The regeneration and the auctions of public rents in Cartagena, 1886-1896

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to analyze the complex world of bureaucracy and public administration of Cartagena de Indias during the first years of the Regeneration predominance in the Caribbean region, cradle of Rafael Núñez, one of the main promoters of the ideological transformations that would suffer the Colombian nation in the second half of the 19th century. The sources found provide relevant information about the distribution of the auctions of public rents among some elite groups as well as the relationships and pacts that were forged around recognized personalities in local public life which had fiscal control inside and outside the administrative institutions of the port-city.

Keywords: local government, Regeneration, auctions of rents