Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T13:26:50.553Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Iron Works of Ybycui: Paraguayan Industrial Development in the Mid-Nineteenth Century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Thomas Lyle Whigham
Thomas Lyle Whigham*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Paraguay, by the mid-nineteenth century, was alone among the South American nations in its policy of internal development and economic autonomy. Exemplifying this were the many independent efforts at modernizing the country and its economy, including the building of a railway, telegraph system, and perhaps most importantly, an iron foundry. Although many foreign advisers were hired for these projects, ultimate control and direction rested in the hands of the Paraguayans themselves.

Elsewhere throughout the continent a new British-dominated neocolonial order had taken firm root. Britain's diplomatic ventures at this time centered on the formation of alliances with such American metropolises as Lima and Buenos Aires. These compacts were built upon mutual interests in reconstructing the splintered Viceroyalties into viable political units under basically British hegemony. “The nail is driven,” wrote Foreign Secretary Canning in 1824, “Spanish America is free, and if we do not mismanage our affairs sadly, she is English.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , October 1978 , pp. 201 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to express his warmest thanks to Richard Alan White, David Sweet, H. Sanchez Quell, Jerry W. Cooney and M. Bruce Folsom for their help.

References

1 Williams, , Eric, , Capitalism and Slavery (New York, 1944), p. 132.Google Scholar

2 Ynsfran, , Max, Pablo, La expedición norteamericana contra el Paraguay (México, 1954), p. 259.Google Scholar

3 Chaves, , Cesar, Julio, El Supremo Dictador (Asunción, 1942), p. 405.Google Scholar

4 British Packet and Argentine News, #117, Buenos Aires, October 1, 1828.

5 White, , Alan, Richard, America’s First Radical Revolution: The Political Economy of Popular Paraguay (1810–1840), unpub. Ph.D. (U.C.L.A., 1976), p. 190.Google Scholar

6 For examples of the inventory of the State Store in Asunción, see Razon de las herramentas y otros efectos del Estado que ha recibido … para vender … a los precios siguientes (August 5, 1814), Archivo Nacional de Asunción (hereafter ANA)—Sección Nueva Encuademación (hereafter NE) #1880.

7 Francia y Yegros al Comandante de Villarica (August 18, 1814), ANA—Sección Historica (hereafter SH) #223.

8 López, Bando (November 15, 1850), ANA—SH #383, referring to the executions of Gregorio Tindé and José Domingo Ñaguari.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 For examples see Ratos de Recompensa (December 31, 1855), ANA—NE #2739, and for the years 1857-60 in ANA—NE #766.

12 Acosta, Pérez, Juan, F. Carlos Antonio López: Obrero Maximo, (Asunción, 1948), pp. 123–4.Google Scholar

13 For examples of transit notes and travel expense vouchers see: ANA—NE #870; for supply records and requests refer to Godwin al senor Encargado del Ramo de Guerra (year 1851), ANA—NE #2700 and #2705

14 Cuenta General … de los ingressos y datos … de las tropas de la República (February 28, 1854), ANA—NE #2086.

15 Godwin al senor Encargado del Ramo de Guerra (October 11, 1850), ANA—NE #637.

16 Pérez Acosta, pp. 49–50.

17 Ibid., p. 123 (375 pesos silver, and equal amount in paper for Godwin per semester).

18 Ibid, p. 125.

19 El Paraguayo Independiente, #113 (June 19, 1852).

20 At this point specific cost expectations and production goals were outlined to Liliedad, Pérez Acosta, pp. 126–7.

21 Ibid., pp. 128–9.

22 The first cartloads of imported iron implements had arrived at the foundry on August 26, 1853, and the necessary machinery was ready for use by November (see Pérez Acosta, pp. 129–32).

23 Ibid., p. 131.

24 For examples of different supplies obtained at this period (food, medicines, iron instruments) see Augusto Liliedad al senor Encargado del Ramo de Guerra (December 14, 1853), ANA—NE #1508; Pérez Acosta, p. 138–9.

