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Modes of Labor Control in Cattle-Ranching Economies: California, Southern Brazil, and Argentina, 1820–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Ricardo D. Salvatore
Ricardo D. Salvatore
Affiliation:
The author is Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0176.
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Abstract

The ranching economies of California, southern Brazil, and Argentina resorted to different mechanisms of labor control in order to meet the growing demand for their products. Each area used different combinations of slave and wage labor as well as sharecropping arrangements, and these varied over time. I argue that this diversity cannot be explained by differences in the regions' modes of production or relative factor endowments. An alternative interpretive framework that incorporates social conflicts, civil strife, and the interaction between ranchers and the state is needed to explain the differences in modes of labor control.

Type
Papers Presented at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 441 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1991

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