Resumen de Accounting for Finance and Affect in Early Modern Spain

Elvira Vilches

• The ubiquitous presence of monetary calculation, financial in- struments and business methods across cultural and literary fields in early modern Spain suggest that matters of exchange and the principles of the arts of commerce penetrated all areas of society.

  These financial practices moulded the pervasiveness of credit and obligation in those episodes of human life involving truth and trust. 1 But these pillars of trade and monetary exchange also framed sentiments and feelings of obligation and intimacy.2 In this article I look at the calculation techniques and financial data con- verging in the books of account supporting the double-entry book- keeping method (hereinafter, DEB). I argue that the pervasiveness of credit and obligation in episodes of human life interlocked mer- cantile practice and affects to such an extent that DEB and banking became commonplace scenarios for obligation and intimacy in fic- tion and drama.