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Enganche and Exports in Chiapas, Mexico: a Comparison of Plantation Labour in the Districts of Soconusco and Palenque, 1876–1911*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2007

SARAH WASHBROOK
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Abstract

This article examines the internal structure and dynamics of the coffee economy in two districts of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). In both Palenque, in the northern highlands, and Soconusco, on the Pacific coast, production was oriented to international markets, direct foreign investment was a key aspect of coffee plantation development, and workers were recruited by the payment of wage advances (enganche), which they were then expected to pay off by labouring on coffee plantations. Yet, despite these similarities, the social relations that characterised coffee production in the two districts differed considerably. This article analyses those differences by comparing and contrasting the demographic factors, processes of land privatisation and the relationship between foreign investors, the national regime and local elites that influenced the nature and purpose of debt peonage in each district.

Resumen:

Este artículo examina la estructura interna y las dinámicas de la economía del café en dos distritos del estado sureño de Chiapas, México, durante la presidencia de Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). En ambos, Palenque en las tierras altas del norte y Soconusco, en la costa del Pacífico, la producción se orientó hacia los mercados internacionales, la inversión externa directa fue un aspecto clave para el desarrollo de las plantaciones de café y los trabajadores fueron reclutados por medio del pago de salarios adelantados (enganche o habilitaciones), quienes se esperaba pagarían con trabajo en las fincas de café. Ahora bien, a pesar de estas similitudes, las relaciones sociales que caracterizaron a la producción de café en los dos distritos diferían considerablemente. Este artículo analiza estas diferencias al comparar y contrastar los factore demográficos, los procesos de privatización de la tierra y la relación entre los inversionistas foráneos, el régimen nacional y las élites locales que influyeron en la naturaleza y propósito de las habilitaciones en cada distrito.

Palabras clave: trabajo de plantación, café, Chiapas, desarrollo de exportaciones, inversión extranjera, habilitaciones, enganche, trabajadores indígenas, porfiriato en México

Resumo:

Este artigo examina a estrutura e a dinâmica interna da economia cafeeira em dois distritos do estado sulista mexicano de Chiapas durante a presidência de Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). Em Palenque, nas montanhas do norte, e em Soconusco, na costa pacífica, a produção era orientada para mercados internacionais; o investimento estrangeiro era um ponto chave do desenvolvimento de plantações de café, e trabalhadores eram recrutados com o pagamento de salários adiantados (enganche) que eles então deveriam devolver com seu trabalho nas plantações de café. Porém, não obstante essas semelhanças, as relações sociais que caracterizavam a produção cafeeira nos dois distritos eram bastante distintas. O artigo analisa essas diferenças comparando e contrastando os fatores demográficos, os processos de privatização de terras e a relação entre investidores estrangeiros, o regime nacional e as elites locais que influenciaram a natureza e propósito da servidão por dívida em cada distrito.

Palavras-chave: lavradores, café, Chiapas, desenvolvimento de exportação, investimento estrangeiro, servidão por dívida, trabalhadores indígenas, México porfiriano.

Keywords

plantation labourcoffeeChiapasexport developmentforeign investmentdebt peonageindigenous workersPorfirian Mexico
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 797 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 William Roseberry, ‘Introduction’, in William Roseberry, Lowell Gudmundson and Mario Samper Kutschbach (eds.), Coffee Society, and Power in Latin America (Baltimore, 1995), p. 2.

2 Ibid., pp. 3–6.

3 Ibid., p. 8.

4 Thomas Benjamin, A Rich Land, A Poor People: Politics and Society in Modern Chiapas (Albuquerque, 1989), p. 83.

5 Bauer, Arnold J., ‘Rural Workers in Spanish America: Problems of Peonage and Oppression’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 59, no. 1 (1979), pp. 34–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See Tom Brass, Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates (London, 1999), p. 295; and Corrigan, Philip, ‘Feudal relics or Capitalist Monuments? Notes on the Sociology of Unfree Labour’, Sociology, vol. 11, no. 3 (1977), p. 438CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Brass, Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour, p. 28.

