Resumen

MARTIREN, Juan Luis. Currency and Credit in a Changing Economy. Santa Fe, Argentina (1858-1883). Rev. hist. am. argent. [online]. 2021, vol.56, n.1, pp.133-172.  Epub 06-Jul-2021. ISSN 2314-1549.  http://dx.doi.org/10.48162/rev.44.004.

Between the late 1850s and the early 1880s, currency in Santa Fe province was monopolized by pieces of feeble silver minted in Bolivia. Although the so-called “Bolivian pesos” have been largely studied in the literature, there are key aspects still not fully addressed such as their heterogeneity or effects on the money supply. This paper analyzes the money supply composition and the trajectories of the current interest rates in the province of Santa Fe between 1858 and 1883. The dataset includes time series on interest rates and currency prices built from local newspapers and accounting books of local colonization companies. Preliminary results indicate that, despite its diversified intrinsic quality, the Bolivian coins allowed to expand the supply of credit by operating as a unique reserve of value for convertible banknotes and fiduciary money. This also resulted in a downward trend of interest rates (except during the crisis of 1876) until the adoption of the monetary unification in the early 1880s.

Palabras clave : currency; credit; bolivian pesos; Santa Fe.

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