Concertaje was a forced labor system in Ecuador from the 17th century through the early 20th century. Under this system, landowners used unpaid debts of Indigenous workers, conciertos,[1] to lock them into contracts as indentured servants on their haciendas. Breach of such contracts could result in imprisonment.[2] The abolition of slavery in 1851 did not guarantee meaningful power to the newly freed, and they were still exploited and unfree under concertaje.[3] The practice drove rural agriculture in Ecuador, garnering support among organizations like the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura.[4] Liberals in Ecuador, such as author Luis A. Martínez,[5][6] fought for its abolition or for the debt of conciertos to be forgiven.[7] These efforts culminated in official abolishment in 1918 under the presidency of Alfredo Baquerizo.[8][4] Nevertheless, the practice had its defenders afterward, such as Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño's Política Conservadora, whose first volume was published in 1929.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous Movements". www.yachana.org. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  2. ^ Rivadeneira, Alex (2023). "The Legacy of Concertaje in Ecuador". In Valencia Caicedo, Felipe (ed.). Roots of Underdevelopment. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 127–162. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-38723-4_5. ISBN 978-3-031-38723-4. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Antón Sánchez, John (2003). "Apuntes sobre la historia de los afrodescendientes en el Ecuador" (PDF). Cooperación Técnica BID ATN/SF-7759-EC (in Spanish). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-04. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
  4. ^ a b Henderson, Paul (1997). "Cocoa, Finance and the State in Ecuador, 1895-1925". Bulletin of Latin American Research. 16 (2): 169–186. doi:10.1111/j.1470-9856.1997.tb00049.x. ISSN 0261-3050. JSTOR 3339105.
  5. ^ Martínez, Luis A. (1904). La agricultura ecuatoriana: obra publicada con el apoyo del Supremo gobierno (in Spanish). Impr. y Litograt̃ia de Salvador R. Porras. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  6. ^ Martínez, Luis A. (1897). La agricultura del interior : causas de su atraso y modos de impulsarla por Luis A. Martínez. Quito, Ecuador : Imprenta "La Novedad". hdl:10469/16213. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  7. ^ Albornoz, César (2014). "La revolución que no redimió al indio ecuatoriano". Universidad Central del Ecuador (in Spanish).
  8. ^ Almeida, Ileana (2005). Historia del pueblo kechua. Editorial Abya Yala. p. 229. ISBN 978-9978-22-537-0.
  9. ^ Jacinto, Jijón y Caamaño. "De «Política conservadora» (Tomo I, págs. 97-209)". Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (in Spanish). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 2022-12-15.