8 Ibid., p. 182.

9 Corrigan, ‘Feudal relics or Capitalist Monuments?’, pp. 437–41.

10 Alan Knight, ‘Debt Bondage in Latin America’, in Léonie J. Archer (ed.), Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labour (London, 1988).

11 Moisés González Navarro, ‘El Trabajo Forzoso en México, 1821–1917’, Historia Mexicana, vol. 29 (1979), pp. 588–615.

12 Katz, Freidrich, ‘Labour Conditions on Haciendas in Porfirian Mexico: Some Trends and Tendencies’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 54, no. 1 (Feb 1974), pp. 1–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Alan Knight, ‘Peonage: What was it? And How was it?’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 18, no. 1 (May 1986), pp. 41–74.

14 See Harry Cross, ‘Debt peonage Reconsidered: A Case Study in Nineteenth-Century Zacatecas, Mexico’, Business History Review, vol. 53 (1979), 473–95; Ricardo Rendon Garcini, ‘Paternalism and Moral Economy on Two Tlaxcalan Haciendas in the Llanos the Apan (1857–1884)’ in, Ouij Areneel and Wil Pansters (eds.), Region, State and Capitalism (Amsterdam, 1989), pp. 37–46; and Allen Welles, Yucatan's Gilded Age: Haciendas, Henequen and International Harvester, 1860–1915 (Albuquerque, 1985), pp. 152–82.

15 Jan Rus, ‘Coffee and the Re-colonization of Highland Chiapas, Mexico, 1892–1912,’ in William Clarence-Smith and Steven Topik, (eds.), The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500–1989 (Cambridge, UK, 2003), pp. 259–68.

16 Sarah Washbrook, ‘Indígenas, exportación y enganche en el norte de Chiapas, 1876–1911’, Mesoamérica, vol. 46 (Jan–Dec. 2004), p. 1.

17 Sarah Washbrook, ‘‘Una Esclavitud Simulada’: Debt Peonage in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, 1876–1911’, Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 33, no. 3 (July 2006), p. 367.

18 María de los Angeles Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarchía tradicional y modernización porfiriana en el Soconusco, Chiapas, 1880–1910’, unpubl. Masters Thesis, CIESAS del Golfo, Xalapa, 1993, pp. 84–90, 154; and Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, geografía y estadística (Mexico City, 1895), p. 58.

19 Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, pp. 31–5.

20 Archivo General Porfirio Díaz, La Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (AGPD), Legajo XVII, expediente 14543, E. Rabasa to P. Díaz, 23 August 1892.

21 Moíses T. de la Peña, Chiapas Económico, Vol. I (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1951), pp. 62–3; Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarchía tradicional y modernización porfiriana’, p. 99.

22 Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, p. 23.

23 Carlos Helbig, El Soconusco y su zona cafetalera en Chiapas (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1964), p. 88.

24 Public Records Office (PRO), Kew, London, BT/31/34801 (86 790), ‘The Land Company of Chiapas’.

25 Manuel T. Corzo, Folleto que da ligeros apuntes geográficos y estadísticos del estado de Chiapas (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1897), p. 45; Anuario estadístico del estado de Chiapas de 1909 (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1911).

26 Between 1877 and 1910 200 requests by foreigners to buy properties in Soconusco were lodged with the federal government: María Rosa Gudiño Cejudo, ‘El Soconusco, el café y la colonización extranjera: 1875–1910,’ unpubl. Thesis for Licenciatura, ENAH, 2000, p. 114.

27 Anuario estadístico del estado de Chiapas de 1908 (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1909).

28 AGPD, Legajo XIX, expediente 17617, Ricardo de Marcía y Campos to P. Díaz, 15 November 1894. The national tariff for public land in Chiapas was 2 pesos per hectare in 1895; by contrast, in 1895 the land company was charging 45 pesos per hectare in the coffee zone of Las Chicharras in the municipality of Tapachula, although land at lower altitude cost less. See, Archivo de Poder Judicial de Soconusco, Tapachula (APJS), ‘Venta de lote a Placido Monzon por la Cia Mexicana de Terrenos y Colonización’, 1895.

