ABSTRACT
Every year Peruvian agriculture experiences a phenomenon of singular importance: when the dry season comes, thousands of poor peasants from the highlands flock down to the coastal valleys where they remain for varying periods of time, usually until work becomes scarce or the rainy season begins again in their home communities. The existence of a large body of peasants made up primarily of seasonal migrants, who year after year continue to be casual workers, can be properly understood only by analysing the historical development of the capitalist sector of agriculture and the formation of its own labour. In the distant past, the two regions complemented each other vertically, which allowed harmonious development and made it possible to meet the basic needs of their inhabitants. Thus, far from diminishing the major seasonal movements between the active areas and units on the coast and the backward ones in the highlands, have increased considerably.
