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The Silversmiths of Buenos Aires: A Case Study in the Failure of Corporate Social Organization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Lyman L. Johnson
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Extract

Although none of the artisan or small merchant groups in colonial Buenos Aires ever achieved complete legal sanction for a guild organization, the silversmiths were more successful than any other group in creating and sustaining an officially endorsed, self-regulating, corporate structure. This structure was not created and implemented systematically. It was evolved slowly and pragmatically as a response to the changing milieu in which the silversmiths worked.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , May 1976 , pp. 181 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 There is a substantial bibliography for this general topic. The following works are the most effective and reliable studies of the development of the guilds of silversmiths in Spanish America: Manuel Carrera Stampa, Los gremios mexicanos (Mexico, 1954);Google ScholarMiranda, Fernando Márquez, Ensayo sobre los artifices de la plateria en el Buenos Aires colonial (Buenos Aires, 1933);Google ScholarRavignani, Emilio, ‘El cuerpo de plateros en el Río de la Plata’, Nosotros (09 1916), 305–55;Google ScholarGuevara, Hector Humberto Samayoa, Los gremios de artesanos en la ciudad de Guatemala (Guatemala, 1962);Google ScholarRevello, José Torre, El gremio de plateros en las Indias Occidentales (Buenos Aires, 1932);Google Scholar and Johnson, Lyman L., ‘The Artisans of Buenos Aires during the Viceroyalty, 1776–1810’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1974).Google Scholar

2 Revello, Torre, El gremio de plateros, pp. 15–21.Google Scholar

3 Miranda, Márquez, Ensayo sobre los artifices de la plateria, pp. 53–4.Google Scholar

4 García, J. A., La ciudad indiana. Buenos Aires desde 1600 hasta mediados del siglo XVIII (Buenos Aires, 1900), is still one of the most effective treatments of the early colonial period.Google Scholar

5 Archivo General de la Nación, Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1907–34), serie iii, tomo III p. 279.Google Scholar

6 Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina (hereafter called AGN), División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo de Buenos Aires, 1745–52, Legajo 3, año 1748.

7 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo P6, Expediente 8.

8 Ibid.

9 Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires, serie iii, tomo III, p. 306.Google Scholar

10 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Documentos para la historia Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1913–) tomo XI, Territorio y Población, passim. The published census was searched by the author for all individuals identified as silversmiths. This data was then key punched and then analyzed by computer, using SPSS. This analysis is part of a larger project in which all artisans found in the censuses of 1744, 1778 and 1810 will be identified and analyzed to discover changes in racial and ethnic composition, family size, residence patterns, and age composition over time.Google Scholar

11 This census has a number of weaknesses. First, a high percentage of residents was not identified by occupation. Second, information on birth-place is only irregularly given and, therefore, a comparison with the 1748 list is impossible. And finally, the 1778 census, like most other censuses of Spanish colonial populations, contains ambiguous and unreliable racial data. The reader is warned to keep this in mind while reading the analysis built on this data source.

12 Miranda, Márquez, Ensayo sobre los artifices de la platería, pp. 6–20.Google Scholar

13 See Levene, Ricardo, ‘Investigaciones acerca de la historia económica del virreinato de la Plata’, in Obras de Ricardo Levene, 3 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1962), pp. 358–9, and Eduardo Saguier, unpublished study of land values in the province and city of Buenos Aires, 1580–1952.Google Scholar

14 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 131, Expediente 12.

15 The selection procedure and the tenure of these officers is found in AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo P12, Expediente 31.

16 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Justicia, Legajo 17, Expediente 444.

17 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expediente 25.

18 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Justicia, Legajo 17, Expediente 444.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Hacienda, Legajo 73, Expediente 1929. The petition was signed by ‘all the master silversmiths’ and recognized Callejas y Sandoval as their apoderado.Google Scholar

22 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expediente 8.

23 This list of master silversmiths is found in two places. First, it is in Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires, serie iii, tomo VIII, pp. 555–6, and second, in AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expediente 8.Google Scholar

24 Levene, Ricardo, Investigaciones acerca de la historia económica del virreinato de la Plata, pp. 255–76.Google Scholar

25 The forty-six masters on the cabildo's list in 1788 are virtually distinct from the fifty-two silversmiths found in the census of 1778. Only six of the masters in 1788 were present in the census. This would seem to indicate high levels of geographic and, perhaps, occupational mobility for these artisans.Google Scholar

26 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expediente 8.

27 Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires, seric iii, tomo VIII, pp. 555–6.Google Scholar

28 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legalo 14, Expediente 8.

29 Ibid.

30 Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires, seric iii, tomo IX, p. 63.Google Scholar

31 AGN, Divisibn Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expediente 8.

32 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 74, Expediente 29.

33 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 14, Expcdicntc 25.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo, 1790, Sept.–Dic.

37 Ibid. This is the first indication that silversmiths had created additional offices to oversee the expanded corporate functions stipulated in the bando of 1788. The mayordomos were supplemented by examinadores, vocales, a secretary, and a chief executive officer, the maestro mayor.

38 Ibid.

39 Acuerdos del extinguido cabildo de Buenos Aires, serie iii, tomo IX, p. 426.Google Scholar

40 Other examples of examinations can be found in AGN. División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo, 1794, for the examination of Mario Bejarano, Narciso de Soria, and Josef González.