29 Benjamin, A Rich Land, A Poor People.

30 Archivo Histórico de Chiapas, UNICACH, Tuxtla Gutiérrez (AHCH), Fondo de Fomento, 1907, Vol. IX, expediente 31, 27 April 1907.

31 For example, in 1912 the inhabitants of Escuintla, who had lost their ejido to the colonisation company in 1909, complained to President Madero that they had since come to depend on working as peons on the fincas of foreigners, where they were mistreated and received a miserly wage: Gudiño Cejudo, ‘El Soconusco,’ p. 152.

32 Gudiño Cejudo, ‘El Soconusco,’ pp. 152–7.

33 AGPD, Legajo XXXIII, expediente 12841, Benigno Cárdenas to P. Díaz, 26 August 1908; and AGPD, Legajo XXXIII, expediente 17807, B. Cárdenas to P. Díaz, 29 November 1908.

34 In this regard, my findings support Robert Holden's revisionist evaluation of colonisation companies in Mexico during the Porfiriato: Robert Holden, Mexico and the Survey of public Lands: the Management of Modernization, 1876–1911 (DeKalb, 1994).

35 Periódico Oficial de Chiapas, 19 August 1889 to 2 October 1890; and AHCH, Fondo Documental Fernando Castañón Gamboa (FDFCG), expediente 894, ‘Lista de fincas rústicas en Palenque’, 1897; Archivo General de Poder Judicial, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas (AGPJ), Las Casas, Ramo Civil, expediente 5084, ‘La Senora Soledad Brito promueve información de necesidad’, 1892; and AGPJ, Las Casas, Ramo Civil, expediente 5157, ‘La Senora Soledad Brito vende 20 caballerías de terreno de su hijo menor Hector Carrascosa’, 1893; AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 938, ‘Actas de compra y venta de terrenos del departamento de Palenque’, 1902.

36 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 938, ‘Actas de compra y venta de terrenos del departamento de Palenque’, 1902; and AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 1013, ‘Presidencia Municipal de Tila’, 1910.

37 Corzo, Folleto que da ligeras apuntes geográficas y estadísticas del estado de Chiapas, p. 37; Anuario estadístico del estado de Chiapas de 1909.

38 Anuario estadístico del estado de Chiapas de 1908.

39 Benjamin, A Rich Land, p. 83.

40 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 894, ‘Lista de fincas rústicas en Palenque’, 1897; and Anuario estadístico del estado de Chiapas de 1908.

41 J. L. Hermessen, ‘“Castilloa” Rubber in Chiapas (Mexico) – II’, The India Rubber World (March 1 1910), p. 214.

42 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 938, ‘Actas de compra y venta de terrenos del departamento de Palenque’, 1902.

43 AGPD, Legajo LXX, expediente 8504. P. Díaz to R. Rabasa, 12 April 1911; and AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 1026, ‘Correspondencia del Jefe Político de Palenque’, 1912.

44 Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, p. 60

45 Censo y División Territorial del Estado de Chiapas, verificados en 1910 (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1912).

46 de la Peña, Chiapas Económico, Vol. I, pp. 55, 62; and Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 107.

47 PRO, Consular reports, FO 203/184, ‘Trade report for Tapachula, 1907.’

48 Viquiera, Juan Pedro, ‘Los límites del mestizaje cultural en Chiapas,’ América Indígena, vol. 1, no. 2 (1994), pp. 279–303Google Scholar; and Aída, RosalvaCastillo, Hernández and Nigh, Ronald, ‘Global Processes and Local Identity among Mayan Coffee Growers in Chiapas, Mexico’, American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 1 (1998), pp. 136–47Google Scholar. In 1892, Emilio Rabasa reported that many Guatemalan families were crossing the border in Comitán, in response to an order given by President Díaz to grant each family 30 hectares instead of three: AGPD, Legajo XVII, expediente 14543, E. Rabasa to P. Díaz, 23 August 1892.

49 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 36.

50 Censo y División Territorial del Estado de Chiapas, verificados en 1910. Aggregate figures provided by Juan Pedro Viquiera, El Colegio de México.

51 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 106.

52 Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, p. 24.

