“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Urquiza’s commercial acumen and military prowess had placed him at the center of
sovereign storms.
By virtue of his wealth and power, Urquiza had emerged as a singular figure in the
borderlands. Yet, the mechanisms he used to secure his economic and political prominence
were not unique. Rather, Urquiza had created his status through the same strategic use of
personal and political alliances as Guarch and Lemos Pinto. In short, Urquiza’s strength
flowed out of the same borderlands trading relationships stitching the region together. He
represented the potential of borderlands legalities, the cross-border relationships secured by
reputation and reciprocity, to create vast reserves of wealth and political influence that were
not explicitly bound by state borders.
Local Law and the Legalities of Cross-Border Trade
Through the careful selection of local allies, business partners and political protectors
throughout the borderlands, merchants and landowners like Guarch, Lemos Pinto and
Urquiza wove together strands of cross-border connections necessary to carry-out their
growing commercial operations. The men faced conditions of extreme instability and
violence, which constantly threatened to undermine their enterprises. Yet, beneath the
surface of intense violence and seeming anarchy in the borderlands, they forged an
alternative order adapted to the realities of cross-border factional conflicts. This order
permitted their businesses to survive and even thrive in the blurred borderlands space.
Within this framework, commercial success depended upon securing reciprocal connections
to local power networks across borders. Political power and personal prestige in turn flowed
from defending these relationships.
As the experiences of men like Guarch, Lemos Pinto and Urquiza suggest, for all of
the region’s economic dynamism, growing commercial relationships and factional
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