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The Development of British Interests in Chile's Norte Chico in the Early Nineteenth Century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John Mayo
John Mayo*
Affiliation:
University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados
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Extract

By 1820, much of Spanish South America had achieved independence, and Spain was on the defensive in those areas where her flag still flew. Amongst the countries that gained their independence in this period was Chile, which after the battle of Maipú in April 1818, faced no further threats to its existence from Spain. For many of the new nations, the period immediately after independence was one of political instability, shading into civil war, and Chile was no exception. However, in comparison with many of its neighbors, the period of instability was short, and the physical destruction not great.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , January 2001 , pp. 363 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2001

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank the editor and her anonymous referees for cogent advice, which greatly improved the article.

References

1 See Spate, O.H.K., The Spanish Lake (Canberna: Australian National University Press, 1979)Google Scholar and Monopolists and Freebooters (London: Croom Helm, 1983), Vols. I & II of The Pacific since Magellan.

2 For a recent account of contraband on the flota, see Ward, C., Imperial Panama (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1993).Google Scholar

3 Sergio, Villabos R. El comercio y la crisis colonial (Santiago: Ediciones de la universidad de Chile, 1968), p. 125.Google Scholar

4 Arana, Diego Barros, Historia general de Chile, 16 vols. (Santiago: R. Jover, 1884–1902) VIII, p. 56 Google Scholar (piña de plata, usually plata piña was the silver end product of the ‘patio process’ before it was cast into bars).

5 Ibid., p. 57.

6 Ibid., pp. 55–56.

7 Statement of Wolleter, J.E., Kennedy, W., Ellard, I. 18 November 1808, National Library of Chile, Barros Arana Papers, vol. 25-2 (3)Google Scholar f. 379.1 owe this reference to Prof. Simon Collier.

8 Villalobos, pp. 150–157.

9 The details are in Barros Arana, op. cit., and the Statement of Wolleter et al.

10 Effectively, this decree extended the colonial comercio libre to the rest of the world. It was not, and was not intended to be, the ‘free trade’ later practised and propagated (with less success) by the British later in the nineteenth century.

11 Figueroa, Eduardo Cavieres, Comercio chileno y comerciantes ingleses 1820–1880 un ciclo de historia económica (Valparaiso: Instituto de Historia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso 1988), p. 59.Google Scholar

12 Johns, R.K., Cornish Mining Heritage (Adelaide: Department of Mines and Energy, 1986), p. 10.Google Scholar

13 For the British smelting industry, see Valenzuela, L., Tres estudios sobre el comercio y la fundación de cobre en Chile y en el mercado mundial 1830–1880 (Santiago: Librería Chile Ilustrado, 1995), pp. 17–54;Google Scholar an example of the export of technology and men, Auhl, I., The Story of the ‘Monster Mine‘ The Burra Burra Mine and its Townships (Burra Burra: Investigator Press, 1986),Google Scholar ch. 20. Chilean muleteers also played a role in the development of this Australian mine, ch. 16.

14 Rector, J.L. ‘Merchants, Trade, and Commercial Policy in Chile: 1810–1840’ (unpub. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1976), p. 251.Google Scholar The rating is based on customs statistics in Santiago and Valparaiso.

15 Ibid., p. 253.

16 Graham, Maria, Journal of a Residence in Chile during the year 1822 (London: Longman, Hurst etc., 1824 rep. 1969), pp. 130–131.Google Scholar While one accepts the sincerity of Mrs. Graham’s opinion, one wonders which ‘coast town’ in Britain she had in mind.

17 Cavieres, op. cit., p. 60; Humphreys, R.A. (ed.) British Consular Reports on the Trade and Politics of Latin America, 1824–1826 (London: Camden Third Series LXIII, 1940), pp. 95–96.Google Scholar

18 ‘Norte Chico’ is a later usage, to distinguish the region from the ‘Norte Grande,’ the nitrate regions acquired as a result of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), but its use has become accepted for all periods.

19 No. 36 C.R. Nugent to G. Canning, Valparaiso, 22 Dec. 1826 F.O. 16/5, Public Record Office, Kew (hereafter F.O.).

20 Ibid. ‘Country Ships’ referred to ships based in India and engaged in Asian trade, as against the ships of the East India Company, which handled all legal trade between England and India.

21 Ibid.

22 Bunster, Enrique, Chilenos en California (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico, 1954), p. 147.Google Scholar Bunster says he arrived in 1807, another source has his arrival as early as 1802, as surgeon on the whaler Back house: Derrick-Jehu, L.C., ‘The Anglo-Chilean Community,’ Family History 3:17/18 (Nov. 1965), p. 169.Google Scholar The figure of eight children is Bunster’s; Derrick-Jehu says three.

23 ‘Noticia general de los minerales de las provincias del Norte de Chile on su estado actual: propónense algunos medios de mejorarlo—trabajada por Don Carlos San Lambert en octubre de 1817,’ El Telégrafo 6, 10, 17 August, 14 Sept. 1819.

