repartimiento

Repartimiento was a Spanish colonial system of forced labor, particularly in the Americas and Philippines.

Indigenous people were compelled to work for Spanish colonists for set periods—in mines, on farms, or in public works—theoretically for wages, though exploitation was rampant.

The system replaced the earlier encomienda and persisted in various forms into the nineteenth century.

The repartimiento supplied labor for the silver mines of Potosí.