Abstract

LACOSTE, Pablo. Hydraulic flour mills in Chile (1700-1845): social and cultural implications. Am. Lat. Hist. Econ [online]. 2018, vol.25, n.3, pp.103-132. ISSN 2007-3496.  https://doi.org/10.18232/alhe.907.

The Kingdom of Chile was the main producer of wheat in South America in the colonial period, and generated one of the largest networks of flour mills in the region, composed of hundreds of small and medium-sized establishments. This article describes and explains these mills with their social and cultural implications, from unpublished original documents of the National Archive of Santiago de Chile. It is detected that these mills promoted the development of specialized trades (millers, masons, carpenters and tilers) and, like the vineyard economies, promoted upward social mobility throughout the country. In addition, the mills functioned as focal points of sociability where ties between different subjects were strengthened, giving greater density to peasant life, and they operated as referents of rural landscapes, forming part of diversified complexes integrated with vineyards, wineries, fruit orchards, sheep and goats.

Keywords : colonialism; hydraulic flourmills; wheat economy..