Spanish institution brought to the New World to deal with the Indians, groups of whom would be assigned to an encomendero entrusted with Christianizing them, with the right to their labor in return. Such Indians remained legally free and no land title accompanied the grant. The Crown used the encomienda to consolidate its control over the indigenous peoples and profited by taxing the encomenderos according to the number of their “wards,” but attempts to prevent abuses proved futile and the New Laws of the Indies of 1542 forbade the granting of new encomiendas.
