During the post-Independence period, Buenos Aires province engaged in arepublican-authoritarian experiment in which the relations between dominantand subaltern were altered and redefined. The ascent to power of Juan Manuelde Rosas and the federalists meant an increase in the violence meted out bythe state against its political and military opponents. On the other hand,the diffusion of a market economy created the basis of contractual relationsacross a variety of social fields and institutions. This was true withregard to relations between masters and servants in the household, betweenofficers and soldiers within regiments, between rural residents and justicesof the peace, between ranchers and peons at the estancia. Though coerciondid not disappear, the power to coerce found limits because of the veryexpansion of market relations. To address these changes, in their complexityand diversity, this article uses the concept “repertoires ofcoercion”. The concept may be useful to analyze and compare relationsof power in multiple social or institutional spaces. In addition, thearticle addresses the question of the relationship between coercion andmarket culture, suggesting that in a situation of labor scarcity, and themilitary mobilization of the subaltern classes, contractualism tends topervade relations of power, even those previously based upon coercion.