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Before the Gold Fleets: Trade and Relations between Chile and Australia, 1830–1848*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Thomas M. Bader
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Extract

Even at first glance, one can see remarkable similarities in the topography, geography and patterns of land use of the west coast republics of South America and of the states of Australia which stretch along that continent's eastern and southeastern shores. Not only are the latitudinal parameters comparable, but similarities in climate and patterns of agriculture abound. The resemblances are particularly defined as we consider the geographical extravagance of Chile and compare it alone to the eastern edge of Australia.

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Articles
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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , May 1974 , pp. 35 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 For a developed discussion of the geographical similarities of the areas, see Butland, G. J., Terrae Australes Incognitae (Armidale, New South Wales, 1962).Google Scholar

2 Little direct trade took place between Southern Australia and Chile, while, apparently, no trade linked Western Australia and the South American republic. For the role of the United States in this trade, see Lloyd, Churchward's articles ‘Notes on American Whaling Activities in Australian Waters’, Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand, 4 (11 1949), 59–63,Google Scholar and ‘Salem Merchants and the Australian Trade’, Essex Institute Historical Collections, 84, no. 4 (10 1948), 295–303.Google Scholar See also Daniel, E. and Annette, Potts, ‘The Voyages of William and Augustus Rogers of Salem, Massachusetts to Australia, 1840–42’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 54, pt. 3 (1968), 256–64.Google Scholar

3 Bax, A. E., ‘Australian Merchant Shipping, 1788–1849’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 38, pt. 6 (1952), 269–71.Google ScholarGerald, S. Graham, ‘ The Ascendancy of the Sailing Ship, 1850–1885’, Economic History Review, (08 1956) pp. 75, 78.Google Scholar

4 Bax, , loc. cit., p. 271.Google Scholar

5 ibid. I have not been able to learn Mr Riddle's first name.

6 Thomas, Heggen, Mister Roberts (New York, 1955), p. x.Google Scholar

7 Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter SMH), 3 07 1837.Google Scholar

8 Harper, N. D., Our Pacific Neighbors (Melbourne, 1962), p. 4.Google Scholar

9 By inspection of various ships' logs; see, for example, that of the Maitland, Hobart, to Valparaíso, , 1844, in the Nan Kivell Collection, National Library of Australia, NLA, MSS 4138.Google Scholar

10 Log of the William Cole, Chincha Isles to Melbourne, 1854, in LaTrobe Library, Melbourne, MSS 9145.

11 Such a route could make difficult the determination of the vessel's full course of sail. Frequently newspaper accounts and harbor master reports would note only the last port at which the ship had touched. A voyage from Valparaíso to Sydney via Tahiti thus might be listed only as an arrival from Otahiti. Another obfuscating factor was the tendency to list many trips at departing en route to Guam. As Biddle, T. E. noted in his ‘Review of the Shipping of the Port of Melbourne, 1840–1890’, NLA, MSS 373: ‘Of course it is understood that when a vessel clears for Guam she is not bound for a little island bearing that name. It is merely a means of hiding her destination.’Google Scholar

12 Bowden, K. M., George Bass, 1771–1803 (Melbourne, 1952), pp. 122–3.Google ScholarKeeble, T. W., Commercial Relations between British Overseas Territories and South America, 1806–1914 (London, 1970), pp. 29, 33.Google ScholarArchivo [de Don Bernardo] O'Higgins (Santiago, 1946), XV, 37.Google ScholarSydney Gazette, 2 06 1821 and 9 06 1821. Abstract of the log of the Surry, 1820–1822, NLA, MSS 825.Google Scholar

13 Australian, 15 02 1828. Sydney Gazette, 8 02 1828.Google ScholarCampbell, W. S., ‘Wheats in New South Wales’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 22.Google Scholar

14 Australian, 2 04 1828; 2 05 1828. Sydney Gazette, 8 02 1828.Google ScholarKeeble, , op. cit., p. 34.Google Scholar

15 New South Wales Magazine, 06 1843, p. 245: ‘The years 1827, 8 and were almost years of famine.’Google ScholarDunsdorfs, E., The Australian Wheat-Growing Industry, 1788–1948 (Melbourne, 1956), pp. 51–53Google Scholar points out that in the period of 1830–60 Australia imported wheat for 21 of the 30 years. During the period of 1833–42 population increased approximately 163% while the lands under wheat increased only 57%. The average of 60.3 acres/100 inhabitants in 1833 fell to only 36 acres/100 inhabitants in 1842; SMH, 28 11 1843.Google Scholar

