Peasants or proletarians? Rural labour in a Brazilian plantation economy

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Abstract
Consideration is given to three categories of labour employed on sugar plantations in Northeast Brazil. In the case study, particular attention is paid to the role of the wage in the reproduction of plantation labour and it is argued that, in this respect, tenant labourers have more in common with itinerant wage workers than with peasant smallholders. Contrary to some suggestions, there is no indication that for these plantations it is either cheaper or more efficient to exploit ‘peasant’ rather than ‘proletarian’ labour. These findings carry implications about the nature of labour exploitation in ‘peripheral regions’.

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