Abstract

LANA-BERASAIN, José-Miguel. Indigo, cocoa and cattle. The businesses of Esteban González de Linares in a time of change, 1784-1796. memorias [online]. 2014, n.22, pp.52-80. ISSN 1794-8886.

Abstract The aim of this work is to exploit the information contained in an isolated but dense source: the cash book of the Spanish merchant Esteban Gonzalez de Linares. Moved to Caracas between 1785 and 1791 to manage the liquidation of the estate of Sebastian de Mier y Terán, a wealthy landowner in Los Llanos, Linares was actively involved in the export boom of those years, marked by the end of the monopoly of the Guipúzcoa Company and the decrees of free trade. The text reconstructs his network of business relations and quantifies the amount of cocoa, indigo, and cattle moved by this subject, and their prices. It also proposes a methodology for the exploitation of this kind of accounting sources.

Keywords : cocoa; indigo; cattle; networks; accounting.

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