The Economienda

System
“WE CAME HERE TO SERVE GOD AND ALSO TO GET RICH.” 
     -BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
What was the Economienda System?

The Economienda was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the

labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided
with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military
protection and education.
When was the Economienda System
established?
The economienda was first established in Spain following the Christian conquest of
Moorish territories (the reconquista) and was applied on a much larger scale during
the Spanish colonization of the New world.
How did the Economienda System work?

The Spanish crown awarded an economienda as a grant to a particular individual, the

holders of these grants were known as the ecomendero. Following the new laws of
1542, upon the death of the ecomendero, the grant would end and was replaced by
the repartimiento.
How did the Econimienda System work?

 How was the system used?

The evonomienda system granted the ecomenderos the ability to use the indigenous
people of the New World for labor and resources theory, it did not give the grantee, or
encomendero the legal right to own land, but to use land. It also did not give the
encomenderos legal jurisdiction of the Indians, although many assumed that right.
The encomendero, in gratitude for the use of lands and labor, promised to settle down
and have a family near Spanish villa and protect the Indians. Furthermore, it was the
responsibility of the encomendero to arrange for the conversion of the natives to the
Roman Catholic faith.
What effects did the system have on the
Indigenous people?
 Most of the indigenous laborers were usually between the ages of 18-60 and were
recruited by an ecomendero who required their work for a certain period of time
 Under this system the Spaniards were to pay the indigenous people wages
however the ecomendero rarely ever held up their end of the bargain
 The ecomendero’s desire to exploit the land for agriculture ignored the communal
living arrangements of the indigenous people
 Livestock brought by the Spanish trampled their fields and destroyed the
indigenous people’s crops
 Their local processes of food production was disrupted by the intervention of the
europeans