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Credit networks and business dynamics in a viceregal capital: Santafé de Bogotá in the age of Charles III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2024

Oscar M. Granados  and
James V. Torres
Oscar M. Granados*
Affiliation:
Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano
James V. Torres*
Affiliation:
Universidad de los Andes
*
Oscar M. Granados, Department of Economics, Finance & Commerce, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia, email: oscarm.granadose@utadeo.edu.co
James V. Torres, Department of History and Geography, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia, email: jv.torres10@uniandes.edu.co.
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Abstract

This article provides aggregate data on credit flows in Santafé de Bogotá, the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (present-day Colombia, Ecuador and western Venezuela). By perusing a thorough report submitted to Bourbon authorities on notarial transactions, which included both ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical loans in the city, the article estimates the volume and size of lending activity while exploring how distinct types of credit interacted and shaped the business milieu of the region. It argues that by the late 1770s, Catholic Church lending had ceased to be the main source of investable funds in the region, with merchants and other non-ecclesiastical investors injecting growing funds into sectors traditionally avoided by ecclesiastical lenders such as commerce, mining and manufacturing. Network analysis suggests that merchants became brokers between different credit sources, alleviating information asymmetries and opening the credit market to borrowers with collateral and institutional restrictions willing to pay higher interest rates. Finally, by focusing on New Granada, the largest gold producer of the Spanish Empire, the article identifies some distinctive credit patterns that are different from those developed in silver-driven economies such as New Spain and Peru. Thus, the article provides new paths to study Latin American financial history.

Keywords

non-bank creditCatholic ChurchmerchantsnetworksViceroyalty

JEL classification

D40: General N16: Latin America • Caribbean N26: Latin America • Caribbean N76: Latin America • Caribbean N86: Latin America • Caribbean
Type
Article
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , December 2023 , pp. 330 - 354
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Association for Banking and Financial History

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References

Sources

Archivo General de la Nación (Bogotá, Colombia). Colonial Section, Alcabalas, vol. 6.Google Scholar
Richmond Petroleum Company Notarial Catalog.Google Scholar
Bogotá Notaries. Notaría 1, vols. 181, 184 and 192.Google Scholar
Anexo III, Real hacienda Cuentas, Alcabalas and Aduanas.Google Scholar

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