Silver Trade and Sugar Plantations
Maggie Stone
Silver Effect
As mining industries increased in Mexico and Peru, the Spanish economy in the Americas grew more powerful as well as the world economy
• Spanish government got a fifth of the silver production (quinto)
- this represented the principal revenue that the crown received from its American possessions
- Silver helped Spanish kings finance their army and bureaucracy
• American silver came from all different directions and oceans and increased global trade
- Europe got its silver from America and traded it for silk, spices, and porcelain through Asia markets
- Silver also went from Acapulco across the Pacific in the Manila galleons all the way to Asian markets
The Hacienda
• Other occupations in America included farming, stock raising, and craft production.
- Mining industries gave opportunities to supply mining towns with food, wine, textiles, tools, furniture, and craft items
• By 17th century, the hacienda was the strongest site of agricultural and craft production in Spanish America
- The hacienda mainly produced foods for its own use and also sold them to local markets nearby
- Foods included wheat, grapes, and meat from pigs - all were mostly european origin
Labor Systems
• Major sources of labor included native populations and some imported slaves
- Many native peoples were temporary and seasonal laborers under the encomienda system
• Most encomenderos abused laborers - which caused the Spanish officials to change the encomiendas to the repartimiento in the late 16th century
- Repartimiento system forced native communities to give laborers for Spanish farms and mines
- System had a rule that laborers were only aloud to work for a certain amount of time, and were also given fair wages
- The system began to fade away in Mexico by the mid-seventeenth century but lasted longer in Peru
Resistance to Spanish Rule
• Spanish authority in Americas resisted indigenous people in forms of rebellion, half-hearted work, and retreat into the mountains and forests where the Spanish could not have power over them.
- In 1615, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala from Peru sent a 1,200-page letter + illustrations to King Philip III in Spain asking for protection from the greedy colonists
- The king never saw the letter
- The letter is an example of the “grievances against Spanish over-lords”.
- Author felt that men were being run down by overtaxation and women driven to prostitution, and Spanish colonists who took the land of the native peoples, etc.
- King Phillip did not intervene to protect the indigenous people of the land
Sugar and Slavery in Portuguese Brazil
• Production and the export of sugar was the foundation of the Portuguese empire in Brazil
- The different foundations led to different recruitment of labor
- Spanish conquistadores made sedentary peoples give labor in the mines and estates of Mexico and Peru
• Sugar plantations were established by Portuguese nobles and entrepreneurs in areas where workers relied on African slaves as laborers
- Africans became the main population in Brazil
The Engenho
• The engenho was what Brazilian life once focused on - the sugar mill
- Engenho: Engine
- Sugarcane needed more processing than the other crops, and bc of this, they always combined industrial and agricultural enterprises.
- Engenhos were once one of the most complex enterprises in the Americas because they depended on heavy labor and specialized skills
• The engenhos gave privileges to the Portuguese planters and owners by giving them power
- They operated on very small profit margins
Search For Labor & Slavery
• The Portuguese’ labor source came from the African slaves.
- They tried using local populations, but they resisted to commandeer their labor, they avoided Portuguese forces, etc.
- Also diseases made their way into the picture, and devastated the populations (smallpox, measles, etc.)
• By the 1530’s, Portuguese plantation managers were importing slaves from Africa
- They did not begin to rely on these slaves for another 50 years
- The cane cultivation and sugar production required work from the slave community.
- Poor conditions caused an increase in disease and mortality for the slaves - more death
* The number of deaths in the slave population was larger than the number of births *
- Caused a higher demand for slaves
• The slave owners believed that the sugar production dictated practices that gave hardly any attention to the lives of the slaves
- The owners just realized profits
* Owners would go out and purchase a new and healthy slave if their original slave lived to be 5-6 years - because the investment of the average owner doubled *
- Owners didn’t have the motivation to improve the slaves conditions
As mining industries increased in Mexico and Peru, the Spanish economy in the Americas grew more powerful as well as the world economy
• Spanish government got a fifth of the silver production (quinto)
- this represented the principal revenue that the crown received from its American possessions
- Silver helped Spanish kings finance their army and bureaucracy
• American silver came from all different directions and oceans and increased global trade
- Europe got its silver from America and traded it for silk, spices, and porcelain through Asia markets
- Silver also went from Acapulco across the Pacific in the Manila galleons all the way to Asian markets
The Hacienda
• Other occupations in America included farming, stock raising, and craft production.
- Mining industries gave opportunities to supply mining towns with food, wine, textiles, tools, furniture, and craft items
• By 17th century, the hacienda was the strongest site of agricultural and craft production in Spanish America
- The hacienda mainly produced foods for its own use and also sold them to local markets nearby
- Foods included wheat, grapes, and meat from pigs - all were mostly european origin
Labor Systems
• Major sources of labor included native populations and some imported slaves
- Many native peoples were temporary and seasonal laborers under the encomienda system
• Most encomenderos abused laborers - which caused the Spanish officials to change the encomiendas to the repartimiento in the late 16th century
- Repartimiento system forced native communities to give laborers for Spanish farms and mines
- System had a rule that laborers were only aloud to work for a certain amount of time, and were also given fair wages
- The system began to fade away in Mexico by the mid-seventeenth century but lasted longer in Peru
Resistance to Spanish Rule
• Spanish authority in Americas resisted indigenous people in forms of rebellion, half-hearted work, and retreat into the mountains and forests where the Spanish could not have power over them.
- In 1615, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala from Peru sent a 1,200-page letter + illustrations to King Philip III in Spain asking for protection from the greedy colonists
- The king never saw the letter
- The letter is an example of the “grievances against Spanish over-lords”.
- Author felt that men were being run down by overtaxation and women driven to prostitution, and Spanish colonists who took the land of the native peoples, etc.
- King Phillip did not intervene to protect the indigenous people of the land
Sugar and Slavery in Portuguese Brazil
• Production and the export of sugar was the foundation of the Portuguese empire in Brazil
- The different foundations led to different recruitment of labor
- Spanish conquistadores made sedentary peoples give labor in the mines and estates of Mexico and Peru
• Sugar plantations were established by Portuguese nobles and entrepreneurs in areas where workers relied on African slaves as laborers
- Africans became the main population in Brazil
The Engenho
• The engenho was what Brazilian life once focused on - the sugar mill
- Engenho: Engine
- Sugarcane needed more processing than the other crops, and bc of this, they always combined industrial and agricultural enterprises.
- Engenhos were once one of the most complex enterprises in the Americas because they depended on heavy labor and specialized skills
• The engenhos gave privileges to the Portuguese planters and owners by giving them power
- They operated on very small profit margins
Search For Labor & Slavery
• The Portuguese’ labor source came from the African slaves.
- They tried using local populations, but they resisted to commandeer their labor, they avoided Portuguese forces, etc.
- Also diseases made their way into the picture, and devastated the populations (smallpox, measles, etc.)
• By the 1530’s, Portuguese plantation managers were importing slaves from Africa
- They did not begin to rely on these slaves for another 50 years
- The cane cultivation and sugar production required work from the slave community.
- Poor conditions caused an increase in disease and mortality for the slaves - more death
* The number of deaths in the slave population was larger than the number of births *
- Caused a higher demand for slaves
• The slave owners believed that the sugar production dictated practices that gave hardly any attention to the lives of the slaves
- The owners just realized profits
* Owners would go out and purchase a new and healthy slave if their original slave lived to be 5-6 years - because the investment of the average owner doubled *
- Owners didn’t have the motivation to improve the slaves conditions