"Methodically researched study examines the activities of the state, which depended on highly labor-intensive coffee production and export, in the proletarianization of the indigenous population. Peasants practicing subsistence agriculture and minifundistas lost their land or access to land and...

The article tries to answer an old question of economic theory and institutional economics: How do trade unions fit into a market economy? Are they a constitutive element of the market order or: are they a source of irritation and disruption?