Trade and finance in a castilian town during the second half of the seventeenth century: the business activities of Juan Mateo Gutierrez in Soria

Abstract

This is a contribution to the social and economic history of Castilian towns during the second half of the seventeenth century, based on the study of the financial and commercial activities of a merchant from Soria, a city with many owners of transhumant shee and consequently an active wool market. The author pays attention to his main economic activities: wool trade; wholesale distribution of imported merchandise; credit sales of bulls to cart-drivers; short-term loans; administration of collected royal taxes, and transhumant sheeprearing, among others. Attention is also paid to the social and political profile of this merchant, and proves that, although he attained a high economic position, as it can be deduced through the analysis of the composition of the patrimony he left at his death, that he to be accepted in the local oligarchy.