Labor

Chronic labor shortages characterized the nineteenth century. Even though the population grew steadily, there were not enough people to satisfy the demands of the economy, and producers always complained about the lack of manpower. Even before the opening of the Pacific routes the government had been enacting legislation to force people to work. Vagrancy laws existed in different versions since 1825 when a legislative decree imposed prison sentences on vagrants.^[8] One of the first laws passed after the end of the federation imposed fines on vagrants and forced everyone to carry a document, signed by a reputable employer, that served as proof of employment.^[9] Different police regulations issued in the 1850s insisted that one of the important functions of the police was to enforce vagrancy laws.^[10] The situation worsened later as the export sector expanded faster than the labor force. Between 1821 and 1855 the annual growth rate of the population was about 1.3 percent, and between 1855 and 1878 it was 1.5 percent (see table 11). At the same time total international trade was growing at a much faster rate: its average annual growth rate for the same period was 7 percent. If one compares five-year averages to smooth out the wide fluctuations of the data, one observes an increase of 76.7 percent from the period 1854–1858 to the period 1859–1863, and of 21.6 percent from 1859–1863 to 1864–1868 (see table 10). Despite the obvious shortcomings of the trade data it seems safe to assert that trade outpaced population

growth by a wide margin. This situation created tensions between export agriculture and other economic activities such as subsistence agriculture and public works.^[11]

High demand for labor during the peak of the agricultural season forced public works to come to a halt. In 1855 the governor of Cuscatlán province explained that the lack of labor forced him to interrupt public works during the rainy season (six months), at harvest time (two months), and at the time when indigo was processed (one month). The town of Apaneca experienced a similar situation: "the lack of labor seems to stop the development of public wealth," said the 1858 census.^[12]La Gaceta complained in 1861 that agricultural activities were always wanting for laborers.^[13] The common practice of advancing money to laborers in order to secure their services did not help much. Workers often accepted the advances and later failed to show up. The problem was so widespread that the government felt compelled to send a letter to the governors asking them to enforce the law because of,

... the generalized clamor of agriculturalists and landowners due to the lack of labor that they experience in their activities, because of the frequency with which day laborers break their engagements and defraud the advance payment that they receive.^[14]

As the problem persisted, in 1861 the government imposed sentences of three to eight days' labor on public works on those laborers who did not fullfill their commitments. Those sentences replaced imprisonment, which had proved to be ineffective.^[15] The solution found by the legislators reflects their understanding of the problem. Instead of removing laborers from the field by putting them in prison, they forced them to do work. Not surprisingly vagrants were a rare sight. The wife of the British

consul observed that "there are a few beggars certainly who come regularly every Saturday for their weekly dole but they are as nothing in proportion to the population."^[16]

The practice of weekly contracts and the fact that they were seldom renewed made on-the-job training difficult. This became a greater problem after the introduction of agricultural machinery and complex agricultural techniques.^[17] Efforts to import labor failed. The government gave a concession to a Spanish citizen who promised to bring 1,000 Chinese workers, but the project was never carried out.^[18]

The relative scarcity of labor seems to have given freedom of movement to agricultural workers. The mobility of the labor force equalized wages across the country. In 1858 an agricultural worker in the town of Suchitoto earned two reales per day.^[19] The same year Ilobasco wages were reported to have been "no different than in other towns."^[20] A decree issued in 1852 to help solve the problem of scarcity of workers for public works ordered every male between fifteen and fifty years of age to work two days every year building roads. Those who wanted to avoid the indignities of manual labor could do so, for a fee. They could pay another person or pay a fine of four reales, equal to the wage rate observed in Suchitoto in 1858.^[21]

Most workers labored in agricultural activities. In fact, agricultural employment increased over time. In 1807 Gutiérrez y Ulloa recorded the occupations of the entire male labor force, 76.5 percent of which was engaged in strictly agricultural activities.^[22] Fifty years later the proportion was even higher: the 1858 census of Santa Ana province showed that 85.2 percent of the working men were engaged in agriculture. In Cuscatlán province the equivalent figure was 88.9 percent. (See tables 12 and 13.) A later census made in San Vicente province in 1878, shows

that of the 5,026 economically active men who lived in the city of San Vicente, 60 percent worked in the countryside, a very high rate for city dwellers.^[23]

