Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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As The Small Farmers Are Often In Want, They Sell Their
Cotton At A Very Moderate Price.
They dispose of it even before the
harvest:
And the advances, made by rich neighbours, place the
debtor in a situation of dependence, which frequently obliges him
to offer his services as a labourer. The price of labour is cheaper
here than in France. A freeman, working as a day-labourer (peon),
is paid in the valleys of Aragua and in the llanos four or five
piastres per month, not including food, which is very cheap on
account of the abundance of meat and vegetables. I love to dwell on
these details of colonial industry, because they serve to prove to
the inhabitants of Europe, a fact which to the enlightened
inhabitants of the colonies has long ceased to be doubtful, namely,
that the continent of Spanish America can produce sugar, cotton,
and indigo by free hands, and that the unhappy slaves are capable
of becoming peasants, farmers, and landholders.
END OF VOLUME 1.
End of Equinoctial Regions of America by Alexander von Humboldt
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