Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of hacienda, but in the 19th century became known as estancias. On the
hacienda, the rancher's men gathered the cattle into designated pastures,
called rodeos, in order to accustom them to domestication. A hacienda
might consist of several rodeos within its perimeters, each tended by one
or two cowhands whose principal task was to ride the limits of their areas
to keep the herds together. As yet, there were no fences on the Pampas.
If several head of the hacendado's cattle strayed, he could reclaim them
when all cattlemen in the vicinity rounded up their herds at branding
time. Most agricultural and cattle production was located north of the
Salado River; south of the river reigned the indigenous people.
Labor now became an important consideration, for the cattle owners
needed cowhands to watch their herds yearlong. Itinerant gauchos—
Guaraní Indians, free blacks and mulattoes, and mestizos—came to
Buenos Aires from the interior provinces. Their jobs consisted of
rounding up strays, branding and slaughtering, breaking and training
the horses, and maintaining the corrals. They were adept at lasso-
ing, horsemanship, and use of the knife and the bolas. Together, the
hacendados and the itinerant cowboys produced the sun-cured cattle
hides that increasingly entered foreign trade. Although their labor was
needed, however, the rural workers did not gain respect among the
Spaniards and Creoles of Buenos Aires.
In the final analysis, the Bourbon reforms exacerbated existing
problems. The reforms always carried additional restrictions, such as
a prohibition of direct trade with non-Spanish shippers, which merely
encouraged a continuation of extralegal commerce. Improved tax col-
lections annoyed privileged white colonists unaccustomed to paying
their proper share of taxes. So much of the economy's profits seemed
to be shipped out for the benefit of Spain rather than remaining in the
region. In addition, the arrival of Spanish-born merchants and bureau-
crats challenged the autonomy previously enjoyed by the colonial
white gentry. One might even conclude that the Bourbon reforms were
undermining the very objective they meant to impose, Spanish control
of the Río de la Plata region.
While the Bourbon reforms certainly increased the social tensions in
the Río de la Plata, they were not sufficient to begin the independence
movements. The social class most affected by the Bourbon reforms,
the Creoles, was in fact the most conservative. Even though they suf-
fered the indignities of taxes and loss of jobs to Spaniards and may
have lost control over the nonwhite workers, the Creoles still remained
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search