"A arte de governar": Redes de poder e relações familiares entre os juízes almotacés na Câmara Municipal de Rio Pardo/RS, 1811 - c.1830

Abstract

This investigation seeks to explore the dynamics of the family relations and networks involving weights and measures inspectors in the Rio Pardo City Council, from 1811 to 1830. Demarcated by the weights and measures inspectors, elite regional and municipal citizens, and by the families, the paper seeks to examine the work and strategies of these individuals in the universe of the city council and the Office of Weights and Measures, disciplining and standardizing the commercial activities, the sanitation conditions of the village, the social, economic and political affirmation of these individuals is characterized in the Rio Pardo Village, weaving networks and relations in the heart of the municipal administration’s power, which also attracted family interests and gave origin to matrimonial alliances with the clear intention to broaden the social status of specific family groups. To finalize the paper, we tried to explore a little about the competitions and backstage bickerings between the “good men” in the Rio Pardo Village, fighting for power and political status in one of the oldest and most traditional villages of Captaincy/Province of Rio Grande do São Pedro.