Bienes preciosos para el intercambio colonial: estudio histórico de las cartas de trueque en Cuenca 1775-1825

Abstract

Barter is an antique commercial activity, which arises from the need to acquire a good or service through a deal in which two parties agree to grant a good or service to another person in exchange for an equivalent good or service. Hence, it has not been disconnected from the economic systems of the populations and various topics throughout history have rethought about the significance and validity of this type of exchange. Over time, social and economic relations become more complex and, on the one hand, currency appears as a good of a certain generalized and accepted worth; while, on the other hand, the predominance of writing, which, since its invention, has come to be an element of power that makes it possible to legitimize economic, judicial or administrative activities. Throughout the colonial period in the city of Cuenca barter letters were drawn up, which were intended to ensure that the agreements regarding the exchange of goods from the barter and exchange of goods are fulfilled. Hence, this study pretends to enter from economic history to the relevance of the characteristics that barter letters present during the years 1775 - 1825. For this purpose, we will use the historical method, from documentary observation as the focal research technique. That will provide us a full approach to these documents, to analyze the actors who participate in the barter, to know the goods that were traded and describe the conditions that this type of exchange entailed. With which we get to analyze the incidence of barter inside the social and economic dynamics of the city. Because it is a legal activity, that permits to conceive a form of acquisition of goods different of the monetary methods.