Indigo, cocoa and cattle. The Business of Esteban González de Linares in a Time of Change, 1784-1796

Abstract

The aim of this work is to exploit the information contained in an isolated but very dense source: the cash book of the Spanish merchant Esteban Gonzalez de Linares. Moved to Caracas between 1785 and 1791 to manage the liquidation of the estate of Sebastian de Mier y Terán, a wealthy landowner in Los Llanos, Linares was actively involved in the export boom of those years, marked by the end of the monopoly of the Guipuzcoa Company and the decrees of free trade. The text quantifies the amount of cocoa, indigo, and cattle moved by this subject, and their prices.