Abstract

FARBERMAN, Judith  and  SANTILLI, Daniel Víctor. Livestock capital and inequality in Santiago del Estero. An approach through “Contribución Directa” registers (1859-1876). Trab. soc. [online]. 2023, vol.24, n.40, pp.5-33.  Epub Jan 01, 2023. ISSN 1514-6871.

Through the examination of ten unpublished registers from the Taboadian period and focusing on livestock capital, this article seeks to introduce Santiago del Estero in the "map of inequality" of Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. It considers a transitional period -coinciding with the construction of the provincial state and shortly before the takeoff of capitalist agriculture and massive forest exploitation- and offers a contrasting panorama of three Santiago regions -mountain range, outskirts of the city and the Dulce River. Our analysis is developed on three levels. On the one hand, it considers the universe of t of taxpayers, which we note is underreported and we criticize through the confrontation with subsequent statistics. At this first level, inequality is noticeably lower than that of the rest of the Argentine provinces, with fairly meager livestock capitals. At the second level, the universe of taxpayers is confronted with that of potential owners, an operation that manifests inequality in its entirety: few owners with very similar capitals represented an island in a sea of completely dispossessed families. Finally, we examine the regional contrasts. Three very different images of the province in the transition with clarity: the typical peasant landscape of the Dulce wetlands -rich in sheep cattle -, the large “estancia” and the concentration of livestock capital in the sierra mountain landscape, as well as a mixed orientation in the outskirt areas, by then in full transformation.

Keywords : Santiago del Estero; direct tax; cattle raising; inequality; regions; XIX^th century.

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