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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
As Spanish mercantilism sagged in the late eighteenth century, a host of “foreign” traders probed her colonies. This account of one North American group is illustrative of the process of change.
1 Accounts of the Spanish colonial economic system are to be found in Haring, C. H., The Spanish Empire in America (new ed., New York, 1952), chap. XVIGoogle Scholar; Diffie, Bailey W., Latin-American Civilization: Colonial Period (Harrisburg, 1945), chaps. VII, XX.Google Scholar
2 See McLachlan, Jean O., Trade and Peace with Old Spain, 1667–1750 (Cambridge, 1940)Google Scholar; Pares, Richard, War and Trade in the West Indies, 1739–1763 (Oxford, 1936)Google Scholar; Dionisio de Alcedo y Herrera, Piraterías y agresiones de los ingleses y de otros pueblos de Europa en la América Española desde el siglo XVI al XVII (1883).
3 Economic conditions in Spain are best treated in Hamilton, Earl J., War and Prices in Spain, 1651–1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1947)Google Scholar; see also Hussey, R. D., The Caracas Company, 1728–1784: A Study in the History of Spanish Monopolistic Trade (Cambridge, Mass., 1934)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Herr, Richard, The Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958).Google Scholar
4 Whitaker, Arthur P., “The Commerce of Louisiana and the Floridas at the end of the Eighteenth Century,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. VIII (May, 1928), p. 200.Google Scholar
5 Hamilton, Earl J., “War and Inflation in Spain, 1780–1800,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. LIX (1944–1945), pp. 36–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 No single book or article treats with these deviations from the mercantile norm, but see Porteli Vila, H., Historia de Cuba en sus relaciones con los Estados Unidos y España (5 vols., Havana, 1938– ),vol. I, chap. IIGoogle Scholar; and Morales Carrión, A., Puerto Rico and the Non-Hispanic Caribbean: A Study in the Decline of Spanish Exclusivism (Rio Piedras, P. R., 1952).Google Scholar
7 A copy of the royal order of Nov. 1797, is located in Archivo General de la Nación (Venezuela), Sección de la Intendencia de Ejército y Real Hacienda Colonial, Tomo III, folio 1. (Hereinafter cited as AGNV:IH), see also Bernstein, Harry, Origins of Inter-American Interest, 1700–1812 (Philadelphia, 1945), pp. 33–34Google Scholar and Arcila-Farias, Eduardo, Economía colonial de Venezuela (Mexico, 1946), pp. 402–403.Google Scholar
8 Arcila-Farias, op. cit., pp. 359–61; Hunnicutt, E. H., “The Consulados of Caracas and Havana” (M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina, 1932), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; Nichols, Roy F., “Trade Relations and the Establishment of the United States Consulates in Spanish-America, 1779–1809,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. XIII (August, 1933), pp. 289–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Briceño, Domingo B., Disertación sobre el estanco de tabaco, su aspecto fiscal, político y filosófico (Caracas, 1831), p. 21Google Scholar; Arcila-Farías, op. cit. (1946), chap. XI.
10 Arcila-Farías, op. cit.y pp. 325–326; Restrepo, José Manuel de, Historia de la revolución de la República de Colombia (4 vols., Besanzon, 1858), vol. I, pp. 484–85.Google Scholar
11 Yañes, Francisco J., Compendio de la historia de Venezuela (Caracas, 1944), p. 78 n.Google Scholar
12 Arellano Moreno, A., Orígenes de la economía venezolana (Mexico, 1947), p. 390.Google Scholar
13 Manuel de Quevara Vasconcelos to Intendente General, January 3, 1803, AGNV:IH, sueltos; Arcila-Farías, op. cit., pp. 273–74, 414–15.
14 Arcila-Farías, op. cit., pp. 335–40.
15 Arcila-Farías, op. cit., p. 361.
16 León to Miguel Cayetano Soler, March 29, 1799, Archivo Histórico Nacional (Spain), Sección de Estado, Legajo 3890 bis, Expediente 6, Library of Congress photocopies (Hereinafter cited as AHN:E); for terms of the contract see AGNV:IH, Tomo 143, under date May 9, 1799.
17 León to Soler, ibid., Baltasar Padrón to Vicente Linares, July 9, 1799; August 21, 1799, March 3, 1800, February 10, 1801, AGNV: Renta de Tobaco, Tomos 34, 35, 40.
18 Bernstein, op. cit., pp. 39, 90.
19 Nichols, “Trade Relations and the Establishment of the United StatesConsulates in Spanish America, 1779–1809,” loc. cit., p. 296,n. 25.
20 Bernstein, op. cit., p. 49, n. 57.
21 A list of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States captured by French privateers…, AHN:E, Leg. 5574, Exp 4.
