This classic history of the Mexican hacienda from the colonial period through the nineteenth century has been reissued in a silver anniversary edition complete with a substantive new introduction and foreword. Eric Van Young explores 150 years of Mexico's economic and rural development, a period when one of history's great empires was trying to extract more resources from its most important colony, and when an arguably capitalist economy was both expanding and taking deeper root. The author explains the development of a regional agrarian system, centered on the landed estates of late colonial Mexico, the central economic and social institution of an overwhelmingly rural society.

Eric Van Young is professor of history at the University of California, San Diego.

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition Chapter 3 Introduction Part 4 Part I. The Human and Natural Environment Chapter 5 Chapter 1. The Guadalajara Region in Time and Space Chapter 6 Chapter 2. Demographic Change-Rural and Urban Part 7 Part II. Guadalajara as a Market: Urban Demand and Public Policy Chapter 8 Chapter 3. Meat Chapter 9 Chapter 4. Wheat Chapter 10 Chapter 5. Maize Part 11 Part III. The Flowering of the Hacienda System Chapter 12 Chapter 6. The late Colonial Hacienda-An Introduction Chapter 13 Chapter 7. Hacienda Ownership-Stability and Instability Chapter 14 Chapter 8. Hacienda Ownership-Sources of Capital Chapter 15 Chapter 9. Hacienda Ownership-Patterns and Value and Investment Chapter 16 Chapter 10. Hacienda Production-The Changing Equilibrium Chapter 17 Chapter 11. Hacienda Labor Part 18 Part IV. 'Desde Tiempo Inmemorial': Late Colonial Conflicts over Land Chapter 19 Chapter 12. Population Pressure in the Countryside Chapter 20 Chapter 13. Formation and Stability of the Hacienda Chapter 21 Chapter 14. The Clash