Concertaje

Concertaje was a forced labor system in Ecuador from the 17th century through the early 20th century. Under this system, landowners used unpaid debts of Indigenous workers, conciertos,^[1] to lock them into contracts as indentured servants on their haciendas. Breach of such contracts could result in imprisonment.^[2] The abolition of slavery in 1851 did not guarantee meaningful power to the newly freed, and they were still exploited and unfree under concertaje.^[3] The practice drove rural agriculture in Ecuador, garnering support among organizations like the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura.^[4] Liberals in Ecuador, such as author Luis A. Martínez,^[5][6] fought for its abolition or for the debt of conciertos to be forgiven.^[7] These efforts culminated in official abolishment in 1918 under the presidency of Alfredo Baquerizo.^[8][4] Nevertheless, the practice had its defenders afterward, such as Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño's Política Conservadora, whose first volume was published in 1929.^[9]