Latifundium

A latifundium (Latin: latus, "spacious" and fundus, "farm, estate") was originally the term used by ancient Romans for great landed estates specialising in agriculture destined for sale: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, Egypt, Northwest Africa and Hispania Baetica. The latifundia were the closest approximation to industrialized agriculture in Antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery. In the modern colonial period, the word was borrowed in Portuguese latifúndios and Spanish latifundios or simply fundos for similar extensive land grants, known as fazendas (in Portuguese) or haciendas (in Spanish), in their empires. The forced recruitment of local labourers allowed by colonial law made these land grants particularly lucrative for their owners. The basis of the latifundia notably in Magna Graecia (the south of Italy including Sicilia) and Hispania was the ager publicus (state-owned land) that accumulated from the spoils of war, confiscated from conquered peoples beginning in the 3rd century BC. As much as a third of the arable land of a new province was taken for agri publici and then divided up with at least the fiction of a competitive auction for leased estates rather than outright ownership. Later in the Empire, as leases were inherited, ownership of the former common lands became established by tradition, and the leases became taxable. The estates included a villa rustica, or more or less luxurious owner's residence, and operation of the farm relied on a large number of slaves, sometimes kept in an ergastulum. The practice of establishing agricultural coloniae, especially from the early 1st century BC, as a way to reward Roman army veterans created smaller landholdings, which would then be acquired by large landowners in times of economic distress. Ownership of land, organised in the latifundia, defined the Roman Senatorial class. It was the only acceptable source of wealth for senators, though Romans of the elite class would set up their freedmen as merchant traders, and participate as silent partners in businesses from which senatores were disqualified.