Fiadores / Guarantors (DCH)
 

No. 2025-07

English Abstract: 

This article deals with the subject of sureties in the Ibero-American context of the 16th-18th centuries. Fideiussio or Fidepromissio implied a de facto promise or a surety (juratory, deposit) in civil or criminal matters against a third party’s obligation. From the Middle Ages, a Fideiussor acted in the right of asylum for refugees and in the fictitious guardianship of a corporation. In the early modern period, the surety sparked interest in credits, insurance, wagers and was distinguished from the de facto surety or financial deals (trusts by exchange letters from confidence officers). In the Spanish America, the alhóndigas, tambos, cajas de indígenas and the caja real show how the sureties were present in banks, warehouses and fiscal chambers. In addition, the legal procedure of the Fideiussio problematized practices such as gratuitous benefit, intercession (for debts or crimes) and trust-based dealings, in contrast to the privileges of immunity and conscientious arbiters in canon and secular law. The article closes with a historiographical reflection.