Latifundium

In Ancient Rome, a latifundium (pl. latifundia; from Latin: latus 'spacious' and fundus, 'farm, estate') was a great landed estate specialising in agriculture destined for sale: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, Egypt, Northwest Africa and Hispania Baetica. The latifundia were the closest approximation to industrialised agriculture in antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery.

In the modern colonial period, the word was borrowed in Portuguese (latifúndios) and Spanish (latifundios or simply fundos) for similar extensive land grants, known as fazendas (in Portuguese) or haciendas (in Spanish), in their empires.

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