Commercial Circuits, Movement of Persons and Criminality in the Configuration of Political Spaces. Valle de Uco (Mendoza, Río de la Plata), in the first half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

In the present paper, we intend to observe to what extent the configuration of a political space –in this case the Valle de Uco (jurisdiction of Mendoza)– was transversed by at least two correlated factors. On one hand, the identification of a series of mercantile circuits in southern Mendoza which articulated the border areas, even beyond those not controlled by the Hispano-Creoles, with the Andean mountain passes of the zone; on the other, the “problem” of criminality in certain political and military conjunctures, that generated a remarkable mobilization of population and a more intense flow of goods, but also served as an argument to justify policies of increasing control over rural areas. In this sense, the exposition will be organized into two sections. First of all, we intend to demonstrate how mercantile circuits with a long colonial tradition were consolidated with the Revolution and acquired more visibility for the government after 1820. Secondly, we analyze how, even though the attacks against property may have increased under certain circumstances, their growing criminalization and punishment was probably boosted with the consolidation of a provincial state bureaucracy that needed to guarantee the security of public and private property in areas of mercantile traffic and livestock production.