Nonetheless, population growth was enough for cities to grow, for markets to develop, and for a greater division of labor to take place. In 1807 Gutiérrez y Ulloa listed only twenty different occupations, whereas in 1858 the census of Santa Ana province alone registered twice as many. At that time Santa Ana province had more masons, carpenters, tailors, and shoemakers than the whole country had in 1807.^[24] In Sonsonate, the municipal census of 1853 recorded forty different activities, ranging from lawyers to day laborers. The most common occupations for men outside agriculture were domestic service, tailoring, shoemaking, retail trade, and brickmaking. Women outside agriculture were more likely to be seamstresses or maids. The census seldom acknowledged their contributions to agriculture, but it is hard to believe that they did not play an important role working in the fields.^[25] The larger cities became relatively more sophisticated places and provided a variety of services. In 1858, Sonsonate, the closest commercial center to the growing port of Acajutla, had thirty-two retail stores, four pharmacies, eighteen grocery stores, ten carpentry shops, twenty-two cobbler shops, twelve looms, five brick ovens, and two flour mills. The relative prosperity of Sonsonate must be understood in the proper context: in the whole country there were no more than five towns of the same size. It was located in a prosperous region that produced indigo and coffee, and had the best conditions for raising cattle. However, it exemplified the beginnings of urban life in the country.

Towns were growing and with them the number of artisans and construction workers. San Salvador, which in 1839 had around 15,000 inhabitants, by 1865 had more than doubled its population. Belot reported that in that year it had approximately 35,000 inhabitants.^[26] In 1858 Santa Ana City had 20,845 inhabitants, more than San Salvador

had had twenty years earlier. It was a very tentative kind of urbanization; strong links to agriculture remained. Cities provided the types of services necessary to sustain the growth of commercial agriculture, and manufacturing activities were very basic. According to the 1858 census, 33 percent of the inhabitants of Santa Ana province lived in the city of Santa Ana, but 85.2 percent of the working men of the province worked in the countryside.

Wages in the cities and small towns were comparable to those in the fields. Domestic servants earned wages similar to those of day laborers, and presumably the occupations were interchangeable. A male servant in the town of Suchitoto in 1858 earned thirty-two reales a month plus food and shelter, not very different from the two reales per day plus food that he would have earned working in the fields. Women earned less. A cook earned between twelve and sixteen reales a month, and the maid in charge of running errands made between eight and ten reales. Skilled workers had better wages and were more urban in the sense that they were less likely to exchange their jobs for worse-paying agricultural jobs. A carpenter or a smith could expect to make twice the wage of a day laborer and about the same as a tailor or a shoemaker.^[27]

In the absence of good price series, it is impossible to make comparisons of the purchasing power of 1858 wages, but a comparison with data for the beginning of the century suggests that the diet of the Salvadoran labor force had improved. In 1807 Gutiérrez y Ulloa reported a production of 116,157 fanegas of maize to feed a population of 165,278.^[28] This means that the annual consumption per head averaged 0.703 fanegas (80.82 kgs.). In 1858 the governor of La Paz figured that each individual in his province needed five medios of maize per month and, comparing that estimate to the production of the province, he concluded that there was a surplus. The governor's estimate is equivalent to an annual consumption of 2.5 fanegas of maize per head, 3.5 times the amount of 1807. In the same year Santa Ana province produced 208,600 fanegas of maize for a population of 57,844.^[29] If all the maize was consumed in the province, the average annual consumption would have been 3.61 fanegas per head. Another indication of the abundance of maize is the fact that its price was down from 3 pesos/fanega in 1807 to an average of 1.86 pesos/fanega in 1858, a year when the expansion of international trade had already been felt. Nonetheless, the equilibrium of food consumption was somewhat precarious and consumption could vary widely year to year. In 1878 Castro estimated that in San Vincente province annual consumption of maize was 1.21 fanegas per head, more than in 1807 but less than in 1858.^[30] Sometimes natural disaster struck causing widespread hunger. In 1854, for example, there was a big earthquake and a locust plague which brought widespread famine. "This 1854

was a melancholy year for Central America" wrote the wife of the British consul, "for after the earthquake came a famine, the corn crops being destroyed by locusts that came in millions." The following year the suffering was still vivid. La Gaceta commented on "the horrors of the hunger that we were unfortunate to suffer last year."^[31]

The equilibrium was precarious indeed, but, no matter how precarious, food seems to have been on the average more available than before independence. Labor being scarce, rural workers had some leverage and their living conditions could improve. Property owners were not necessarily happy with the arrangements. In this instance the American consul was an articulate spokesman for employers when he reported that labor was unreliable "owing to the indolent habits of the people, and the almost costless means of subsistence to the lower classes."^[32] Enforcement of vagrancy laws, however, reminded everyone of the alternatives to market arrangements and wage bargaining: the power of the state could impose the rules of the game and even change them. Part of the leverage of agricultural workers was their access to land and to inexpensive food. They could always go back to their ejidos or communal lands. When the export sector gained in importance resources moved from food production to coffee production, and a fierce competition for land began.