The authors propose an anthropological and historical analysis of the policy of rationing cattle and different goods for the Pampas and Patagonian indigenous groups, implemented by the Argentinean governments between 1820 and 1880. This article explores how the Mapuche justified the rationing system, and its effects on power structures and interethnic relationships. The authors also discuss the historiographic antecedents that assumed a linearly relationship between malón (Indian raids) and cattle trafficking towards Chile, in order to propose the relevance of the rations for the Mapuche economy, understanding them as the governing pact which made possible the formative processes of the provinces and the national states in the pampas since Rosas' period. Documents written by the caciques, their secretaries and the Argentine and Chilean authorities during the nineteenth century will support this hypothesis.