Encomienda, hacienda y orden rural en el norte argentino: Jujuy 1850-1900

Abstract

This paper is aimed at studying the relationship between large rural estates (haciendas) and encomiendas in northern Argentina (Jujuy) and the establishment of order in the countryside by te State in the second half of the nineteenth century. Even though encomiendas had been abolished in Argentina by Republican legislation at the beginning of that century, an interesting and anachronistic debate developped in Jujuy on the continuity of encomienda and the rights it bestowed upon land ownership. This debate was resolved by the Federal Justice which gave to the provincial State the chance of exerting its control on vast rural areas as well as benefitting from the eventual sale of fiscal lands. The State’s policies favoured the reconstitution of haciendas and, with few exceptions, hindered the peasants’ access to land ownership.