25 Ibid., p. 135.

26 El Seminario, #40 (March 31, 1854) p. 3.

27 Prudencio Silvera a Carlos Antonio López (March 29, 1854), ANA—SH #313.

28 Pérez Acosta, pp. 100–4.

29 For a full reference to Aquino's early status see ANA—Libro de Caxa (hereafter LC) #57, p. 474.

30 Aquino y Liliedad al senor Encargado del Ramo de Guerra, ANA—SH #310.

31 Pérez Acosta, p. 178.

32 Ibid., pp. 148–50.

33 Liliedad had been censured by Aquino for maltreatment of workers; see Pérez Acosta, pp. 148–50.

34 Aquino a Carlos Antonio López (January 30, 1855), ANA—SH #315.

35 Aquino a oficial Encargado del Ramo de Guerra (March 12, 1855), ANA—NE #3167.

36 White, p. 183.

37 Notes on the canalization of the River Ibiquy between the Fábrica Nacional at Rosado, and its Junction with the River Tebiquari, W. K. Whytehead (February, 1855), ANA—SH #315.

38 Richardson to Whytehead (May, 1856?), ANA—NE #637.

39 W. K. Whytehead a Carlos Antonio López (January, 1857?), ANA—SH #312. For further information on the role of British engineers at the iron works, see, Plá, Josefina, The British in Paraguay, 1850–1870. Translated by MacDermot, Brian C. (Richmond, Richmond Publishing Company, 1976).Google Scholar

40 Trias, , Vivian, , El Paraguay de Francia El supremo a la Guerra de la Triple Alianza (Buenos Aires, 1975), p. 32.Google Scholar

41 Carlos Antonio López: Mensaje a los Representativos de la Nación (March 14, 1857), ANA—SH #322.

42 Carlos Antonio López, Mensaje a la Representación Nacional (March 14, 1854), ANA—SH #310.

43 Pérez Acosta, p. 171.

44 Ibid., p. 173.

45 Wood, , David, , “An Artificial Frontier: Brazilian Military Colonies in Southern Mato Grosso, 1850–1867,” Pacific Coast Council of Latin American Studies Proceedings, vol. 3, 1974, pp. 95–108.Google Scholar

46 Maillefer, D., “Contribuciones documentales: Informes diplomaticos de los representantes de Francia en el Uruguay (1864–1865),” Revista Histórica, XLVIII, tomo XXII, Montevideo, 1954.Google Scholar

47 Cardozo, , Efraim, , El Imperio del Brasil y El Río de la Plata (Buenos Aires, 1961), p. 57.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., pp. 529–32.

49 For iron imports (particularly for use at the railway project) for 1862, refer to ANA—LC #63 (October 15, October 19, and November 5).

50 Although the actual treaty creating the Triple Alliance between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, was not signed until May 1, 1865, the formation of the pact undoubtedly dates from this time. According to Pelham Horton Box, “Thirty years later he (Saraiva, the Brazilian envoy) was to claim that the conferences … between the Argentine and Brazilian envoys and Flores were the veritable foundations of the Triple Alliance.” See Box, , Horton, Pelham, Origins of the Paraguayan War (New York, 1930), p. 145.Google Scholar

51 In view of wartime circumstances, the Paraguayan Congress, on March 6, 1865, enacted a law giving Francisco Solano López the military rank of Marshal. See El Seminario (March 13, 1865), supplement to March 11.

52 Julian Ynsfran a … Ministro de Guerra y Marina (May 31, 1866), ANA—NE #2843.

53 El Seminario #586 (July 15, 1865).

54 Pérez Acosta, pp. 179–83.

55 El Seminario #677 (April 13, 1867).

56 Ibid., #694 (August 11, 1867).

57 Ynsfran a … López (September 30, 1868), Biblioteca Nacional de Rio De Janeiro (hereafter BNRJ), Coleçâo Rio Branco, 1–30, 14, 162, #1–3 (catalog #4867).

58 Ynsfran a… Ministro de Guerra y Marina (March 31,1868), BNRL, Coleçâo Rio Branco, 1–30, 14, 154–58 (catalog #4588), mentions maintenance for 162 prisoners, many Brazilian.

59 Pérez Acosta, p. 174.

60 Ibid., p. 193.

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid., pp. 194–196.

63 Ibid.

64 Warren, , Harris, G., “Brazil’s Paraguayan Policy, 1869–1876,” The Americas, vol. 28 (April, 1972), no. 4, pp. 388–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

65 ANA—NE #2794.

66 Mellid, García, Atilio, , Proceso a los falsificadores de la historia del Paraguay (Asunción, 1963).Google Scholar

67 There were surviving in the country only 28,000 men; women over fifteen were said to outnumber men four to one. Kolinski, , Charles, J., Independence or Death! The Story of the Paraguayan War (Gainesville, 1965), p. 198.Google Scholar