This study aims to analyze the patron-client relationship in seaweed production systems from the perspective of embeddedness. This perspective differs from the common structural-functional approach used in analyzing the patron-client relationship in fishing, fish farming, and salt farming communities. There are two theoretical conclusions that result from the structural-functional perspective: a conclusion based on reciprocity, and the other based on dependency (exploitation). However, such conclusions fail to describe the institutionalization process of the patron-client relationship. With this in mind, this study will attempt to uncover the factors circumstances that affect the patron-client relationship through the perspective of embeddedness. This research uses a qualitative method and was conducted at two coastal locations. The selected locations are where the majority of seaweed cultivation occurs in the regency of Jeneponto, Indonesia. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with a number of informants (seaweed farmers, merchants/capital providers or patrons, leaders of joint farmer and fishermen groups, officials from the Department of Marine Fisheries, and members of the local community). Results showed that the strengthening of the patron-client relationship in seaweed production systems were deliberate acts of deliberate relationship construction built by patrons towards clients through exploration of social structure. Social structure is trust, power, networks, and social norms articulated in the form of transaction. Thus, elements of the patron-client relationship (such as resources, special/private relationships, and mutually beneficial arrangements) that were previously considered exploitative tend to be rationalized. Therefore, theoretically the institutionalization of the patron-client relationship occurs through rational transactions articulated via social structures, a phenomenon known as embeddedness.