53 Memoria del estado de Chiapas (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, 1889).

54 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 887, ‘Número de cafetales en el departamento de Palenque’, 1897; AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 894, ‘Lista de fincas rústicas en Palenque’, 1897.

55 Frederick Starr, In Indian Mexico: A Narrative of Travel and Labour (Chicago, 1908), p. 384.

56 Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Chiapas, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (AHDC), Ref. Palenque, I.C.5, 2.723 Ing. Antonio Portillo, 1903.

57 Censo y División Territorial del Estado de Chiapas, verificados en 1910. Aggregate figures provided by Juan Pedro Viquiera, El Colegio de México.

58 Ortiz Hernández calculates that at the end of the nineteenth century debt peons represented between 50 and 75 per cent of the permanent workforce on the properties of local landowning families, while labour tenants and wage labourers made up the rest: Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ pp. 78–83.

59 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ pp. 47–58; Benjamín, A Rich Land, A Poor People, p. 43.

60 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 118.

61 Ibid., p. 76.

62 Ibid., pp. 61–72, 88–92, 97, 102, 154, AGPD, Legajo XXIV, expediente 5802, A. Farrera to Diaz, 2 May 1899.

63 Between 1894 and 1907 30 properties were bought by Germans, of whom only 3 resided in Germany, see, Gudiño Cejudo, ‘El Soconusco,’ pp. 114–8.

64 PRO, Consular reports, FO 203/209, ‘Report on the trade of the consular district of Salina Cruz for 1910’; and Frederike Baumann, ‘Terratenientes,’ p. 30.

65 PRO, Consular reports, FO 204/499, ‘Report on local conditions in the department of Soconusco, 1917’; Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ pp. 108–9.

66 AGPD, Legajo XXIV, expediente 15132, Agustín Farrera to P. Díaz, 12 October 1899. The average price paid for coffee imported into the USA fell from a high of 17 cents per pound in 1892 to 6.6 cents in 1899 and did not rise to above nine cents until 1910; Mario Samper and Radin Fernando, ‘Historical Statistics of Coffee Production and Trade from 1700 to 1960,’ in William Gervase Clarence-Smith and Steven Topik (eds.), The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500–1989 (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 451–2.

67 AGPD, Legajo XXIV, expediente 2339, Memorandum que presenta al C. Presidente de la República, el Gobernador de Chiapas, Mexico City, 17 February 1899.

68 AGPD, Legajo XXVII, expediente 5679, ‘Anonymous Memorando’, 1902.

69 AHCH, Gobernación, 1910, Vol. XIV, expediente 46, 29 April 1910.

70 Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), Fondo Madero, C: 62, 1376, Club Democrático Liberal Progresista de Motozintla to F. Madero, 22 July 1912.

71 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 104; Ramón Rabasa, El estado de Chiapas, p. 59.

72 Karl Kaeger, Agricultura y colonización en Mexico en 1900 (Mexico City, 1986), pp. 88, 104.

73 Kaeger, Agricultura y Colonización en Mexico, p. 105.

74 Gudiño Cejudo, ‘El Soconusco,’ p. 117.

75 Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Biblioteca Manuel Orozco y Berra, Archivo Chiapas, Roll 9; ‘Mensaje leído por el Gobernador del estado en el Segundo período del XVI congreso del estado,’ 16 September 1890; Antonio García de León, Resistencia y Utopía: Memorial de agravios y crónica de revueltas y profecías acaecidas en la provincia de Chiapas durante los últimos 500 años de su historia, Vol. I (Mexico City, 1985), p. 190.

76 AHCH, Gobernación, 1910, Vol. XIV, expediente 46, 29 April 1910: Gloria Pedrero Nieto, ‘Las haciendas chiapanecas del departamento de Las Casas en el siglo XIX’, unpubl. Masters thesis, UNAM, Mexico City, 1998, p. 109.

77 Ortíz Hernández, ‘Oligarquía tradicional y modernización porfiriana,’ p. 104; APJS, Tapachula, expediente w/n, ‘Verbal por Ignacio Rodriguez Bojorges contra Manuel Sánchez de León y Leopoldo Salazar por cobro de pesos’, 1900.

