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The Repartimiento de Mercancias was a colonial labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America and the Philippines. A conquistador would take over and supervise a number of indigenous workers, who would labor at crop fields or mines, or in the Philippines in ship building of the Manila Galleons. The one in charge of doing the reparto ("distribution") of workers was the Alcalde Mayor (local magistrate) of the city. The diminution of the number of Native Americans due to European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance, as well as to desertion from the work fields, led to the substitution of the encomienda system. There were instances when both systems (repartimiento and encomienda) sometimes coexisted. Native American communities that were close to Spanish populations were required to provide a percentage of their people (2-4 %) to work in agriculture, construction of houses, streets, etc. Many were escaping the encomienda system and looking for a working wage. Others signed contracts for six months to a year, during which time the worker was required to be paid a salary (something the Spanish Crown did not enforce or support), provided living quarters as well as religious services.
Repartimiento - a system by which the Spanish crown allowed colonists to employ Indians for forced labor. The Repartimiento system replaced the encomienda system. The encomienda system ended in Mexico and Peru in the late 1500s, a century later in Venezuela, until 1791 in Chile, and until the early 1800s in Paraguay. The repartimiento system was much similar to the mita system in Mexico. The Indians were forced into low-paid or unpaid labor for a portion of each year on Spanish-owned farms, in mines and workshops, and on public projects. The repartimiento system was a form of tribute, with ties to pre-conquest Mesoamerican practices. Subscript text Source: Spodek, H. Bold textThe World's History.Bold textThird Edition. Combined Volume. pp 457-8
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