The present article examines the life story and social networks of a Portuguese-Spanish subject, don Manuel Cipriano de Melo, who crossed borders and switched allegiances multiple times in his life, to illuminate the interaction between trans-imperial networks, local groups and imperial dynamics in the late colonial period. Melo's life story shows how local groups manipulated trans-imperial networks to improve their status within the empire; moreover, it provides a unique opportunity for examining the role of trans-imperial dynamics in commercial peripheral areas of empire. In order to reconstruct Cipriano de Melo's trajectory, I cross-referenced sources deposited in archives in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and the United States.
social networks; contraband; commerce; Atlantic world; colonial Rio de la Plata.