Comerciantes republicanos en el Suroccidente colombiano (1850-1912)

Abstract

This article draws a link between the collective action of large merchants in southwestern Colombia and republicanism. To this end, it explores the traders’ freedoms of association, credit, investment, and training. The study argues that the merchants’ agencies were fundamental to dynamize the fragile economies of the emerging republics that were inserted into the world market in the mid-nineteenth century. However, their action was regional rather than national, where they consolidated themselves as a dominant social group. In this way, the article undertakes the study of freedoms in terms of commercial activities. This aspect has been scarcely studied by historiography focused on suffrage and the emergence of public opinion as scenarios of modern freedom.