The land, the cattle, the workers... A possible reconstruction of the estancias of Jesuit reduction experience in Buenos Aires, 1740-1752

Abstract

The present work proposes to reconstruct the productive system organized by the missionaries of Jesus' Company to the south of the colonial jurisdiction of Buenos Aires, between 1740 and 1752. Though the men of the Company developed during the 18th century productive establishments in all of the River Plate regions, the detail that stands out in this case refers that the estancias and farms that are described have an active life of 12 years in the borderland, that is to say, in indigenous territory occupied by the reducciones but with a colonial not consolidated domain. The frontier spaces they are not lived permanently by the Spanish and the domination and control of the State are in the habit of being sporadic. Therefore, the experience misional transforms in a mechanism that it tries to monitor and to control, but that to exist in a territory which domain is held by other society must negotiate with same his conditions of existence. How did it affect this situation to the constitution of productive chacras and estancias? What measure did these establishments join to the network of establishments that the Company possesses in Spanish'lands? Is organization similar in the frontier area and in the area 'really' colonized?