The farms the Spanish operated in the Americas called haciendas. Hacienda is, actually, not strictly precise expression, but it usually refers to landed estate of significant size. Some haciendas were mines, plantations of factories. Smaller holdings were called "ranchos" or "estancias" and these ones were owned almost exclusively by Spaniards and criollos. The hacienda system of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Ecuador, New Grenada and Peru was a system of large holdings. Haciendas were oriented to profit-making and trading.