Hacienda and Market in Eighteenth-Century Mexico: The Rural Economy of the Guadalajara Region, 1675-1820 / Edition 25

by Eric Van Young, John Coatsworth

Overview

This classic history of the Mexican hacienda from the colonial period through the nineteenth century has been reissued in a silver anniversary edition complete with a substantive new introduction and foreword. Eric Van Young explores 150 years of Mexico's economic and rural development, a period when one of history's great empires was trying to extract more resources from its most important colony, and when an arguably capitalist economy was both expanding and taking deeper root. The author explains the development of a regional agrarian system, centered on the landed estates of late colonial Mexico, the central economic and social institution of an overwhelmingly rural society. With rich empirical detail, he meticulously describes the features of the rural economy, including patterns of land ownership, credit and investment, labor relations, the structure of production, and the relationship of a major colonial city to its surrounding area.

The book's most interesting and innovative element is its emphasis on the way the system of rural economy shaped, and was shaped by, the internal logic of a great spatial system, the region of Guadalajara. Van Young argues that Guadalajara's population growth progressively integrated the large geographical region surrounding the city through the mechanisms of the urban market for grain and meat, which in turn put pressure on local land and labor resources. Eventually this drove white and Indian landowners into increasingly sharp conflict and led to the progressive proletarianization of the region's peasantry during the last decades of the Spanish colonial era. It is no accident, given this history, that the Guadalajara region was one of the major areas of armed insurrection for most of the decade during Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain. By highlighting the way haciendas worked and changed over time, this indispensable study illuminates Mexico's economic and social history, the movement for independence, and the origins of the Mexican Revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742553569
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Edition description:	Twenty fifth Edition
Pages:	454
Product dimensions:	6.44(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

Eric Van Young is professor of history at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition Chapter 3 Introduction Part 4 Part I. The Human and Natural Environment Chapter 5 Chapter 1. The Guadalajara Region in Time and Space Chapter 6 Chapter 2. Demographic Change—Rural and Urban Part 7 Part II. Guadalajara as a Market: Urban Demand and Public Policy Chapter 8 Chapter 3. Meat Chapter 9 Chapter 4. Wheat Chapter 10 Chapter 5. Maize Part 11 Part III. The Flowering of the Hacienda System Chapter 12 Chapter 6. The late Colonial Hacienda—An Introduction Chapter 13 Chapter 7. Hacienda Ownership—Stability and Instability Chapter 14 Chapter 8. Hacienda Ownership—Sources of Capital Chapter 15 Chapter 9. Hacienda Ownership—Patterns and Value and Investment Chapter 16 Chapter 10. Hacienda Production—The Changing Equilibrium Chapter 17 Chapter 11. Hacienda Labor Part 18 Part IV. 'Desde Tiempo Inmemorial': Late Colonial Conflicts over Land Chapter 19 Chapter 12. Population Pressure in the Countryside Chapter 20 Chapter 13. Formation and Stability of the Hacienda Chapter 21 Chapter 14. The Clash

Editorial Reviews

As a case study, the book confirms much of what has recently been documented for other areas of Mexico while adding significant new details. In terms of technique and ideas it is an important contribution to the field of colonial economic and social history.

American Historical Review - Herman W. Konrad

This is an excellent book. Colonial historians will long consider it required reading.--Keith A. Davis "Agricultural History "

As a case study, the book confirms much of what has recently been documented for other areas of Mexico while adding significant new details. In terms of technique and ideas it is an important contribution to the field of colonial economic and social history.--Herman W. Konrad "American Historical Review "

This is an important, meticulously researched and elegantly written study of a neglected region. Van Young is to be praised for providing a working geographical definition of what is an 'economic region, ' and for looking at relations between city and countryside from both angles.--G. P. C. Thomson "Times Literary Supplement "

From the Publisher

This is an important, meticulously researched and elegantly written study of a neglected region. Van Young is to be praised for providing a working geographical definition of what is an 'economic region,' and for looking at relations between city and countryside from both angles.

Times Literary Supplement - G. P. C. Thomson

A thoroughly satisfying book… Eric Van Young is the first author to attempt to analyze the colonial agricultural economy from the perspective of a regional marketing area rather than that of the local producing unit… an excellent contribution holding significance for all researchers interested in the economic and social history of Mexico.

The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History - James D. Riley

This is an excellent book. Colonial historians will long consider it required reading.

Agricultural History - Keith A. Davis

Eric Van Young has written a major study of late colonial economic development, urban markets, and haciendas as economic institutions in the regional setting of central Jalisco…Students of early Latin American history will use this book often for its solid, clearly presented findings and for its many ideas about specific economic and social changes. It is an admirable step beyond all previous regional studies of land systems and economic change.

Hispanic American Historical Review - William B. Taylor

This is a monumental work that will influence colonial historians of Mexico in the same manner as Brading, Bakewell, and Taylor have.... Impeccable in its scholarship, this work is elegantly written.

Latin America In Books

A thoroughly satisfying book… Eric Van Young is the first author to attempt to analyze the colonial agricultural economy from the perspective of a regional marketing area rather than that of the local producing unit… an excellent contribution holding significance for all researchers interested in the economic and social history of Mexico.
— James D. Riley

The Americas: A Quarterly Review Of Inter-American Cultural

This is an important, meticulously researched and elegantly written study of a neglected region. Van Young is to be praised for providing a working geographical definition of what is an 'economic region,' and for looking at relations between city and countryside from both angles.
— G. P. C. Thomson

London Times Literary Supplement

This is an excellent book. Colonial historians will long consider it required reading.
— Keith A. Davis

Agricultural History

As a case study, the book confirms much of what has recently been documented for other areas of Mexico while adding significant new details. In terms of technique and ideas it is an important contribution to the field of colonial economic and social history.
— Herman W. Konrad

American Historical Review

Eric Van Young has written a major study of late colonial economic development, urban markets, and haciendas as economic institutions in the regional setting of central Jalisco…Students of early Latin American history will use this book often for its solid, clearly presented findings and for its many ideas about specific economic and social changes. It is an admirable step beyond all previous regional studies of land systems and economic change.
— William B. Taylor

Hispanic American Historical Review

A thoroughly satisfying book… Eric Van Young is the first author to attempt to analyze the colonial agricultural economy from the perspective of a regional marketing area rather than that of the local producing unit… an excellent contribution holding significance for all researchers interested in the economic and social history of Mexico.
— James D. Riley

The Americas: A Quarterly Review Of Inter-American Cultural

As a case study, the book confirms much of what has recently been documented for other areas of Mexico while adding significant new details. In terms of technique and ideas it is an important contribution to the field of colonial economic and social history.

Herman W. Konradn Historical Review