16 Stephen, H. Roberts, The Squatting Age in Australia: 1834–1847 (Melbourne, 1964), p. 167.Google Scholar

17 Geoffrey, Blainey, The Tyranny of Distance (Melbourne, 1966), pp. 133, 125.Google Scholar

18 Sylvia, Morrissey, ‘The Pastoral Economy, 1821–1850’, in James, Griffin (ed.), Essays in the Economic History of Australia, 1788–1939 (Brisbane, 1967), pp. 60, 75.Google Scholar

19 Cunningham, P., Two Years in New South Wales (London, 1827), 2nd ed., facsimile, I, 158.Google Scholar

20 King, C. J., ‘The First Fifty Years of Agriculture in New South Wales’, Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, 16 (1948), 567, 603; 17 (1949), 279, 281, 427.Google ScholarSMH, 7 05 1861. Enclosure in Normanby to Gipps, 10 July 1839; Historical Records of Australia (hereafter HRA), Series I, xx, 223. See also SMH, 6 06, 18 July 1831.Google Scholar

21 Eric, R. Irvin, Early Inland Agriculture: Farming in the Southern District of New South Wales (Wagga, 1962), p. 20.Google Scholar Cox's evidence before the Immigration Committee of 1842, New South Wales, Votes and Proceedings (hereafter NSW/VP) (1842), p. 384.Google Scholar

22 Leslie's evidence before the Committee on the Minimum Upset Price of Land, NSW/VP (1847), II, 541.Google Scholar

23 Birch, A., ‘The Sydney Railway Company, 1848–1855’, Royal Australian Historical Society, Journal and Proceedings (hereafter RAHS), 43 (1957), 49–92.Google ScholarBlainey, , loc. cit., pp. 42–3.Google ScholarRichard, Colter, ‘The Golden Decade’, in Essays in the Economic History of Australia, p. 127.Google Scholar

24 The relative case of sailing east from New South Wales was recognized quite early. Even in 1788, Captain John Hunter, of the Sirius, chose to sail eastwards from Australia en route to the granaries of South Africa: he preferred to sail 9,000 miles to the east rather than tacking and beating his way 5,000 miles westward. Blainey, , op. cit., pp. 42–3.Google Scholar See also. Robert, Fitzroy, Remarks on New Zealand in February 1846 (Dunedin, 1969), facsimile, p. 67,Google Scholar for a discussion of the ease of sailing from Chile to Australia. The lack of cargoes was at once an incentive for the unemployed captain to sail to Chile in search of a load and a detriment to the development of a fully viable trans-Pacific trade. In 1831 landowners its New South Wales complained to Governor Darling that Australia had no convenient article of exchange with Chile to balance payments and to provide freight: ‘Petition of Landowners’ (2 04 1831): HRA, Series I, XVI, 342.Google Scholar

25 Claudio, Véliz, ‘La mesa de tres patas’, Dernrrollo Económico, 3, nos. 1–2 (04–09, 1963), 231–47.Google Scholar

26 Benjamín, Vicuīa MscKenna, Diego Portales (2 vols., Santiago, 1937), i, 325.Google Scholar

27 Santiago, , 1961, pp. 22–44.Google Scholar

28 Keeble, , op. cit., p. 10.Google Scholar

29 By inspection of miscellaneous correspondence, consignment orders and shipping notices. See also Lucett, E., Rovings in the Pacific from 1837 to 1849 (London, 1851), p. 279;Google ScholarThomas, R. Warren, Dust and Foam; or, Three Oceans and Two Continents (London, 1859), p. 78;Google Scholar and Robert, G. Albion, ‘British Shipping and Latin America, 1806–1914’, Journal of Economic History, 9 (1951), 369.Google Scholar

30 Eugenio, Pereira Salas, ‘Jacques Moerenhout y el comercio de perlas en Valparaíso’, Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografia, no 118 (07–12 de 1951), pp. 6, 8, 9. See in particular the table on p. 8 which the author composed from El Movimiento Maritimo de Valparaíso, Archivo Nacional.Google Scholar

31 For a broad discussion of this, see Arnold, J. Bauer, ‘Chilean Rural Labor in the Nineteenth Century’, American Historical Review, Vol. 76 (10 1971). pp. 1059–83.Google Scholar