78 Helbig, El Soconusco y su zona cafetalera, p. 90.

79 Rus, ‘Coffee and the Re-colonisation of Highland Chiapas’, p. 282.

80 Baumann, Frederike, ‘Terratenientes, campesinos y la expansión de la agricultura capitalista en Chiapas, 1896–1916’, Mesoamérica, vol. 4 (1983), pp. 32–3Google Scholar.

81 Ibid., pp. 31–2.

82 Kaerger, Agricultura y Colonización en Mexico, p. 107. Kaerger's observations are supported by evidence from the finca San Juan Las Chicharras, which in 1905 had on its books 79 workers (mozos) with debts of 8,618 pesos (an average of 109 pesos each), 102 coffee pickers (tapiscadores), the majority of whom were women, with debts totalling 1,227 pesos (an average of 12 pesos each) and 148 workers who had absconded (mozos fugos), owing the finca 7,060 pesos. Thus just under half of the 16,905 pesos invested in labour advances had to be written off as bad debt; APJS, Tapachula, expediente w/n, ‘Inventario de San Juan Chicharras’, 1905.

83 Baumann, ‘Terratenientes,’ pp. 40–3, 52.

84 Helbig, El Soconusco y su zona cafetalera, pp. 19, 93.

85 Rus, ‘Coffee and the Re-colonisation of Highland Chiapas’, pp. 276–8.

86 Ibid., pp. 279–82.

87 Ibid., pp. 280–4.

88 AGPD, Legajo XVII, expediente 17728, P. Díaz to E. Rabasa, 20 November 1892.

89 AGPD, Legajo XVII, expediente 19860, E. Rabasa to P. Díaz, 20 December 1892.

90 Daniel Cosío Villegas, Historia Moderna de México, El Porfiriato, La Vida Social (Mexico City, 1957), pp. 231–2.

91 AGPD, Legajo XIX, expediente 8554, Ausencio M Ruiz to Porfirio Díaz, 3 June 1894.

92 AGPD, Legajo XXIV, expediente 3118, anonymous telegram to P. Díaz, 1899.

93 Starr, In Indian Mexico, p. 384.

94 The Chamulas were advanced 15 to 20 pesos each and paid 10 pesos per month, see, Archivo Municipal de San Cristóbal de Las Casas (AMSCLC), Jefatura Política de Las Casas, expediente w/n, ‘Contratos’, 1909; and AMSCLC, Jefatura Política de Las Casas, expediente w/n, ‘Contrato de The Chiapas Rubber Plantation & Investment Co’, 1903.

95 AHCH, Gobernación, Vol. XI, 1909, expediente 45, 21 May 1908; AHCH, Gobernación, Vol. XI, 1909, expediente 45, 9 July 1908; AHCH, Gobernación, 1909, Vol. I, expediente 2, 4 November 1908; AHCH, Gobernación, 1909, Vol. I, expediente 2, February 11 1909; AHCH-FDFCG, ‘Presidencia Municipal de Tila’ (1910).

96 For example, in 1910 El Chival rubber plantation in Palenque employed a ‘floating contingent … of Indians of the neighbourhood,’ which varied seasonally between 100 and 150 men, each paid 75 centavos to one peso per day without rations. J. L. Hermessen, ‘“Castilloa” Rubber in Chiapas (Mexico) – II’, p. 213. According to the same source, daily rations cost approximately 50 centavos. Thus, if Chival's enganchador took half of the workers' wages in commission (AHCH, Gobernación, Vol. XI, 1909, expediente 45, 9 July 1908) each worker received approximately 3 pesos per week, which did not even cover the cost of subsistence.

97 García de León, Resistencia y Utopía, Vol. I, p. 184.

98 The memoirs of the French adventurer, Desiré Charney in Martha Poblett, Narraciones chiapanecas: viajeros extranjeros en los siglos XVI–XIX (Consejo estatal para la cultura y las artes de Chiapas: Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 1999), pp. 142–3.

99 For example, in 1874 the local priest complained to the bishop that instead of paying church dues to him, the population of Tumbalá were paying ‘tribute’ to the schoolteacher, see, AHDC, Ref. PALENQUE, IV.D.1, José Fernando Macal to the Bishop of Chiapas, November 1874.

