“Otorgo que debo y me obligo”: Obligation, Contract and Honor in Credit Practices among Iberian-Creoles, Buenos Aires 1640. Juan de Tapia de Vargas, a Case Study

Abstract

This article is part of an ongoing research about notarized credit practices in Buenos Aires during the 17th century. By addressing these contractual practices some agents, as Juan de Tapia de Vargas, being salient, attract our attention and lead us to trace the strategy deployed through this credit resource. The reconstruction of the interactions established by different social actors by means of different relationalpractices, can lead us to a deeper understanding of the internal dynamics of the social structure. In other words, this approach allows us to recognize mobility tools and resources to broaden relational ties usedstrategically within the Iberean-Creole social segment, allowing us to compensate, although partially, the vacancy of studies about power relations in Río de la Plata early colonial society.