Social Networks and Elite Survival in the Toluca Valley of Mexico, 1800-1834

• In Event: Política, sociedad y desastres en México y el Caribe

Abstract

This paper analyzes social and economic strategies for economic survival employed by hacienda owners and merchants, often one and the same, in the Toluca Valley of Central Mexico between 1800 and 1834. Hacienda owners and merchants (and their extended families) were largely interrelated groups that formed the core of the local business and social elite in the Toluca region. These families had strong ties to Mexico City, yet their most important social relationships were formed with other prominent families in Toluca. Hacienda owners and merchants used family, kinship, and commercial relationships to increase their prosperity in good times and to safeguard their survival in times of peril. Their efforts were not always successful. This paper reconstructs social and commercial networks of the local landed and commercial elite by following the careers of individuals and families through notarial records, sales tax records, mortgage records, and parish records. The documentary evidence demonstrates how the landed elite attempted to use social and commercial networks as mechanisms of stability during this period of political change and economic uncertainty.

Author

• Mark Mairot, San Diego Mesa College