BONDED LABOR, COERCION AND CAPlTALlST DEVELOPMENT IN PERÚ

One of the most peculiar phenomena of the social and economic history of Latin America is the unequal, complex and slow development of the labor marketl. The pattern of primitive accumulation which occurred in diverse regions of Europe and which sparked off the proletarianization of the peasants was not the case in every region of the continent mentioned. In numerous zones, the expansion of capitalism, especially since the 19th century, did not imply the immediate expropriation of peasant production means- land and animals. On the contrary, capitalist penetration implied the reproduction of pre-existing indigenous institutions. These peasant institutions served as a reserve of labor. However, the recruitment of workers was extremely difficult. From the end of the 19th century, and throughout the first half of the present century, labor scarcity has been the main problem underlying the process of capitalist expansion. The dynamics of labor market formation contradicts Lewis ' (1954) theoretical approach. He argued that the traditional rural sector had an unlimited supply of workers, available for the modern sector. Historical evidence has demonstrated that in Perú (Scott 1976)