Between Legislation and Crime: The Case of Cattle, Spirits and Tobacco Contraband in the Province of Sonsonate in the Late colonial Period

Abstract

Smuggling has been a problem since colonial times. This crime occurred often, and was often persecuted by legal authorities in the late colonial period. In the province of Sonsonate, as in the rest of the towns in the Captaincy General of Guatemala cattle theft, sale of spirits, and clandestine tobacco plantations were the order of the day. Production and marketing these goods, on occasion, did not go according to the legal dispositions, rather, a system was set up by which taxes were evaded, and more earnings came from smuggling or illegal sale. It must be noted that, in the late colonial period, cattle raising was the main activity on ranches and plantations, and this was a problem for corn production. Cattle theft, spirits and clandestine tobacco were social phenomena. Bandits, mainly of indigenous or mulatto extraction, were dedicated to farming around the towns or cattle ranches, or working on plantations.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/rpsp.v2i0.1195