Colonial institutions and cross-cultural trade: Repartimiento credit and indigenous production of cochineal in eighteenth-century oaxaca, Mexico
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
University System of Ohio; Ohio Wesleyan University
刊物名称：
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
ISSN/ISSBN：
0022-0507
DOI：
10.1017/S0022050705050072
发表日期：
2005
页码：
186-210
关键词：
摘要：
Colonial societies exhibit peculiar institutions frequently attributed to the unequal and exploitative nature of the relations between colonizer and colonized. Repartimiento has been depicted as a coercive system of production and consumption designed by Spaniards to draw reluctant Amerindians into the market. An examination of repartimiento through the lens of New Institutional Economics provides an alternative understanding of this credit system. Characteristics of the repartimiento most often identified as exploitative are better explained as institutional adaptations designed to facilitate contract enforcement and economize on transaction costs in this cross-cultural trade. Consequently, this peculiar colonial institution served to expand trade.