Financing and networks in the Atlantic book trade. Shipments of Juan Leonardo Malo Manrique for New Spain (1720-1750)

Abstract

The article presents the preliminary results of an ongoing investigation on Juan Leonardo Malo Manrique, an outstanding book trader in the “Carrera de Indias” in the first half of the 18th century. This character made his fortune as a dockworker and consignee in the fleets of New Spain, later as a sponsor of Seville editions for the American market and, finally, as a book importer in México City, where he settled in 1732. Thus, the first objective is to contextualize his long professional career, determined, in part, to the Anglo-Spanish wars and the first reforms to the Castilian monopoly, increasingly weakened by foreign penetration. And later it seems interesting to look deep into its sources and financing networks, as a topic of significant importance to understand the operation of the Atlantic book trade during that period.