Repartimiento

The Repartimiento de Labor was a colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America and the Philippines. In concept it was similar to other tribute-labor systems, such as the "mita" of the Inca Empire or the corvée of Ancien Régime France: the natives were forced to do low-paid or unpaid labor for a certain number of weeks or months each year on Spanish-owned farms, mines, workshops ("obrajes"), and public projects. Like the "encomienda" system that preceded it, the "repartimiento" was not slavery, in that the in that the worker is not owned outright—being free in various respects other than in the dispensation of his or her labor—and the work was intermittent. It however, created slavery-like conditions in certain areas, most notoriously in silver mines of 16th century Peru. [cite book |last=Spodek |first=Howard |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= The World's History, Third Edition: Combined Volume (pages 457-458)|date= February 2005|publisher= Prentice Hall |location= |isbn=9780131773189 ] In the first decades of the colonization of the Caribbean the word was used for the insititution that became the "encomienda", which can cause confusion.

The "repartimiento", for the most part, replaced the "encomienda" of throughout the Viceroyalty of New Spain by the beginnng of the 17th century. [cite encyclopedia
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encyclopedia = The Columbia Encyclopedia
title = Repartimiento
url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-repartim.html
accessdate = 2007-10-09
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edition = Sixth Edition
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year = 2007
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quote = ] In Peru "encomiendas" lasted longer, and the Quechua word "mita" frequently was used for "repartimiento". There were instances when both systems ("repartimiento" and "encomienda") coexisted.

In practice, a conquistador, or later a Spanish settler or offiical, would be given and supervised a number of indigenous workers, who would labor in farms or mines, or in the case of the Philippines might also be assigned to the ship yards constructing the Manila galleons. The one in charge of doing the "reparto" ("distribution") of workers was the "Alcalde Mayor" (local magistrate) of the city. Native communities that were close to Spanish populations were required to provide a percentage of their people (2-4 %) to work in agriculture, construction of houses, streets, etc. The diminution of the number of natives in the Americas due to European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance, as well as to desertion from the work fields, led to the substitution of the "encomienda" system and the creation of privately-owned farms and haciendas. Many native people escaped the "encomienda" and "repartamiento" by leaving their communities. Some looked for wage labor; others signed contracts ("asientos") for six months to a year, during which time the worker was required to be paid a salary (something the Spanish Crown did not enforce or support), and provided living quarters as well as religious services. There were many cases in which both wage and "repartimiento" laborers worked side-by-side on farms, mines, "obrajes" or haciendas.

References

ee also

*Cargo system
*Encomienda
*Reductions
*Jesuit Reductions