WHAT HISTORIANS REVEAL ABOUT LABOR AND FREE-TRADE IN LATIN-AMERICA

How can the study of experiences of workers in previous free-trade reg imes inform scholars about the likely outcomes for labor in today's ma rker reforms This article explores labor during the second of four dis tinct periods of trade reform, that of the late eighteenth century. Ti ghter integration of Latin America into the world economy resulted in the enlarged demand for labor; the highest slave imports in the coloni al period a resurgence of forced labor mechanisms, and proletarianizat ion. However; workers also influenced the expanding economy They press ed for higher wages, resisted work discipline, and eventually contribu ted to the end of export expansion by attacking plantations during the Independence Wars. The article also compares the eighteenth century r eforms to the current ones, explaining why unemployment is more widesp read today.