41 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo, 1790, Sept.–Dic. A lapidario is a cutter of precious stones and a clavador is an engraver.Google Scholar

42 Ibid.

43 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 53, Expediente 30.

44 Ibid.

45 Although it is impossible to pinpoint the date when these offices were created, their existence in 1791 is found in AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo P12, Expediente 31.

46 In May of 1792, Juan Antonio Callejas y Sandoval petitioned the viceroy to regularize his title as maestro mayor. He noted that, although he had been exercising the office, and was surely qualified, he had not been examined and approved. He stated that Josef Maria Caballero, professor of the art of assaying and mineralogy, was in the city and asked the viceroy to arrange for Caballero to administer the test. The viceroy complied and Callejas y Sandoval successfully passed the examination on 8 June of the same year. AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 74, Expediente 29.Google Scholar

47 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo, 1790, Sept.–Dic. The guild of silversmiths was ordered to provide one day of entertainment for the celebration of the ascension to the throne by Carlos IV.

48 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunals, Legajo 74, Expediente 29.

49 Ibid. Callejas y Sandoval asked for authority to seize all adulterated silver and levy a fine of twelve pesos on all master silversmiths who failed to place their identifying numbers on all finished work.

50 Ibid. The five masters were: Josef de Acuna, previously cited as one of the accomplices of Josef Ferreira; Mariano Soto Mayor; Dionicio Baldivia; Josef Benito Marques; and Vicente Monferrer. A footnote to the visita of 1791 is provided by a petition to the viceroy by Lucia Cavrera, the widow of Dionicio Baldivia, in November 1799. The widow asked the viceroy so order the return of the embargoed pieces of silver taken from her husband's shop in 1791. She stated that she was penniless and unable to provide for her children. Jorge Troncoso, replying for the guild, argued that there was no just motive for returning the goods. No record of a final decision remains.

51 Ibid. The three repeaters were Mariano Soto Mayor, Josef de Acuña and Vicente Monferrer. The new offender was Carlos Miranda. He was fined for not marking his work with his assigned number.

52 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Comerciales, Legajo 15, Expediente 16.

53 Ibid.

54 Although the decision of the viceroy is not indicated in the documents, the guild leadership remained unchanged for a number of years. Further, there is no documentation that indicates any attempt by the colonial authorities to deport Portuguese or other illegal immigrants. AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 131, Expediente 12.

55 Miranda, Márquez, Ensayo sobre los artifices de plaleria, pp. 101–5, provides a penetrating analysis of this meeting. He concluded that the decision to require annual dues to support the activities of the brotherhood was not universally accepted by the artisans at the meeting. As a result, the partisans of the decision sought the signatures of masters who had not attended the meeting, thereby creating a majority.Google Scholar

56 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 131, Expediente 12.

57 Ibid. The assessed amount had been increased from the six pesos two reales of 1769 to one real ‘each Saturday’, an increase of two reales.

58 Ibid.

59 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Interior, Legajo 27, Expediente 675.

60 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 131, Expediente 12. The thirteen dissidents who signed this petition were Casiano Hernández, Cayetano Cardoso, Juan Pereira Silva, Salvador Grande, Vicente Monferrer, Martín Zacumano, Agustín Josef Sosa, Aniseto González, Dionicio Josef Baldivia, Domingo José Acuna, Carlos Miranda, Mariano Soto, and Alexandro Moreira.

61 Ibid. Although some of the documents related to examination for master included certification of limpieza de sangre, some applicants were reviewed without this certification. In short, prior to this confrontation over dues and visitas, race did not play a major role in the recruitment or advancement of silversmiths in Buenos Aires.

62 Ibid. The guild officers for 1792 were Juan Antonio Callejos y Sandoval, Josef Antonio Sosa, Jorge Troncoso, Simon Pereyra de Sosa, Josef Henrique Ferreyra, Narcisco Eliseo, and Francisco Pinto.

63 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 53, Expediente 30. In the documents related to the case of Josef Joaquín Ferreira, the guild officers note that he and his frontmen were repairing clocks and undertaking other unrelated jobs. This seems to indicate that the more marginal silversmiths were unable to sustain themselves within the strict parameters of their trade and were forced to seek income in other areas.

64 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales. Legajo 131, Expediente 12.

65 Ibid. The ordinances were never completed.

66 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Interior, Legajo 34, Expediente 12.

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.

69 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo 131, Expediente 12. Callejas y Sandoval stipulated that 140 of the 180 pesos collected annually were used to pay for the celebration of the feast day of St. Eloy.

70 For a discussion of the guild of shoemakers, see Johnson, Lyman L., ‘The Artisans of Buenos Aires during the Viceroyalty, 1776–1810’, pp. 20–145.Google Scholar

71 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo P12, Expediente 31.

72 Ibid.

73 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Tribunales, Legajo G17, Expediente 1.

74 Ibid.

75 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Interior, Legajo 41, Expediente 7.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Ravignani, ‘El cuerpo de plateros en el Río de la Plata’, pp. 314–15 , and Miranda, Márquez, Ensayo sobre los artifices de platería, p. 128.Google Scholar

79 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Interior, Legajo 34, Expediente 12. Troncoso admitted that the guild was already in debt and asked the viceroy to act quickly to prevent further litigation by the dissidents.

80 AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Archivo del Cabildo, 1809.