22 Statement of John Leamy, September 24, 1807, AHN:E, Leg. 5547, Exp 2; Factura de generos de Ed. Barry, January 10, 1799, AGNV:IH; Felípe Pérez, Diputado del Con sulado, July 4, 1799, ibid., Tomo 145; Baltasar Padrón to Vicente Linares, AGNV: Renta de Tabaco, Tomo 34. For seizure of one of Kuhn's vessels see Clauder, Anna C., American Commerce as affected by the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon (Philadelphia, 1932), p. 50.Google Scholar No complete port records were uncovered in the Venezuelan Archivo General de la Nación. The “peak month” statement is based on the facturas appearing in or mentioned in correspondence addressed to the Intendant, Tomos 137, 138, 139, 142, 144, and 145 (IH).
23 Cabildo ordinario de Caracas to Captain-general; id. to [Esteván Fernandez de León] September 5, 1799; October 21, 1799, AGNV:IH, Tomo 148, and sueltos.
24 Hunnicutt, op. cit., p. 14.
25 Arellano Moreno (op. cit., p. 237) wrote of these years as “siendo de singular signi ficación las visitas de barcos norteamericanos, por cuanto no solo trajeron productos de su naciente industria, sino adquirieron frutos y ganado en tal cantidad que gozó Venezuela de la prosperidad de los altos precios ocasionados por la demanda de sus articulos.” The contraband trade carried on in(lanchas) to Curacao and Trinidad also contributed to the prosperity. For evidence of the extent of this trade see Armytage, Francis, Free Port System in the British West Indies (London, 1953), pp. 64–65.Google Scholar
26 Captain-general to all provincial governors, December 9, 1799, A GNV: Gobernacióny Capitanía General, Tomo 82, f. 143. Spanish merchants and agents did not approve, arguing that the United States vessels introduced British wares. The Junta General de Agricultores, however, argued that the manufactured articles were of North American design and make. (Arcila-Farías, op. cit., p. 360.)
27 AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
28 Yrujo to Príncipe de la Paz, January 19, 1798, AHN:E, Leg. 3897, Apartado 2; Diego Barry to Yrujo, July 25, 1797, ibid., Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 4.
29 AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6. The contract was signed on July 23, 1799 and is located in ibid.
30 July 22, 1799, ibid.
31 July 18, 1799, AGNV:GC, sueltos.
32 E. Fernández de León to Subdelegado de Real Hacienda de Caracas, September 16, 1799, AGNV:IH, sueltos.
33 Claim of John Juhel and Stanislas de Longuemare, August 23, 1821, New York, National Archives of the United States of America. Records of the Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitrations. Claims on Spain, Convention of 1819, vol 22. (Hereinafter cited as Claim of Juhel, LC.)
34 Ibid.
35 AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
36 León to Yrujo, September 20, 1799, ibid.; id. to Subdelegado de Real Hacienda de la Guayra, September 16, 1799, AGNV:IH, sueltos.
37 Fernández de León to Miguel Cayetano Soler, February 13, 1800, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
38 Robinson, William Davis, Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution. … (2 vols., London, 1821), vol. II, pp. 333–37.Google Scholar
39 León to Soler, February 13, 1799, loc. cit.
40 Decreto de León, September 14, 1799, AGNV:IH, sueltos; León to Yrujo, September 20, 1799, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
41 Account with John Craig – Nalbro and John Frazier, Insurance Brokers, December 9, 1799; Account of the cancelling Fees on an Insurance… on Brig Fly, Barry, Cole and Barry, April 24, 1800, AHN:E, Leg. 3897, Ap. 2. Robert Oliver's and Chanceaulme's lawsuit reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which appointed Agustín Madan of La Guaira to take depositions. (Yrujo to Captain-general of Venezuela, December 17, 1801; AGNV:GC, Tomo 103; Agustín Madan to Intendant, September 24, 1804, ibid., IH, sueltos).
42 Claim of Juhel, LC, containing depositions of the captains; León toSoler, February 13, 1800; Francisco de Sojo to Intendant, Puerto Cabello, November 4, 1806; José Vázquez Tellez to Intendant, La Guaira, November 29, 1799, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
43 León to Soler, February 13, 1801, ibid.
45 Claim of Juhel, LC; León to Soler, February 13, 1799, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
46 Ibid.
47 McKean to León, November 29, 1799, ibid. McKean reached La Guaira aboard the Rose on November 29 (José de Vazques Tellez to Intendant, November 29, 1799, ibid.), and hired a translator. (An agreement…, October 15, 1799; Receipt for $500.00, Philadelphia, April 29, 1800, Thomas McKean Papers, vol. III, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)
48 León to Soler, February 13, 1800, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
49 Receipt, May 16, 1800, AHN:E, Leg. 3897, Ap 2.
50 January 2, February 6, 1800, Claim of Juhel, LC.
51 To Soler, February 13, 1800, AHN:E, Leg. 3890 bis, Exp. 6.
52 Claim of Juhel, LC.
53 Statement of Delonguemare, November 15, 1822, ibid.
54 Intendant to Ministro Subdelegado de La Guayra, December 9, 1799, AGNV:IH, sueltos; José de Aluztiza and Carlos Cortes to Super-subdelegado, April 7, 1800; Intendant to Ministros de Real Hacienda, April 11, October 7, 1801, ibid., Tomo 158 and sueltos; Diego Craig to Captain-general, August 18, 1801, October 20, 1801, ibid., GC, Tomo 101.
