Lords of the Land

Lords of the Land presents the only study in English of the large, landed estates in colonial Peru. It focuses on the function of the estates and their linkages with the rest of Spanish America. Based almost exclusively on documents from archives in Rome, Madrid, and Lima (most hitherto unused), the book guides the reader through the agricultural cycles of Peru’s great ecclesiastical estates and explains how they first developed, functioned, and distributed their products. Colonial labor forms, finance, and early trade networks are carefully detailed. Painstakingly researched and gracefully articulated, this book fills a major gap in the economic and agricultural history of colonial Latin America.