Tasa de Santillán or Rate of Santillán was a rate of indigenous labor applied in the

Captaincy General of Chile The Captaincy General of Chile (''Capitanía General de Chile'' ) or Governorate of Chile (known colloquially and unofficially as the Kingdom of Chile), was a territory of the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1817 that was, for most of its existenc ...

by Spanish

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

García Hurtado de Mendoza García or Garcia may refer to: People * García (surname) * Kings of Pamplona/Navarre ** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882 ** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970 ** García Sánchez II of Pam ...

, the first formal regulation of the system of

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

s in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Promulgated in 1558, it was the first set of laws that regulated labor relations between the Spaniards and

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

natives. Its creator was jurist Hernando de Santillán, who came with Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza to

Description

The Rate was a system for indigenous labor, that instead of making all the natives work in a

repartimiento The ''Repartimiento'' () (Spanish, "distribution, partition, or division") was a colonial labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America. In concept, it was similar to other tribute-labor systems, such as the ''mit'a'' of t ...

, determined a system whereby they took turns doing the required service. The

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

of each tribe being forced to send a man for each six men in the encomienda for the operation of the mines, and one of each five for agricultural work. This worker, who until then had not been paid a wage, had to be remunerated with the sixth part of the product of his work. The form of remuneration the native was due, called Sesmo, was regular pay every month end, the sixth part that he extracted from the mine. In addition the regulation exempted from this work women and men of under 18 and over 50 years old. It established that the encomendero was to maintain the laborers in healthy condition and in addition that they procured their quick evangelisation. The duration of the Rate of Santillán in all their integrity did not last long and the governors who replaced Mendoza abolished it almost totally. Actually, this rate allowed some Spaniards like

Pedro Avendaño Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

to greatly abuse the Indians in their encomiendas, sowing the seeds of future rebellions, especially among the

Huilliche The Huilliche , Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group of Chile. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco subgroup, the north hal ...

. In replacement of the Rate of Santillán governor

Martin Ruiz De Gamboa Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

dictated a new rate in 1580 in a new decree, it was known as the

Tasa de Gamboa Tasa de Gamboa or Rate of Gamboa was a money tax rate applied to the indigenous peoples in the Captaincy General of Chile by the Governor Martin Ruiz de Gamboa, in place of the tribute of personal service in the encomienda system, as desired by th ...

Description

See also