Time to Read: 8 minutes
Quick Overview
When Spanish colonizers first met yerba mate, they tried to stamp it out, then gave up and legalized it. Over roughly three centuries, from the 1500s to independence, mate went from a suspected “vice” to a legal export and a fixture of colonial society. Here is how that turnaround happened.
In this article, you'll learn:
- How the first colonizers reacted to mate
- The role of encomiendas and Jesuit reductions
- Why authorities tried to ban the drink
- How and when it was finally legalized
This is the second part of our series on the history of yerba mate. The first covered the history and origins of yerba mate, and the peoples who drank it before Europeans arrived. Here we pick up the story from the start of colonization in the 16th century to the independence of most South American countries around the turn of the 19th.
We focus on present-day Paraguay, the south of Rio Grande do Sul, and Misiones in Argentina, since that region was the main producer of yerba mate at the time.
What did the first colonizers think of yerba mate?
They were curious, then hooked. Most of what we know about mate in this period comes from diaries, official writings, and laws. The first known mention was by the Spanish conquistador Juan Francisco de Aguirre in 1536.
Europeans roamed the continent chasing gold and the legend of El Dorado. Along the way they saw how people, especially the Guarani, drank yerba mate. They tried it, liked the exotic taste and the stimulant lift, and started carrying dried, processed leaves back to their settlements. Historians place the first regular consumption in the Guaira region of what is now Paraguay. Early chronicles note the Spanish drank not only Ilex paraguariensis but also other Ilex varieties such as Ilex amara, used as an emetic.
What were encomiendas and Jesuit reductions?
They were the two systems that governed Indigenous labor and life in the region, and both shaped how mate was produced. The encomienda was a Spanish labor system established in 1538, after the conquistadores accepted there was no El Dorado to find. In theory, a landowner (the encomendero) would protect a group of Indigenous people and teach them Christianity in exchange for their labor. In practice, they were enslaved and forced to work.
One of those tasks was traveling into the Paraguayan jungle to find yerbales, wild stands of Ilex paraguariensis, and process the leaves. It was grueling, dangerous work that, by many accounts, cost countless lives. The priest Mariano Lorenzana even wrote to King Philip III asking him to end yerba production and consumption, both to “stop the vice” and to end the cruelty of enslavement at the yerbales.
Running alongside the encomiendas were the Jesuit reductions, Christian missions in Paraguay, Rio Grande do Sul, and northern Argentina. As historians describe it, these missions tried to create a “state within a state,” where Indigenous peoples, guided by the Jesuits, stayed autonomous and isolated from Spanish colonists.
Trouble started when workers entering the jungle for yerbales came into contact with people from the reductions. That contact led some who had been converted to return to their spiritual roots and rebel. In 1569, a new law barred non-converted from contact with converted, on penalty of death. Because this friction traced back to yerba mate, the drink itself came to be seen as a problem. Tellingly, as the historian Daniel Granada noted, Indigenous people often drank mate once a day or less, while the Spanish drank it constantly.
Why did the authorities try to ban yerba mate?
They blamed it for cruel working conditions, interference with the missions, and what they saw as addiction. In 1596, Governor Hernandarias issued the first decree against the era's “vices”: gambling, alcohol, and yerba mate. He burned tons of leaves in public and banned trade with other regions, with fines and imprisonment as punishment. He followed up in 1603, this time focused on improving life and working conditions for Indigenous people.
Other governors joined the crusade to curb consumption and improve conditions at the yerbales. Dozens of decrees were written, but most were simply ignored. The Jesuits pressed Governor Diego Marin de Negron to abolish the encomiendas over their deadly conditions. He did release enslaved workers, though they were then required to cultivate yerba within the reductions instead.
Into the 17th century, “vice” and “yerba mate” were still spoken in the same breath. Yet mate had already become central to Paraguayan life. According to Javier Ricca, sources record that in 1620 some 170 tons of yerba mate were consumed in Asuncion, a city of about 500 Spanish residents, an astonishing figure.
When was yerba mate legalized?
In 1630. Despite the long campaign against it, the authorities of Asuncion legalized the harvesting of yerbales and the production, export, and consumption of yerba mate. Consumption jumped, production accelerated by the end of the century, and yerba became a source of development and economic stability.
Working conditions, though, stayed brutal even as new decrees promised improvements. There was an environmental cost too: wild yerbales were overexploited, which pushed producers toward cultivated, man-made crops with controlled harvesting. By 1789, Paraguay exported roughly 2,200 tons of yerba mate, with another 250 tons produced for its nearly 100,000 inhabitants. A set of reforms in 1803 aimed to give Indigenous people land of their own, but the process stalled with the rebellion against Spain and Paraguay's independence.
What happened to mate after independence?
It stayed woven into the culture of the new nations. By the mid-19th century, one estimate held that mate drinkers made up about 25% of Peru's population, 33% of Brazil's, 50% of Bolivia's, and nearly 100% of Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
Up Next
Next we look more closely at the Guarani culture, people, and yerba mate, the roots of the tradition we still practice today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the Spanish ban yerba mate?
Yes. Starting in 1596, colonial governors issued decrees against it, even burning leaves in public, before it was legalized in 1630.
Why did they oppose it?
They tied it to the brutal conditions at the yerbales, friction with the Jesuit missions, and what they viewed as heavy overuse.
When did yerba mate become legal?
In 1630, when the authorities of Asuncion legalized its harvest, production, export, and consumption.
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