Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1976 The olitP ical Economy of Seigneurialism: an Interpretation of the Historical Development of Rural Spanish America. Harvey Jordan Kaye Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Kaye, Harvey Jordan, "The oP litical Economy of Seigneurialism: an Interpretation of the Historical Development of Rural Spanish America." (1976). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2926. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2926 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 KAYE, Harvey Jordan, 1949- THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SEIGNEURIALISM: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SPANISH AMERICA. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Ph.D:, 1976 Sociology, general Xerox University MicrofilmsAnn , Arbor, Michigan 48106 © 1976 HARVEY JORDAN KAYE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SEIGNEURIALISM: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SPANISH AMERICA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Latin American Studies Institute by Harvey Jordan Kaye B.A., Rutgers University, 1971 M.A., University of London, 1973 May, 1976 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to the Faculty of the Latin American Studies Institute of Louisiana State University for the support they provided in the form of a Fellowship during my three years of study. In particular, I wish to thank Professor Quentin Jenkins, the Chairman of my dissertation committee, whose personal and intellectual support were critical in the creation of this work. I also wish to thank Professor Jane DeGrummond and Boyd Professor Alvin Bertrand, whose scholarly and human insights have been invaluable to the success I have had at LSU, and to the writing of this dissertation. In addition, I want to thank Professor Herman Daly for his efforts and contributions while serving on my dissertation committee. To those familiar with his writings, the ideas and work of Professor Eugene Genovese will, hopefully, be apparent in this dissertation. I have titled this work The Political Economy of Seigneurlalism in honor of his first book, The Political Economy of Slavery, in order to record my intellectual debt to him, and in appreciation of his personal encouragement. I must also thank my friend, Kevin B. Smith, for putting up with my alternating enthusiasm and despair while working on his thesis for the Master’s Degree in Sociology. Additional thanks go to my friends, Gary Stokley, Joel Lindsey and Dr. William Falk. My parents, grandparents, sister and her husband, and my wife's family have made a most important contribution to this work through their loving, familial support. To my wife, Lorna, I dedicate this work. During my studies and the writing of this dissertation she has been lover, companion, wife and typist. Hopefully, this work has liberated her from the last. Finally, that doubts persist cannot be denied, but 1 wish to record the following note of intellectual encouragement written to me by Dr. Cristobal Kay: "Some of the confusion you might have will become clarified once you advance in research, and some confusion will always remain: those you can present as future research areas." TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................... 11 Table of Contents ......................................... lv Abstract .................................................... v Introduction ............................................... 1 Chapter I A Debate and A Thesis ... 9 Chapter II Spanish Seigneurialism ........................ 33 Chapter III Colonial Development in Comparative Perspective ......................... 53 Chapter IV Spanish American Seigneurialism ............. 100 Chapter V National Development in Comparative Perspective ......................... 132 Conclusion .................................................... 210 Bibliography ............................................... 221 iv ABSTRACT The purpose of the dissertation was to analyze the development of the Spanish American societies and rural Spanish America in historical and comparative perspective. Locating the dissertation in the context of the debate over whether the Latin American societies should be defined as "pre-capitalist or capitalist?," the author reviews the dualist and development of underdevelopment theses as presented by Jacques Lan&ert and Andre Gunder Frank, respectively. And noting the critiques offered by Eugene Genovese, Ernesto Laclau and F. Stirton Weaver, the author proposes that the historical development of the Spanish American societies and rural Spanish America be analyzed in terms of the social relations of production and the class structures to which they give rise. Several chapters are then devoted to analyzing the development of rural Spanish America: historically, in the context of the respective national societies of Spanish America and the developing world economy, and comparatively, as suggested by Cristobal Kay, with Eastern Europe. The thesis of the dissertation is: That the Spanish American societies have - until recently - been characterized by the domination of pre-capitalist ruling classes and that rural Spanish America has been characterized by the persistence of pre-capitalist, predominantly seigneurial social relations of production and domination. And, that the underdevelopment characteristic of the Spanish American societies, and, in particular, rural Spanish America, has been the historical v product of that persistent seigneurial domination. Furthermore, it is argued, the participation of the Spanish American societies in the changing and expanding world economy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had the combined effect of strengthening that seigneurialism at the same time that it furthered the development of capitalism in those societies. Thus, the Spanish American societies experienced the contradiction of combined, or heterogeneous, development (i.e. the coexistent expansion of seigneurialism and capitalism) which, during the twentieth century - under the impact of the world crises - generated the populist (multi-class) alliances which have seriously challenged the pre-capitalist domination of the Spanish American societies and the persistence of seigneurialism in rural Spanish America. INTRODUCTION Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward. - Kierkegaard In 1957, the International Labor Organization published a study on the agrarian structure of Latin America.*- This study indicated that there were three main types of land tenure patterns in contemporary rural Latin America. The first type was the coranunal landholding, apparently a survival from pre-conquest society. The second type was the latifundia, a product of the conquest and colonization of America by Spain and Portugal. And the third type was the family-farm land- holding, characteristic of Europe: the result of the migrations to Latin America from