Haciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajío: León 1700-1860During the eighteenth century the Bajio emerged from its frontier condition to become the pace maker of the Mexican economy. Silver mining boomed and population increased rapidly. It is the aim of this book to examine the impact of these dramatic changes on the structure of agricultural production and the pattern of rural society. In his Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico 1763 1810 (Cambridge Latin American Studies 10) Dr Grading demonstrated how