The city under “titles”: from news to notary books on real estate in capital parahybana (1910-1930)

Abstract

This article proposes the use of a set of historical sources, taken as a potential enabler to identify and disclose financial practices at the outset of the twentieth century targeting the production of cities, including those peripheral ones, such as Parahyba. These practices were carried out rooted in legal and financial tools and were forged in this precise historical context. It aimed at the credit market, and among other liquid assets, involved real estate. Such instruments, as mortgage-backed bonds, loan and equity security, unfolded from public deeds among notary’s office papers, being also found printed in advertisements and news of those years newspapers. All these documents will be treated here not only by the information and empirical data they provide us but primarily because they were instruments in the process of space valuation, expressly in making Parahyba a commodity.

Keywords:
City of Parahyba; Deeds and newspapers; First Republic; Financialized practices; Space valuation