24 Contrato, 4 May 1820, ff 70–71, Fianza, 23 September 1820, ff 727–73, Poder, 3 February 1821, ff 88–89 Notarial de Copiapo, Vol 21, Archivo Nacional de Chile (hereafter ANCNC); Seymour Journal, 20 January 1845, CR 114 A/421, Warwickshire Record Office; Mayo, John and Collier, Simon (eds), Mining in Chile’s Norte Chico Journal of Charles Lambert 1825–1830 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), p. 13.Google Scholar He left ‘under £900,000' divided amongst his son, who received ‘his works and business, with the capital and assets, and all his other property in Chili, also a pecuniary legacy of £250,000’, and his three daughters, who each received £100,000. In addition, he left £25,000 ‘to be distributed among the persons in his employ in England and Wales and scientific societies in Great Britain.’ The Times, 1 September 1876.

25 Travels in South America during the Years 1819–20–27; containing An Account of the Present State of Brazil, Buenos Aires, and Chile, 2 vols. (London; John Murray, 1825).

26 Donoso, Ricardo, ‘Alexander Caldcleugh,’ Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografía 133 (1965), p. 155.Google Scholar

27 Travels in Chile and La Plata including Accounts Respecting the Geography, Geology, Statistics, Finances, Agriculture, Manners and Customs, and the Mining Operations in Chile. Collected during a Residence of Several Years in the Countries, 2 vols. (1826; reprint, London: Baldwin, Craddock and Joy, 1969).

28 Maria Graham, op. cit., p. 186.

29 Ibid., p. 301.

30 For a good account of this boom, see Dawson, Frank Griffith, The First Latin American Debt Crisis The City of London and the 1822–25 Loan Bubble (New Haven; Yale University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

31 Dawson, op. cit., p. 103.

32 Captain Basil Hall, R.N., Extracts from a Journal, written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru and Mexico, in the years 1820, 1821, 1822, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co. 2nd ed. 1824).Google Scholar

33 See Veliz, Claudio, ‘Egaña, Lambert, and the Chilean Mining Associations of 1825’, HAHR 55 (Nov. 1975), pp. 637–663.Google Scholar

34 Veliz, op. cit., p. 640.

35 The Times, Feb. 7 and Aug. 30 1825, quoted in Veliz, op. cit., p. 641 and 642.

36 Bowles to Croker, Amphion, Buenos Aires, 7 June 1818 in Graham, G.S. and Humphreys, R.A.. The Navy and South America 1807–1823 (London: Navy Records Society, 1962), p. 238.Google Scholar

37 Goebel, Dorothy Burne, ‘British-American Rivalry in the Chilean Trade, 1817–1820, Journal of Economic History 2 (November 1942), p. 195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The ‘rivalry’ does not seem to me to be established by the author. Rather, it seems to be a case of furor consularis. United States’ consular reports did speak of rivalry, but surviving business records indicate commercial competition rather than national rivalry, and foreign merchants tended to cooperate with each other in relations with Chilean officials.

38 No. 36, Nugent to Canning, Valparaiso, 22 Dec. 1826, F.O. 16/5. (The trade with India was also affected by the first Burmese War of the mid 1820s. Velíz, C., Historia de la Marina Mercante de Chile. (Santiago: Universidades de Chile, 1961, p. 31.)).Google Scholar

39 Vicuña Mackenna, B., El Libro de Cobre i del Carbon de Piedra en Chile (Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes, 1883), p. 160.Google Scholar

40 Humphreys, R.A., British Consular Reports on the Trade and Politics of Latin America 1824–1826;Google Scholar Valenzuela, L., ‘The Chilean Copper Smelting Industry in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Phases of Expansion and Stagnation, 1834–1858’ JLAS, 22;Google Scholar Volk, S.S., ‘Mine Owners, Money Lending, and the State in Mid-Nineteenth Century Chile: Transitions and Conflicts,’ HAHR 73:1 (1993).Google Scholar

41 Journal from 29th January 1825 to 20th February 1830 (MS formerly in the possession of Mrs. Miriam Blakemore. All references are by her courtesy. References are to dates not pages. Here, CL plus date). The journal was recently privately donated to the Archivo Nacional de Chile. Published version: Mayo, John and Collier, Simon (eds), Mining in Chile’s Norte Chico Journal of Charles Lambert 1825–1830 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998).Google Scholar

42 CL 29 Jan. 1825.

43 Archivo Nacional de Chile, Archivo Judicial de Coquimbo, legajo 25, pieza 6, ffs 11–14.1 owe this reference to Prof. Simon Collier.

44 Brittain was a pioneer British merchant in Buenos Aires.

45 CL. Journal 27 June 1825.

46 No. 27, Nugent to Planta, Valparaiso, 22 May 1825, F.O. 16/2.

47 CL. Journal 2 Sept. 1825. Future references to the Journal will be omitted, the text making clear the source and date.

48 C.L. Journal 18 Sept. 1825.

49 This was a view his contemporary John Miers shared: Miers, Travels, II, pp. 380–381.

50 Sayago, C.M., Historia de Cǫpiapo (1874; reprint, Buenos Dires, Editorial Francisco de Aguirre S.A., 1973), pp. 423–424.Google Scholar These three men are all mentioned in Lambert’s journal.

