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Coercion, Culture, and Contracts: Labor and Debt on Henequen Haciendas in Yucatán, Mexico, 1870–1915

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Lee J. Alston ,
Shannan Mattiace  and
Tomas Nonnenmacher
Lee J. Alston*
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder, 256 USB, Boulder, CO 80309–0256. E-mail: Lee.Alston@colorado.edu.
Shannan Mattiace*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Allegheny College, 520 North Main Street, Meadville, PA 16335. E-mail: shannan.mattiace@allegheny.edu.
Tomas Nonnenmacher*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Allegheny College, 520 North Main Street, Meadville, Pa 16335. E-mail: tomas.nonnenmacher@allegheny.edu.
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Abstract

The henequen boom coincided with the rule of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). During the boom, many Maya in Yucatan lost their rights to land and moved to henequen haciendas. As part of the implicit contract with hacendados, peons accumulated large debts at the time of marriage, most of which were never repaid. We argue that the debts bound workers to the hacienda as part of a system of paternalism and that more productive workers incurred more debt. We examine the institutional setting in which debt operated and stress the formal and informal institutional contexts within which hacendados and workers negotiated contracts.

“Debt and contract slavery is the prevailing system of production all over the south of Mexico… Debt, real or imaginary, is the nexus that binds the peon to his master…probably 5,000,000 people, or one-third of the entire population, are today living in a state of helpless peonage.”

John Kenneth Turner1

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ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 104 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2009

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