Resumen

SANCHEZ, Hugues R.. Populate the site of free of Pedraza to obtain “utility to the agriculture, the public and the State”, Governorate of Santa Marta, Nueva Granada, 1790-1794. Am. Lat. Hist. Econ [online]. 2019, vol.26, n.3, e999.  Epub 06-Sep-2019. ISSN 2007-3496.  https://doi.org/10.18232/alhe.999.

From a process in the General Archive of the Nation of Colombia, regarding the destruction of Pedraza’s place, this paper portraits the evidence of the existence of a policy drawn from Madrid and materialized in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, which promoted the insertion of the population who, supposedly, lived in a licentious manner of Magdalena River, aiming to turn them into farmers or colonists who should produced grain and meat to supplied the city of Cartagena; this variety of initiatives fits in to historical phenomenon called enlightened agrarian population. Likewise, it explains in detail the struggles faced by Josef Torregosa, war captain, who was in charge for the foundation of the settlement and it shows the emergence of an illustrated language that endorsed the initiatives of officials with conceptual innovations, looking for strengthening town’s foundation and agrarian production.

Palabras llave : agrarian population; physiocracy; agricultural productivity.