Redes multiculturais de investimento no Atlântico, 1580-1776: a perspectiva da praça de Amesterdão

Abstract

Traditional historiography states that the cheapest and safest path to commercial and financial transactions during the Early Modern period was through networks of family groups and religious communities. Families and congregations are postulated as efficient in controlling deviant economic behavior and in so doing contributing significantly to a decrease in transaction costs directly associated with early modern commerce and finance. This article questions this theoretical proposition through an in-depth analysis of the formation and development of cross-cultural joint ventures, networks and firms in the Atlantic during the Early Modern period. This analysis maps out a structural development that underpins the overwhelming relevance of cross-cultural networks instead of families and congregations as the key to the internationalization of trade and finance before the event of the Industrial Revolution.