Colonial textile obrajes locked child workers inside under quota corporal punishment

Evidence

The obraje — the colonial textile workshop, producing woolen and cotton cloth for domestic and export markets — was operationally more severe. The obrajes operated under near-prison conditions, with workers (including children) locked inside the workshop buildings, working under quota systems enforced by corporal punishment. Richard Salvucci’s Textiles and Capitalism in Mexico (1987) documents the operational substance of the obraje system, including its deployment of child labor under corporal-disciplinary conditions. — , The Rod and the Child, 4966

Categorization

• XREF: The near-prison, quota-driven workshop echoes the industrial-factory labor conditions discussed in other context chapters.