Encomienda, the colonial state, and long-run development in Colombia

• Department of Economics
• Department of History
• Department of Law
• Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies
• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences
• Florence School of Transnational Governance
• Central Coordination Unit
• Inequality, Welfare and Social Justice

This event, co-organised by the Inequality, Welfare, and Social Justice interdisciplinary research cluster and the Political Economy working group, will explore the long-term effects of Spanish encomiendas in Colombia.

The Spanish encomienda, a colonial forced-labour institution that lasted three centuries, killed many indigenous people and caused others to flee into nomadism. What were its long-term effects?

At this event, a great deal of historical digitised data from the mid-1500s onwards will be presented and the opportunity to reconstruct the Spanish conquerors' least-cost path through Colombia will be explored. It will also be shown that Colombian municipalities with encomiendas in 1560 enjoy better outcomes today across multiple dimensions of development than those without: higher municipal GDP per capita, tax receipts, and educational attainment; lower infant mortality, poverty, and unsatisfied basic needs; larger populations; and superior fiscal performance and bureaucratic efficiency, but also higher inequality. Why? A mediation exercise using data on local institutions, populations and racial composition in 1794 shows that encomiendas affected development primarily by helping build the local state. Deep historical evidence fleshes out how encomenderos founded local institutions early on in places where they settled. Places lacking encomiendas also lacked local states for 3-4 centuries. These institutions mobilised public investment in ways that doubtless suited encomenderos, but, over time, spurred greater economic and human development.

The research to be presented at this event is the joint work of Jean-Paul Faguet, Camilo Matajira and Fabio Sánchez.