Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:40:41.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE DYNAMICS AND DETERMINANTS OF SLAVE PRICES IN AN URBAN SETTING: SANTIAGO DE CHILE, c. 1773-1822*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Celia Cussen ,
Manuel Llorca-Jaña  and
Federico Droller
Celia Cussen
Affiliation:
Universidad de Chile
Manuel Llorca-Jaña
Affiliation:
Universidad de Santiago
Federico Droller
Affiliation:
Universidad de Santiago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper provides the first survey of slave prices for Santiago de Chile, c. 1773-1822. It also establishes the main determinants of slave prices during this period. We gathered and analysed over 3,800 sale operations. Our series confirm the usual inverted U-shape when prices are plotted against age, and that age was a very important determinant of slave prices. We also found that: female slaves were systematically priced over male slaves, quite contrary to what happened in most other markets; the prime age of Santiago slaves was 16-34, a younger range than for most other places; male slave prices moved in the same direction as real wages of unskilled workers; and the impact of the free womb law on market prices in 1811 was dramatic.

Keywords

slaveryslave pricesChileservantsgenderN36N76N96esclavitudprecios de esclavosChileservicio domésticogénero
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , December 2016 , pp. 449 - 477
Check for updates
Copyright
© Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper was funded by Fondecyt Project 1130585, led by Celia Cussen. The authors are very grateful for the research assistance of Francisco Vallejos, Juan Navarrete, Javiera Fernández, Fernanda Barrera, Juan Pablo Cares, Valentina Bravo, Yanny Santa Cruz and Paola Revilla, as well as to this journal’s referees and Herbert Klein.

a

Department of Historical Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Av. Capitán Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1025, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile. [email protected].

b

Department of Economics, Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Av. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, Estación Central, Santiago, Chile. [email protected], [email protected].

