The objective of this article is to describe, through the sociological concept of business, the rationalities and social relations of a group of Mexican traders whose main social resource is non-compliance with the law. This resource forms part of a wider economic and political context explored in the ethnographic research conducted in the historical centre and the district of Tepito in Mexico City between 2005 and 2008. Two main lines of inquiry are involved: 1) an economic sociology of business through an ethnography and analysis of interviews carried out in Tepito with contraband traders immersed in the new market configurations generated by capitalist globalization; 2) a political sociology of business through a description of the ways in which commerce is organized in these urban districts.
