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From its colonial inception, Latin America was part of the world capitalist economy, though not necessarily itself capitalist, and it was repeatedly, and sometimes unexpectedly, impacted by capitalism's relentless drive to expand and revolutionize systems and relations of production. Whole regions and populations were mobilized for commercial production, but some of these subsequently found themselves shut out of world markets, as demand or production conditions or politics resituated the colony or country in the world system.

We know, of course, that many ways of doing things and forms of behavior in modern times derive from historical experience. This holds true especially in Latin America, where the Spanish and Portuguese imposed their own social and legal institutions on their colonies, sanctioning neither leeway nor flexibility. The author's choice to write about work, not labor, broadens the book's scope considerably. Labor history, he notes, typically examines the structure of labor unions, the ideological conflicts among their leaders, and the struggle to organize and to influence politics and social policies.

Where transportation was prohibitively expensive, taxes might be levied instead in the form of "rotary" labor applied to elite or state-owned lands or for public works: men, and sometimes women, were required to work a certain number of days or weeks each year. The surplus they produced supported specialists such as court artisans, a military or priestly class, or a state bureaucracy whose job it was to work full time for the general well-being. These systems typically involved reciprocal obligations and benefits, and for the mass of the population the very act of generating the surplus reinforced their commitment to society.