TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alston,Lee
AU  - Mattiace,Shannan
AU  - Nonnenmacher,Tomas
TI  - Coercion, Culture and Debt Contracts: The Henequen Industry in Yucatan, Mexico, 1870-1915
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13852
PY  - 2008
Y2  - March 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13852
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13852.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Lee J. Alston
Institutions Program
Institute of Behavioral Science
Department of Economics
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO  80309-0483
Tel: 303/492-4257
Fax: 303/492 2151
E-Mail: Lee.Alston@colorado.edu

Shannan Mattiace
Department of Political Science
Allegheny College
Meadville PA 16335
E-Mail: shannan.mattiace@allegheny.edu

Tomas Nonnenmacher
Department of Economics
Allegheny College
Meadville PA 16335
E-Mail: tnonnenm@allegheny.edu
AB  - While most contemporary historians agree that the use of debt peonage as a coercive labor contract in Mexico was not widespread, scholars still concur that it was important and pervasive in Yucatan state during the henequen boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The henequen boom concurred with the long rule of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1910), under whose watch property rights were reallocated through land laws, and Mexico’s economy became much more closely tied to the United States. In the Yucatan, the accumulation of debts by peons rose as hacendados sought to attract and bond workers to match the rising U.S. demand for twine. We examine the institutional setting in which debt operated and analyze the specific functions of debt: who got it, what form it took, and why it varied across workers. We stress the formal and informal institutional contexts within which hacendados and workers negotiated contracts.
ER  -