References

REFERENCES

Baptist, E. E. (2001): «‘Cuffy,’ ‘Fancy Maids,’ and ‘One-Eyed Men’: Rape, Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States». American Historical Review 106, pp. 1619-1650.Google Scholar
Barros Arana, F. ([1884-1902] 2000): Historia general de Chile. 16 vols. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.Google Scholar
Bergad, L. W. (1987): «Slave Prices in Cuba, 1840-1875». Hispanic American Historical Review 67 (4), pp. 631-655.Google Scholar
Bergad, L. W. (2007): The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bergad, L. W.; Iglesias García, F., and Barcia, M. C. (1995): The Cuban Slave Market, 1790-1880. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Borucki, A. (2011): «The Slave Trade to the Río de la Plata, 1777-1812: Trans-Imperial Networks and Atlantic Warfare». Colonial Latin American Review 20, pp. 81-107.Google Scholar
Borucki, A.; Eltis, D., and Wheat, D. (2015): «Atlantic History and the Slave Trade to Spanish America». The American Historical Review 120 (2), pp. 433-461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, J., Braun, M., Briones, I., Díaz, J., Luders, R., Wagner, G. (2000): Economia chilena, 1810-1995. Estadísticas históricas. Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.Google Scholar
Carmagnani, M. (1967): «Colonial Latin American Demography: Growth of Chilean Population, 1700–1830». Journal of Social History 1, pp. 179-191.Google Scholar
Carmagnani, M. (2001): Los mecanismos de la vida económica en una sociedad colonial. Chile 1680–1830. Santiago: DIBAM.Google Scholar
Carmagnani, M., and Klein, H. (1965): «Demografía histórica: la población del obispado de Santiago, 1777-1778». Boletín de la Academia Chilena de la Historia 72, pp. 57-74.Google Scholar
Cussen, C. (2015): «The Economic and Cultural Aspects of Slavery in Colonial Santiago, Chile: A Reassessment», in B. Fall, I. Phaf-Rheinberger, and A. Eckert (eds), Travail et culture dans un monde globalisé. De l’Afrique à l’Amérique latine/Work and Culture in a Global World. From Africa to Latin America. Paris and Berlin: Karthala & Re: work, pp. 145-158.Google Scholar
Cussen, C. (ed) (2009): Huellas de Africa en América: perspectivas para Chile. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.Google Scholar
De Queirós Mattoso, K. M.; Klein, H., and Engerman, S. L. (1986): «Research Notes: Trends and Patterns in the Prices of Manumitted Slaves: Bahian, 1819-1888». Slavery & Abolition 7 (1), pp. 59-67.Google Scholar
De Ramón, A. (2000): Santiago de Chile (1541-1991): historia de una sociedad urbana. Santiago: Sudamericana.Google Scholar
De Ramón, A., and Larraín, J. (1982): Orígenes de la vida económica chilena. Santiago: Centro de Estudios Públicos.Google Scholar
Eltis, D., and Richardson, D. (2004): «Prices of African Slaves Newly Arrived in the Americas, 1673-1865», in D. Eltis, F. D. Lewis, and K. L. Sokoloff (eds), Slavery in the Development of the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 181-218.Google Scholar
Encina, F. (1940-1952): Historia de Chile. Santiago: Editorial Nacimiento.Google Scholar
Feliú Cruz, G. (1942): La abolición de la esclavitud en Chile. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1994): Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., and Engerman, S. L. (1974): Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro slavery. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Cia.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., and Engerman, S. L. (eds) (1992): Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American slavery. Markets and Production. Technical Papers, Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, C. (ed) (2014): Esclavos y esclavas demandando justicia. Chile 1740-1823. Documentación judicial por carta de libertad y papel de venta. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.Google Scholar
Graham, R. (2010): Feeding the City: From Street Market to Liberal Reform in Salvador, Brazil 1780-1860. Austin, TX: University of Texas.Google Scholar
Grandin, G. (2014): The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Haenke, T. P. (1942): Descripcion del Reyno de Chile. Santiago: Nascimiento.Google Scholar
Johnson, L. L. (2011): Workshop of Revolution: Plebian Buenos Aires and the Atlantic World, 1776-1810. Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, S. (1962): «Cartas escritas durante una residencia de tres años en Chile (1811-1814)», edited and translated by J. T. Medina, Viajes relativos a Chile. 2 vols. Santiago: Fondo Historico y Bibliografico Jose Toribio Medina Vol. 1, pp. 185-307.Google Scholar
Karasch, M. C. (1987): Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro 1808-1850. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Klein, H. S., and Vinson, B III. (2008): La esclavitud africana en América Latina y el Caribe. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Kotlikoff, L. (1979): «The Structure of Slave Prices in New Orleans, 1804-1862». Economic Inquiry 17 (4), pp. 496-517.Google Scholar
Kotlikoff, L. (1992): «Quantitative Description of the New Orleans Slave Market, 1804 to 1862», in R. W. Fogel, and S. Engerman (eds), Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American slavery. Markets and Production. Technical Papers, Vol. 1 . New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 31-53.Google Scholar
Larraín., J. (1992): «Productos y precios. El caso chileno en los siglos XVII y XVIII», in L. Johnson, and E. Tandeter (eds), Economías coloniales: precios y salarios en América Latina, siglo XVIII. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, pp. 119-152.Google Scholar
Llorca-Jaña, M., and Navarrete-Montalvo, J. (2015): «The Real Wages and Living Conditions of Construction Workers in Santiago de Chile During the Later Colonial Period, 1788-1808». Investigaciones de Historia Económica-Economic History Research 11 (2), pp. 80-90.Google Scholar
Mellafe, R. (1959): La introducción de la esclavitud negra en Chile: Tráfico y rutas. Santiago: Universidad de Chile.Google Scholar
Miers, J. (1826): Travels in Chile and La Plata. London: Baldwin, Craddock and Joy.Google Scholar
Moreno Fraginals, M.; Klein, H. S., and Engerman, S. L. (1983): «The Level and Structure of Slave Prices on Cuban Plantations in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Some Comparative Perspectives». American Historical Review 88 (5), pp. 1201-1218.Google Scholar
Morgan, J. L. (2004): Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Newland, C., and San Segundo, M. J. (1996): «Human Capital and Other Determinants of the Price Life Cycle of a Slave: Peru and La Plata in the Eighteenth Century». Journal of Economic History 56 (3), pp. 694-701.Google Scholar
Phillips, B. P. (1918): American Negro Slavery: A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime. New York: Appleton and Company.Google Scholar
Pritchett, J. B., and Chamberlain, R. M. (1993): «Selection in the Market for Slaves: New Orleans, 1830-1860». Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 (2), pp. 462-473.Google Scholar
Reis, J. (1977): «The Impact of Abolitionism in Northeast Brazil: A Quantitative Approach». Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 292, pp. 107-122.Google Scholar
Romano, R. (1965): Una economía colonial: Chile en el siglo XVIII. Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria.Google Scholar
Sharp, W. F. (1975): «The Profitability of Slavery in the Colombian Chocó, 1680-1810». Hispanic American Historical Review 55 (3), pp. 468-495.Google Scholar
Slenes, R. W. (2004): «The Brazilian Internal Slave Trade, 1850-1888; regional economies, slave experience and the politics of a peculiar market», in W. Johnson (ed.), The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 325-370.Google Scholar
Versiani, F. B., and Oliveira, J. R. (2002): «Preços de Escravos em Pernambuco no Século XIX». Working Papers No. 252, October 2002, Department of Economics, University of Brasilia.Google Scholar
Zúñiga, J.-P. (2000): «‘Morena me llaman…’ Exclusión e integración de los afroamericanos en Hispanoamérica: el ejemplo de algunas regiones del antiguo virreinato del Perú (siglos XVI-XVIII)», in B. A. Queija, and A. Stella (eds), Negros, mulatos, zambaigos: derroteros africanos en los mundos ibéricos. Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos, pp. 105-122.Google Scholar