ABSTRACT
Sometime between 1580 and 1589, the Augustinians built a major canal about eight kilometers in length from a point above the falls of the Lerma to the Hacienda San Nicolas. A single hacienda, San Cristobal, produced much of the wheat crop, and in a very exceptional year, 1771, it alone produced no less than 18,000 fanegas. By the eighteenth century, the shares of water of the Hacienda del Potrero had come to be expressed in terms of surcos while the other haciendas claimed a right to fractional shares of the water flowing in the canal. In 1652, the corregidor of Salvatierra and the city's regidores formally took possession of the canal of the mayorazgo in the name of the city, claiming the water was needed for houses and gardens. Apart from the parcelization of the mayorazgo estate, the small creole population of the valley was hemmed in on all sides by latifundia.
