Latifundia
The latifundia [Latin la_tifundium: la_tus, "spacious" + fundus, "farm, estate"] were great landed estates.
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2 Roman Latifundia 3 European Latifundia 4 South American Latifundia |
Greek Latifundia
The oldest attested latifundia occurred in classical Greece beginning in the 5th century BC, farmed by slave labor and producing great profits for their owners. By 323 BC, large farms were owned by leaders and priests.
Roman Latifundia
The prototypical latifundia were the Roman estates. The first latifundia were the spoils of war, confiscated from conquered peoples beginning in the early 2nd century BC. This practice started in part as way to compensate the many Romans who had lost their farms in northern Italy in the Second Punic War, when they burnt their farmlands rather than let Hannibal and his Carthaginian army live off the land.
Latifundia could be devoted to livestock (sheep and cattle) or to cultivation (primarily olives and grapes). The early latifundia were broadly owned by the Roman upper classes; by the establishment of the Roman Empire, latifundia were common throughout the western lands of the empire.
The latifundia quickly started economic consolidation as larger estates achieved greater economies of scale. Labor was inexpensive (peasants) or practically free (slave), making the estates highly profitable. Owners re-invested their profits by purchasing smaller neighboring farms, in an ancient precursor of agribusiness. By the 3rd century AD, latifundia had in fact displaced small farms as the agricultural foundation of the Roman Empire.
Such consolidation was not universally approved, as it consolidated more and more land into fewer and fewer hands, mainly Senators and the Roman emperor. Pliny the Elder argued that the latifundia had ruined Italy and would ruin the Roman provinces as well. He reported that at one point just six owners possessed half of the province of Africa.
European Latifundia
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the latifundia became the politico-cultural centers of a fragmented Europe. These latifundia were of great importance economically, and some could argue they formed the basis of the European feudal system.