Crisis in the meta shop of colonial Buenos Aires. From monopoly to free competition

Abstract

The beef in various cities of Colonial Hispanoamérica was part of the basic diet of the population. And from the conformation of the first population núcleos, their supply was mediated by the estanco, supply system monopoly, whose first objective was ensure the eficient delivery of food to the city. In this paper we try to show that the leak did not work even from the beginning, efficient manner, but had cracks, which will lead de facto first and then, as formally, since the mid-eighteenth century, the system of free competition. In fact, the meat market was part of a larger economic structure that undoubtedly influenced and was influenced by it. That is why we consider the importance of addressing, in this case from the institutional level, the characteristics of this market in a specific historical juncture. The sources with which it works is basically the Records of the Town relating to the slaughter, as well as documents of AGN.