`The conquerors wanted Indian labour, the crown Indian subjects, the
friars Indian souls.' Thus the importance of the natives of Mexico to
their Spanish conquerors has been described. In this book Andre Gunder
Frank examines the dramatic impact of Spanish rule on Mexican society
and agriculture, in terms of the demands of world capitalist
development. Mr Frank traces the rapid transformation of the dominant
institutions of Mexican labour organization which occurred after the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521: from a form of slavery,
which lasted until 1533, through various forms of forced labour (the
encomienda and the catequil or mica), to the establishment, after 1575,
of the hacienda, with large-scale latifundia lands worked by serf-like
ganan labour.