THE LAND QUESTION AND COLONISATION IO3 



§ 8. Labour and agricultural contracts. 



The natural consequence of such a division of landed property is that 

 agriculture must be based on paid labour or remunerated under some 

 other form. 



In § I we have seen that the working agricultural population amounts 

 to 220,000. To these we must add the labourers without fixed occup- 

 ation (gananes), about 240,000 in all. These live as day-labourers generally 

 on the farms where they find work ; so that those employed in manual 

 agricultural labour may be computed at about 400,000 



Leaving out of consideration the small proprietors, as but a very small 

 number of them may be considered independent — for most are com- 

 pelled to hire themselves out to work for others to eke out the small returns 

 of their own ill cultivated holdings — it may be said that the rural 

 population is composed almost exclusively of labourers on '^\ ages and of 

 contract la.houreTS {inquilinos). In the northern part of the middle zone, 

 more particularly in the province of Coquimbo, where cultivation is more 

 intensive, there are, as well as' the small independent proprietors, also 

 metayers but the number of these also is Hmited. 



Let us look more closely into the characters of these two groups of 

 agricultural labourers, those in receept of wages and those working on 

 contract [inquilinos) . 



I. Day labourers. — These must be classified as ChiHans and foreigners. 

 The latter are skilled agriculturists, kitchen-gardeners, cultivators of fruit, 

 and gardeners obtained by the great proprietors, especially from Europe, 

 (vSpain, France, Switzerland). Their wages are necessarily high, excep- 

 tionally so. 



The native agricultural labourer is occupied, in intensive cultivation 

 under the guidance of an experienced agriculturist, generally a foreigner, 

 or in the ordinary work of the fields, especially at harvest time. His 

 wages are low and are paid partly in money, partly in kind. Taken 

 altogether, their amount does not exceed a maximum of 2 pesos when 

 board is not included, but it varies from district to district, and often from 

 farm to farm. 



The highest wages are paid in the provinces of Santiago and Talca. 



The wages of agricultural labourers, though they have b.een gradually 

 rising during the last ten years are, as we see, lower than in other countries. 

 This is owing to historical reasons and also to the generally low rate at 

 which labour is paid. When the Spaniards conquered the country, they 

 compelled the native population to work for them without any paj'ment 

 whatever, but their food. 



In consequence, even after the abolition of the encomiendas, wages 

 remained low, for the manners and customs of the inhabitants had 

 undergone but Uttle change. The ChiHan labourer of today is satisfied 

 with a low standard of hving, and feels no stimulus to attain socila 



