Probate inventories from 1820 and 1850 have been chosen in order to analyze the evolution of the capital structure of rural properties at the onset and at the end of the first wave of territorial and economic expansion. These inventories are found in sucestones, the legal procedures carried out to split the estate between the heirs of a deceased person. Only estancia inventories are used here; personal belongings, urban property, quintas, and chacras are not considered. Chapters 3 and 4 focus upon the estancias, not on their owners. Personal wealth has not been a concern here, so personal items not directly related to production – such as clothing, religious images, and musical instruments – have been excluded from those inventories. Furniture and cutlery have been retained, since they were necessary for people involved in productive activities. For unknown reasons some inventories were not complete. They have been disregarded.

The 1820 sample includes inventories from 1818 to 1822 (Tables B.I and B.2). From 382 probate records corresponding to those years, 83 inventories were collected, 66 of which were used in the first section of Chapter 3. The 1850 sample includes inventories from 1848 to 1851 (Tables B.3 and B.4). From 587 probate records corresponding to those years, 94 inventories were collected, 63 of which were used in the second section of the same chapter. These totals include all probate records, not just those with estancia inventories. Probate records with estancia inventories are only a fraction of all probate records. No attempt has been made to determine this fraction precisely. These samples were collected at random, taking 1820 and 1850 as the base years.