100 AHDC, Ref. TILA, IV.D.1, Manuel G. Trujillo to the Bishop of Chiapas, August 1878.

101 In 1880, according to the local priest, the inhabitants of Tila were completely subject to their schoolteacher, Don Carmen Trujillo: AHDC, Ref. PALENQUE, IV.D.1, José Fernando Macal to the Bishop of Chiapas, November 1880.

102 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 596, ‘Comunicaciones de varias presidencias municipales’, 1880.

103 García de León, Resistencia y Utopía, Vol. I, p. 157.

104 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 865, ‘Promovido por Juan de Dios Guillén contra Sebastián, Manuel Felipe y Fernando López …’, 1895.

105 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 865, ‘Promovido por Juan de Dios Guillén contra Sebastián, Manuel Felipe y Fernando López, por abuso de autoridad, ultrajes, amenazas de incendio y destrucción de casa ajena’, 1895.

106 Cosío Villegas, História Moderna de México, La Vida Social, pp. 231–2.

107 National Archive and Records Administration (NARA), Washington DC, US Consular reports, Tapachula, Foreign Service Post Files, Volume 7, 17 July 1911. In 1910 there were 21 North Americans, 16 Germans, 11 Spaniards, 9 Guatemalans, 8 Chinese, 4 Belgians and 1 Briton in Palenque: Censo y División Territorial del Estado de Chiapas, verificados en 1910.

108 José Alejos García and Elsa Ortega Peña, El Archivo Municipal de Tumbala, Chiapas, 1920–46 (Mexico City, 1990).

109 de la Peña, Chiapas Económico, Vol. III, p. 635.

110 José Alejos García, Mosojäntel. Etnografía del discurso agrarista entre los ch'oles de Chiapas (Mexico City, 1994).

111 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 1961, ‘Correspondencia del presidente municipal de Petalcingo’, 1905); Alejos García, Mosojäntel, p. 162.

112 Alejos García, Mosojäntel, p. 185.

113 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 932, ‘Correspondencia entre presidencia municipal de Petalcingo y Jefatura de Palenque’, 1904; AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 959, ‘Correspondencia a Jefatura de Palenque’, 1905.

114 AHCH-FDFCG, ‘Correspondencia del presidente municipal de Petalcingo’, 1905.

115 Starr, In Indian Mexico, p. 384.

116 INAH, Bibilioteca Manuel Orozco y Berra, Archivo Histórico de Chiapas, Roll 11, ‘Informe del C. Gobernador del Estado a la XXIII Legislatura’, 16 September 1904.

117 AHCH-FDFCG, expediente 1026, ‘El Sr. Procurador de Justicia del Estado en nota oficial número 35’, 1912.

118 The ants' nest was a punishment spoken of by former workers on El Triunfo interviewed by José Alejos García, see, Alejos García, Mosojäntel, p. 190.

119 AHCH, Gobernación, 1910, Vol. XIV, expediente 46, 11 August 1910.

120 AHCH, Gobernación, 1910, Vol. XIV, expediente 46, 12 August 1910.

121 Brass, Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour, p. 28.

122 According to a 1905 shareholders report of The Chiapas Rubber Plantation Company, the company recovered eighty per cent of the money paid out to labour through the company store: Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Shareholders report, The Chiapas Rubber Plantation Company, 1905.

123 However, one has to be careful before concluding that wage advances functioned as a market incentive in a basically voluntarist system. The local authorities did not consistently enforce debt peonage in Soconusco after 1890; but for a fee they would aid planters in matters of labour discipline and control; in the highlands, where the state did enforce debt peonage, enganchadores used a variety of coercive mechansisms to contract workers for the coastal plantations; and, despite the possibility of running up large debts, accepting multiple wage advances or running away, workers perceived plantation labour as very hard and poorly remunerated.

124 For more on this discussion see, for example, Elizabeth Dore, Myths of Modernity: Peonage and Patriarchy in Nicaragua (Durham and London, 2006), pp. 110–48.