Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by Raquel Gil Montero

How did labor relations evolve in colonial Hispanic America, and what factors contributed to the increased coercion in the seventeenth century?

Hypothesizing that the scarcity of labor, caused by a demographic debacle, the disintegration of indigenous society, and the diversification of the colonial economy, led to a rise in coercion in labor relations during the seventeenth century. To investigate this, The lecture will focus on the transformation of old forms of organization and the emergence of new coercive configurations, particularly the "servicio personal" (personal service) and its variations in the Viceroyalty of Peru (present-day Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Ecuador).