An important innovation was made at this period concerning land tenure. The Ayuntamentos or municipal corporations started to rent lands, that is to give them in usufructu for the pasturing of cattle, to swine herds, for labor or as ground plots. The person receiving such a grant paid to the propios (estates or lands belonging to the city or civic corporation) six ducats annually for the first, four for the second, and two for the others. The land-surveyor, D. Luis de la Pena, resolved to give a plot of land in the radius of two leagues to the haciendas that raised black cattle, called hatos, and to the raisers of hogs, cordos or corroles (enclosures within which cattle is held). But there was such a lack of precision in determining the boundaries of the lands covered by these concessions, that one overlapped the others and caused innumerable heated lawsuits. The abuses committed by the corporation concerned in these land deals, finally caused the king to strip these bodies of the power of renting the lands. This important royal decree was according to the historian Pezuela dated 1727, according to La Torre 1729. The copper-mines of Cuba which had during the second half of the seventeenth century been totally abandoned, but had been reopened in the year 1705 under the direction of D. Sabastian de Arancibia and D. Francisco Delgado, once more disappointed those interested in that investment and yielding little profit were closed. The result was very disastrous for the men that had been employed in the mines. For when they found themselves without work, they began to lead a sort of unrestrained life, which caused unrest and disturbances. In the year 1731, the governor of Santiago de Cuba, D. Pedro Jiminez, decided to put an end to this idleness and without warning imposed upon them hard labor. This the men resented and rebelled. After considerable difficulty, the gentle exhortations of the Canonicus Morrell of Santa Cruz prevailed and succeeded in appeasing the men, who took up other work.