Tudo consiste em dívidas, em créditos e em contas: relações de crédito no Brasil colônia; Curitiba na primeira metade do século XVIII

Abstract

Recent historiography on colonial Brazil has destroyed several myths inherited from classic works, such as the notion of large properties functioning in an autarchic way, or the exclusively endogenous accumulation of capital. It is consensual now a days that there were internal networks of merchandise and accumulation strongly anchored in credit/debt networks. The vast majority of studies available on the theme focused the main commercial cities, Rio de Janeiro in particular. This article tries to assess how a small, peripheral place such as the village of Curitiba was integrated in such networks, from the analysis of an unexpected source: the minutes of the village ordinary judges' audiences. The predominance of processes referring to debts overdue allows us to see some aspects of the credit threads put together in the southern part of the Brazilian colony.