Pre-Hispanic agriculture in a Chilean
wheat field, 1940. The picture illustrates some of Chile's two most important agriculture products cattle farming and wheat. At the time of the arrival of the first Spaniards to Chile the largest indigenous population concentration was in the area spanning from
Itata River to
Chiloé Archipelago. In this area indigenous groups practised
glade agriculture among the forests. The forests provided
firewood, fibre and allowed the production of planks. Tools are known to have been relatively simple. In addition the Mapuche and Huilliche economy was complemented with
chilihueque raising, fishing, collection of shellfish and algae. Beyond subsistence the 16th century economy of Chile was oriented towards large-scale production. Spanish colonizers used large amounts of indigenous labour following the slave labour system used in the
sugar cane plantations of the
Mediterranean islands and
Macaronesia. This system of labour successively killed the production base leading to the imposition of the
encomienda system by the Spanish Crown in order to prevent excesses. In Chile Spanish settlers managed to continue to exploit indigenous labour under slave like conditions despite the implementation of the encomienda. Rich Spanish settlers had over time to face opposition to their mode of production by
Jesuits, Spanish officials and indigenous
Mapuches. were
destroyed by 1604. The initial Spanish settlers of
Chiloé Archipelago (conquered in 1567 After those dramatic years the colony of Chile became concentrated in the
central valley which became increasingly populated, explored and economically exploited. Following a tendency common in the whole
Spanish America haciendas were formed as the economy moved away from mining and into agriculture and husbandry. In the 17th century economy of the
Viceroyalty of Peru, Chile's husbandry and agriculture based economy had a peripheral role, contrasting to ore-rich districts like
Potosí and the wealthy city of
Lima. Husbandry products made up the bulk of Chilean exports to the rest of the viceroyalty. These products included
suet,
charqui and
leather. This trade made Chilean historian
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna label the 17th century the
century of suet (Spanish: Siglo del sebo). Other products exported included dry fruits, mules, wines and minor amounts of copper. To deal with the poor and landless population a policy of founding cities and granting lands in their surroundings was implemented. Settling as a farmer in the outskirts of old cities (
La Serena,
Valparaíso,
Santiago and
Concepción) was overall more popular than joining a new city since it secured a larger consumer market for agricultural products. Chilean
haciendas (
latifundia) engaged little in the supply of Chilean cities but focused on international exports for revenues. Chile begun exporting cereals to
Peru in 1687 when Peru was struck by both
an earthquake and a
stem rust epidemic. Chilean soil and climatic conditions were better for cereal production than those of Peru and Chilean wheat was cheaper and of better quality than Peruvian wheat. According to historians
Villalobos et al. the 1687 events were only the detonant factor for exports to start. The 1687 Peru earthquake also ended a Peruvian wine-boom as the earthquake destroyed
wine cellars and mud containers used for wine storage. The gradual decline of Peruvian wine even caused Peru to import some wine from Chile as it happened in 1795 when Lima imported 5.000 troves (Spanish:
botijas) from
Concepción in southern Chile. This particular export showed the emergence of Chile relative to Peru as a wine-making region. The
Chilean silver rush that developed from 1830s onward led a significant impact in agriculture as rich miners invested in the agriculture sector.
German immigrants that arrived from 1850 to 1875 pioneered the use of
wage labour in agriculture. In the 19th century, access to the
Californian and
Australian markets made wheat export a very lucrative activity. In the mid 19th century, these countries experienced large
gold rushes which created a large demand for wheat. Chile was at the time the "only wheat producer of some importance in the Pacific". At the same time as the wheat cycle new irrigation canals were built and
apiculture and some machines introduced into Chilean agriculture. Apart from that, new markets were explored for Chilean agricultural products. The "cycle" came to an end in the late 1870s due to the increased technification of
agriculture in the United States and Argentina plus the competition of
Russia and
Canada. The end of the wheat cycle added to the already
difficult situation that Chilean economy was passing through in the 1870s. in a meeting with the main
Mapuche loncos of Araucania in 1869. With the
Occupation of the Araucanía, that culminated in the 1880s, new lands were made available for non-indigenous agriculture. Until the mid-19th century more than 80% of Chilean population remained rural working in agriculture or mining and was to a large degree self-sufficient to produce articles of consume. Starting in 1873,
Chile's economy deteriorated. In agriculture this was seen as
Chilean wheat exports were outcompeted by production in
Canada,
Russia, and
Argentina. As the victor and possessor of a new coastal territory following the
War of the Pacific, Chile benefited by gaining a lucrative territory with significant mineral income. The national treasury grew by 900 percent between 1879 and 1902, due to taxes coming from the newly acquired lands. British involvement and control of the nitrate industry rose significantly, but from 1901 to 1921 Chilean ownership increased from 15% to 51%. The growth of Chilean economy sustained in its saltpetre monopoly meant, compared to the previous growth cycle (1832–1873), that the economy became less diversified and overly dependent on a single natural resource. These imports resulted in a lowering of meat prices in Chile. Tierra del Fuego and much of
Magallanes Region did also experienced a
fast growth of the sheepherding industry since the 1880s accompanied by colonization of the sparsely populated
Patagonian grasslands. In the South-Central
Araucanía the
Chilean invasion of native
Mapuche territory caused the economy of Araucanía to change from being based on sheep and cattle herding to one based on agriculture and
wood extraction. The Mapuches' loss of land following the occupation caused severe
erosion since Mapuches continued to practice large-scale livestock herding in limited areas.
20th century The 1900–1930 period contributed some of the largest growth of agriculture in the 20th century until the 1980s. Despite this, conditions for rural workers remained harsh, with
Tancredo Pinochet denouncing the poor conditions of workers in the
hacienda of president
Juan Luis Sanfuentes during his presidency (1915–1920). McBride, a British who visited Chile in the 1930s, is reported to have been "astounded" to see haciendas with "agricultural methods that reminds of
ancient Egypt, Greece or Palestine." Starting in 1953 the growth rate of Chilean economy decreased to an annual average of 0.7% but increased to an annual average of 2.4–3.0% in the 1957–1960 period. The decline in the economic growth from 1953 was attributed by some to a neglect of agriculture. The agrarian production in Chile contracted from 1950 onwards. A government plan set up in 1954 to address this ended with meager results and in 1958 a new plan was presented. That plan allowed
CORFO to develop investments in
dairy plants,
refrigerated slaughterhouses,
sugar refineries and transport infrastructure. == See also ==