The ‘Hacienda de Londres de Anillaco’ in its passage from ‘terre matière’ to ‘terre capital’ in the colonial Tucumán (1630-1710)

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the knowledge of the colonial hacienda of the Bazán de Pedraza family from its origins as an encomienda favour, through its conversion into a land grant, to its final formation as an entailed estate. Two issues interest us especially: indigenous labour and the legal appropriation of land. Based on local documentation in the Archive of the Indies and provincial archives I have traced the evolution of an encomendero family that turned into Peruvian entrepreneurs. This case study examines the dynamic but short-lived feudal experience of seventeeth century Tucumán, describing a period when, after the so-called Guerras Calchaquíes (1629-1666) and with the refeudalization of land and of tributary indigenous labour, custom was established as a source of right, in opposition to the legalistic objectives of the Recopilación, which sought to limit both the encomienda and the entail (mayorazgo).