The traditional historiographical demarcation established a field of analysis for the rural history of the River Plate area during the Colonial period and the beginning of the 19th century that was dissociated from urban history. This led to the analysis of rural processes from the perspective of the dichotomy between city and countryside. The article reconstructs the historiographical path that led to the deconstruction of that approach, on the basis of the study of the peri-urban rural area (a commercial productive space defined by its multiple relations with the city), paying special attention to the actors involved in the food supply to Buenos Aires. The selected chronological framework, characterized by a steady demographic and overall economic growth, but also by great political, institutional, and commercial changes makes it possible to carry out a reflection on the continuities and discontinuities in the transition from the Colonial period to the new independent order.