Poderosos capitalistas : práticas creditícias, dinâmicas internas e relações sociais no sul sergipano (1800-1849).

Abstract

Loans were important mechanisms of financial movement, either for the financing of production or to supply the daily material needs, playing a prominent role in a context of economic expansion, mercantile strength, and administrative and political reorganization of first 19th century Brazil. Thus, the present work explored credit practices in Sergipe in a period of significant changes, marked by population growth, economic dynamics, and political emancipation. This research takes chose Estância, continental and distributor port of Sergipe and an important economic center of the 19th century, as an observation point. The analysis concerned with characterize the agrarian space, the population, and the wealth of Estancia inhabitants; also, observed the profile of debtors and lenders, the amounts of capital involved in the transactions, the duration of loans, the weight of the executions, the geographical origin of the debtors, as well as the social relations embedded in the loans. The research also noticed how important changes in the first half of the 19th century, following the construction of the Brazilian National State, gave new contours to credit negotiations. To this end, the research used population maps, credit actions, correspondences, probate records, court documentation, laws and minutes of the imperial senate. These sources provided an overview of indebtedness and the volume of credit in the region, in addition to demonstrate the complex and changing mechanisms of its operation.