Chilean land reform in the context of 1973 Chilean coup d'état

Peonage is any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which the victim or a laborer (peon) has little control over employment or economic conditions. A Peon (English /ˈpiːɒn/, from the Spanish peón Spanish pronunciation: [peˈon]) is anyone subject to peonage. Peon and peonage existed both the colonial period and post-colonial period of Latin America, as well as the period after the end of slavery in the United States, when "Black Codes" were passed to retain African-American freedmen as labor through other means.

In Bolivia indigenous populations were subject to the Mit'a system during the rule of the Inca and Spanish empires. Later this was replaced by a peonage known as pongaje that lasted until the mid-20th century. In Chile peonage took the local form of inquilinaje and lasted until the Chilean land reform in the 1960s. In Ecuador a similar practise was that of the huasipungos.

In historical Chilean agriculture, an inquilino was a laborer who was indebted to a landlord and allowed to establish a farm on certain portions of the landlord's property, typically in marginal lands to deter intruders. In return, the inquilino worked without salary for the landlord. These inquilinos played a crucial role in tasks such as livestock gathering (rodeo) and slaughter. In regions focused on wheat production, the responsibilities of inquilinos increased as the Chilean wheat cycle progressed from the 18th century onwards.

The inquilinaje institution, which characterized a significant part of Chilean agriculture, was abolished by the Chilean land reform during the 1960s and early 1970s. Historian Mario Góngora has conducted extensive research on the history of inquilinos. In modern Spanish, the word "inquilino" carries the same meaning as the English term "tenant".