labour: the indentured servants and the redemptioners. This system of white contract labour was unknown in Spanish America during the colonial period, a fact confirmed by such authors as Parry, Mörner and Engerman1. How can this absence of white contract labour be explained? Before trying to answer this question, it may be useful to take a glance at some demographic data. The demand for labour depends partly on the size of the total population, i.e. the supply side.
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Notes
J.H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire, (London, 19672), p. 235. Cited with adhesion by M. Mörner, ‘Spanish migration to the New World prior to 1810: a report on the state of research’, in F. Chiappelli, (ed.), First Images of America, the Impact of the New World on the Old, (Berkeley, 1976), vol. II, p. 780, note 86, and S.L. Engerman, ‘Servants to Slaves to Servants: Contract Labour and European Expansion’, this volume, p. 288, note 15.
A.C. van Oss, ‘Mendicant Expansion in New Spain and the Extent of the Colony (sixteenth century)’, in Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, 21, (1976), pp. 32–56; A.C. van Oss, ‘De Expansie van de Bedelorden in Nieuw Spanje in de Zestiende Eeuw’, in B.H. Slicher van Bath and A.C. van Oss, Geschiedenis van maatschappij en cultuur, (Baarn, 1978), pp. 172–193.
B.H. Slicher van Bath, Spaans Amerika omstreeks 1600, (Utrecht, 1979), pp. 197–198.
A.C. van Oss, Catholic Colonialism, a Parish History of Guatemala, 1524–1821, (Ann Arbor, 1982), pp. 212–238.
For Peru, F.P. Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650, (Stanford, 1974), pp. 88–106, 125–135, 14–16. For Mexico, B.H. Slicher van Bath, Bevolking en Economie in Nieuw Spanje, ca. 1570–1800, (Amsterdam, 1981), p. 211.
Bowser, The African Slave, p. 22. A. Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio y descripción de las Indias Occidentales, B. Velasco Bayón, (ed.), Biblioteca de autores Españoles, t. 231, (Madrid, 1969), p. 226.
J. López de Velasco, Geografía y descripción universal de las Indias, M. Jiménez de la Espada, (ed.), Biblioteca de autores Españoles, t. 248, (Madrid, 1971). A. Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio v descripción de las Indias. B.H. Slicher van Bath, Spaans Amerika, p. 210.
M. Mörner, ‘Spanish migration’, pp. 737–740.
P. Boyd-Bowman, ‘Patterns of Spanish Emigration to the Indies until 1600’, The Hispanic American Historical Review, 56, (1976), pp. 580–604. This article constitutes a synthesis of the results of his research and of his books and articles. For the returnees, see J. Lockhart, ‘Letters and People to Spain’, in F. Chiappelli, (ed.), First Images of America, vol. II, pp. 787–794.
P. Boyd-Bowman, Indice geobiográfico de cuarenta mil pobladores Españoles de América en el siglo XVI, t. I 1493–1519, (Bogotá, 1964), prólogo, p. IX, n. 8. Mörner, ‘Spanish migration’, appendix 2, p. 767. During the period 1506–1600 the number of emigrants was 242,853.
B.H. Slicher van Bath, The Agrarian History of Western Europe, A.D. 500–1850, (London, 1963), pp. 207–208.
Mörner, ‘Spanish migration’, pp. 750–758, esp. 757–758.
P. Boyd-Bowman, ‘Patterns of Spanish emigration’, pp. 596–601.
J. Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560, a Colonial Society, (Madison, 1968); J. Lockhart, The men of Cajamarca, a Social and Biographical Study of the first Conquerors of Peru, (Austin, 1972).
J. Lockhart and E. Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, the Sixteenth Century, (Cambridge, 1976), p. 114.
E. Otte, ‘Die Europäischen Siedler und die Probleme der Neuen Welt’, in Jahrbuch für Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas, 6, (1969), p. 3.
Lockhart, ‘Letters and People to Spain’, pp. 785–786; see also Lockhart and Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies.
These data and the following are based on the letters published by Lockhart and Otte in their book Letters and People of the Spanish Indies and by Otte in his article ‘Die Europäischen Siedler’ and further in E. Otte, ‘Cartas privadas de Puebla del siglo XVI’, in Jahrbuch für Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas, 3, (1966), pp. 10–87.
Lockhart and Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, pp. 123–127, 136. Otte ‘Cartas privadas’, p. 63.
P. Boyd-Bowman, ‘Spanish emigrants to the Indies, 1595–98: a profile’, in F. Chiappelli, (ed.), First Images of America, vol. II, pp. 725–731. On the crisis, see E.J. Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501–1650, (New York, 1965, repr.), pp. 201–202.
Lockhart and Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, pp. 117–118; Spanish text published in E. Otte, ‘Cartas privadas’, pp. 56–58.
Lockhart and Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, pp. 136–137; Spanish text published in E. Otte, ‘Cartas privadas’, pp. 75–11.
A. Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio y descripción de las Indias, p. 96. B.H. Slicher van Bath, Spaans Amerika, p. 202.
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© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Slicher van Bath, B.H. (1986). The absence of white contract labour in Spanish America during the colonial period. In: Emmer, P.C. (eds) Colonialism and Migration; Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery. Comparative Studies in Overseas History, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4354-4_2
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