Abstract

DUQUE CASTRO, María Fernanda. Merchants and entrepreneurs of Bucaramanga (1857-1885): A Neo- Institutionalist Approach . hist.crit. [online]. 2005, n.29, pp.149-184. ISSN 0121-1617.

This article presents some reflections on the merchants and entrepreneurs that lived in Bucaramanga during the second half of the nineteenth century. For this purpose, in an alternating exercise of comparison and description, we consider their economic activities and family ties, which will allow us to observe the ruptures and continuities that operated in their commercial, social, and cultural practices during the period from 1857 to 1885. Likewise, recurring to certain postulates of the economic theory of neoinstitutionalism and to conceptual distinctions regarding the terms “merchant”, “entrepreneur”, and “notable family”, an analysis is done of the socio-economic organizations founded by these merchants and entrepreneur, as well as their influence in the creation of the institutional framework that ruled in Bucaramanga throughout the Federal Period.

Keywords : Merchants; entrepreneurs; notable family; family networks; neoinstitutionalism; institutional frameworks; formal institutions; informal institutions; contracts; Bucaramanga; XIX century.

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