Platinum space dynamics: people and objects circulating along the Silver river basin route between 1530 and 1640

Abstract

This project aims to analyze the circulation processes of people and objects, especially goods, along the platinum routes between the 16th and 17th centuries. By platinum region, in the geo-historical sense, is meant here the colonial jurisdictions of the Provinces of Tucumã, Rio de la Plata and Paraguay, as well as the Captains of São Vicente and Rio de Janeiro. Beyond or falling short of formal territoriality and imperial boundaries, we intend to understand this space as a dynamic and constantly redesigned place according to the flows established by the political conjunctures and the interests of the most different colonial agents and subjects involved in the daily relations. Beyond to the study of routes and the materiality of roads and transportation, the project also aims to understand the commercial networks linked to these circulation and connection logics, as well as the economic, social and cultural meanings of the objects and goods exchanged. As a result, besides the academic production resulting from the investigation, systematization and analysis of the documents allocated in the research institutions referred to in the project, the aim is the structuring and dissemination of a Platinum Space Circulation and Transit Database in the 16th centuries and 17th. The internship at the University of Salamanca (USAL), under the supervision of Prof. José Manuel Santos Pérez, organizer of a database on circulation in the Ibero-American world (Brasilhis); and the brief internship period planned at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, promise to contribute enormously to the achievement of the proposed objectives, as well as to strengthen research partnerships, academic experiences and internationalization processes. (AU)