28 
Introduction 
As definitely established in New Spain the encomienda system was 
marked by the reduction of the Indians to village life where their con¬ 
version and their cultural uplift might be more easily effected. In each 
village a church and a priest were required to be supported and maintained 
by the encomendero, and in those villages the Indians, at least theoretically, 
chose their own officers, though in the presence of the priest. All Indians 
between the ages of eighteen and fifty were required to make an annual 
payment in kind to the encomendero if not directly to the king, though 
money was sometimes accepted in lieu thereof. To see that the rights of 
the Indians were not infringed upon, protectors were appointed and regu¬ 
lations were passed regarding the mingling of the two races. Slavery was 
strictly forbidden. Thus from its adoption by the crown the encomienda 
system is to be regarded as benevolent since theoretically its chief pur¬ 
poses were the civilizing and converting of the natives. But though 
benevolent by intention the system was abused, and the exploitation of 
the native, rather than his protection, his uplift, or his conversion, proved 
too often to be the chief aim of the encomendero . 44 
44 Bancroft, Central America, I. 262-266; Bolton, “The Mission as a Frontier Insti¬ 
tution in the Spanish American Colonies ”, loc. cit., pp. 42-61; Bolton and Marshall, 
op. cit., p. 22; Bourne, op. cit., pp. 206-211 and 255-256; Sir Arthur Helps, The Spanish 
Conquest in America and its Relation to the History of Slavery and to Government of 
Colonies (Oppenheim ed., New York, 1900-1904), II.; Recopilación, lib. 6, tit. 1-15; Shep¬ 
herd, op. cit., p. 40; Moses, “The New Laws and the Civil War”, in Spanish Depen¬ 
dencies, I. 204-229. 
