Rise of Free Wage Labor in Latin America The demographic collapse and resettling of Native Americans left land vacant at a time when agricultural producers were in demand in urban areas. Europeans settled on these lands and maintained them. Many of these settlers received composiciones from the crown to give them title to the fertile land they worked. Haciendas, developed in a patchwork of properties developed in the early seventeenth century. Due to the competition for labor from mining centers, obrajes, and sugar industry, hacienda owners paid laborers with food staples, small plots of land or commodities rather than cash because there was little money or bullion in the countries. Employers started to extend credit to