51 Venta, 15 May 1826. ANC Notarial de Copiapo, Vol 22.

52 Carter to Nugent, Coquimbo, 5 Oct. 1825, F.O. 16/4.

53 Miers, , Travels. 2, p. 380.Google Scholar

54 Basil Hall, , Extracts II, p. 49.Google Scholar

55 Poder, 24 April 1824, ff 70–71.1 am indebted to Dr. R. Couyoumdjian for assistance in procuring notarial references. Notarial de Valparaiso, Vol. 31, Archivo Nacional de Chile hereafter ANCNV.

56 Poder, 31 May 1824, f 99, ibid.

57 Estanco, 2 October 1824, f 174 ibid. One of the principals of the estanco was Diego Portales; this contact is an example of many useful ones British merchants made with important Chileans.

58 Ibid, Venta, 6 December 1824, f 213; ibid, vol 32, Fianza, 26 April 1825, f 49.

59 Vicuña Mackenna, op. cit. pp. 317–320. Referring to the marriages of Sewell and other Britons, Vicuña noted that England became master not only of Chile’s copper, but of its women ‘more valued than gold.’

60 Volk, , ‘Mine Owners and Money Lenders,’ p. 74.Google Scholar

61 Enrique Sewell to B. Vicuña Mackenna, 12, 20 Dec. 1882, Archivo Vicuña Mackenna, Archivo Nacional, Santiago de Chile.

62 Gibbs Papers (Guildhall Library, London). MS 11021/23 p. 1006. Unfortunately we are not told what the other eccentricities were.

63 J. White to J. Walpole, Valparaiso, 27 August 1834 F.O. 132/2.

64 Gibbs Papers MS 11033/3 Annual Reports, 29 Apr. 1848.

65 Gibbs Papers MS 11033/3 Annual Reports, 29 Apr. 1848.

66 Gibbs’ further success is discussed in Mayo, John, British Merchants and Chilean Development 1851–1886 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987),Google Scholar passim.

67 Goebel, , ‘British-American Rivalry’, pp. 195–198.Google Scholar

68 Carter to Canning, Coquimbo, 31 Dec. 1825. F.O. 16/3.

69 Ibid.

70 Capt. T. Bourchier, H.M.S. Menai to Admiralty, Spithead, 23 September 1829. PRO. Adm 1/1577.

71 Ibid.

72 Detailed list of treasure 16 July 1830. Adm/32. This referred to the cargo of HMS Heron.

73 See Gough, B.M., ‘Specie Conveyance from the West Coast of Mexico in British Warships 1820–1870: an Aspect of the Pax Britannica,’ Mariners Mirror 69 (1983),Google Scholar for a discussion of the trade with a more important silver producer than Chile, but which covers the organization of the naval end very thoroughly.

74 Carter to Rear Admiral R.W. Otway, Valparaiso, 22 Dec. 1826, PRO F.O. 16/5. The implication, at the least, was that the Royal Navy should turn a blind eye to the legalities of the situation, in the interests of ‘British Commerce’.

75 Rector, A., ‘Merchants, Trade’, pp. 121–125.Google Scholar

76 Graham and Humphrey, op. cit., p. xxxiv. The last duty seems never to have figured amongst the real concerns of commanders in the Pacific.

77 CL. Journal 5 Nov. 1825. The man concerned was an opulent miner-trader and later governor of La Serena, J.M Munizaga.

78 No. 30 R. Ad. Baker, H.M.S. Warspite to Admiralty, Rio, 14 April 1830. Adm 1/32.

79 Carter to John White, Coquimbo, 14 Feb. 1830 F.O. 16/13. White was acting in the consul general’s absence.

80 Undated note by Bingham on Edwards & Co., Wyllie Miller & Co., J.A. Walker and David Ross to Carter, Coquimbo 25 March 1830. ADM 1/33 P.R.O. Bingham also stated that the situation was now calm.

81 Carter to Canning, Coquimbo, 3 Oct. 1826 F.O. 16/5.

82 Calculated from Censo general de La República de Chile, 1854 (Santiago: 1858).

83 The only other significant centers of British population were in the capital, Santiago (130), which may be explained by the capital function itself, and the size of its market, and in Concepción in the South (287), a principal center of Chile's grain trade, and of its coal industry.

84 Many sources state this. A convenient one is Benavides, L., ‘Relaciones comerciales de Chile con México y Centroamérica (1844–1880)’ Boletín de la Academia Chilena de la Historia Año XXXV, No. 79, 1968, p. 208.Google Scholar

85 Veliz, op. cit. p. 653; Vicuña Mackenna op. cit. pp. 165–168.

86 The Modem Traveler, A Popular Description, Geographical, Historical and Topographical of the Various Countries of the Globe Peru-Chile. (London: James Duncan; Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh; M. Dyle, Glasgow; R.M. Tims, Dublin, 1829), p. 230.

87 CL. 12 January, 21 October 1828. It is significant that the dominant figure in the elite, Diego Portales, was a merchant, and personally involved in the copper business. He did business with both Sewell, and Edwards, George. Rector, ‘Merchants, Trade,’ pp. 140–141.Google Scholar