Resiliência da diáspora e expansão do mercado de agentes ultramarinos no comércio atlântico moderno: os agentes dos mercadores judeus e cristãos-novos na rota do açúcar.

Abstract

At the beginning of the early modern period, mercantile customs became progressively standardized, universalized and enforceable in Europe and its colonies. This process facilitated the relations between merchants and their overseas agents being governed by a private mechanism based on economic incentives and the parties’ professional reputation across different marketplaces and diasporas. Although not a requisite, in transactions that involved larger amounts and lower verifiability, merchants preferred to reinforce the former with an intradiasporic reputation mechanism, in which social incentives underpinned economic ones, and information flowed at greater volume and speed. Both private mechanisms were supplemented by litigation.