How can the study of experiences of workers in previous free-trade regimes inform scholars about the likely outcomes for labor in today's market reforms? This article explores labor during the second of four distinct periods of trade reform, that of the late eighteenth century. Tighter integration of Latin America into the world economy resulted in the enlarged demand for labor, the highest slave imports in the colonial period, a resurgence of forced labor mechanisms, and proletarianization. However, workers also influenced the expanding economy. They pressed for higher wages, resisted work discipline, and eventually contributed to the end of export expansion by attacking plantations during the Independence Wars. The article also compares the eighteenth century reforms to the current ones, explaining why unemployment is more widespread today.
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