32 Daniel, Martner, Estudios de politica comercial chilena e historia económica nacional (2 vols., Santiago, 1923), i, 164–5.Google Scholar At least one ship, the Medway, did sail from Australia to Chile ‘in search of a wheat cargo for New Holland’. Although wheat was available in the granary of Talcahuano the asking price of 5s. 3d. per Winchester bushel was too high for the grain to be shipped profitably to Sydney. The Medway finally picked up a cargo of saltpeter and continued around the Horn to Great Britain. See Rowse, H. W., Concepción, to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1 01 1835,Google Scholar and John, White, Valparaíso, , to John, Bidwell, Esq., 4 02 1835, London Public Records Office, Foreign Office, File 16 (Chile). Microfilm Reel 27. During 1835 the price of wheat in Concepción slowly began to fall. By March it was selling at 3s. od. per Winchester bushel. The price fall however was more than offset by a terrible earthquake which left Concepción in ruins, while ‘Talcahuano…seems to have been washed away by an irruption of the Sea’. Walpole to Palmerston, 8 Feb. 1835. F.O. 16/28. Reel 25 (2).Google Scholar

33 See Legislative Council, New South Wales, Votes and Proceedings (hereafter LC/NSW/VP), Meeting of 31 07 1831.Google Scholar

34 Roberts, , op. cit., p. 158.Google Scholar A[lexander] Reid, Ratho, Van Diemen's Land, 10 July 1834, to [Bt. Capt.] Williams, Her Majesty's 40th Regt/Bombay/via Sydney. Brown, P. L. (ed.), Clyde Company Papers, Prologue (London and Melbourne, 1956), p. 202.Google Scholar

35 SirRichard, Bourke to Lord, Glenelg, 24 12 1835, HRA, Series I, 18, 239.Google Scholar

36 Trans-Pacific Sailings: Australasia to South America 1831 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Total Syd.–Valpo. 2 2 2 0 5 7 35 8 12 29 24 16 25 8 4 7 1 171 Mel.–Valpo. 1 1 1 3 6 South Aust.–Valpo. 1 1 2 Van Diemen's Land– Valpo. 1 2 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 2 19 New Zealand–Valpo. 1 1 2 3 2 12 34 6 45 Aus.–Peru 2 1 3 1 3 1, 6 18 VDL–Guayaquil 1 1 Total 2 2 2 2 6 7 19 10 15 34 28 34 44 23 7 5 39 3 262 Trans-Pacific Sailings: South America to Australaia 1831 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Total Chile–Syd. 1 1 0 5 4 1 3 18 37 6 63 Chile–N. Zealand 1 4 4 9 So. Am.–Syd. 1 1 3 5 So. Am.–VDL 1 1 Peru–Syd. 1 1 1 3 (Mex.–Syd.) (1) Total s 1 6 5 2 4 20 18 33 11 81 Sources utilized include but are not limited to newspapers of Valparaíso, Sydney and Melbourne, harbor master reports, customs house reports, Precios corrientes mayor en Valparaiso, Public Records Office, Foreign Office, Chile (FO–16), LC/NSW/VP, HRA, David Little Papers at LaTrobe Library, Melbourne (MSS 7595, Box 476/2a), numerous ships' logs and journals, and Parliamentary Papers, Great Britain, House of Commons (hereafter PP/HC) (1847), Vol. xxvii. The tables were set up according to the ships' arrival dates.

37 While the two sources disagree in their particulars both PP/HC (1847), xxxvii, 187–94, and LC/NSW/VP (1843), p. 551 list the exports of the colony to Chile for 3838–42. For individual ships, see the customs report of the Alfred (29 March 1844, SMH) and the Mary Nixon (27 May 1844, SMH).Google Scholar

38 As an example of such a continuing voyage, see the log of the Maitland, 1844, which, after a trans-Pacific sail, went from Valparaíso to San Blas and loaded Nicaraguan wood for London. NLS MSS 4138.

39 The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 09 1843,Google Scholar and the New South Wales Magazine (10 1843), p. 562,Google Scholar each report the 340,000-bushel figure while the PP/HC (1847), XXXVII, 178–9,Google Scholar avers that more than 403,000 bushels were imported. To develop such a figure I presumed that a barrel of flour weighed 200 lb. and that it took 45 bushels of wheat to make one ton of flour; such were the conversion factors used by the Australians of the day. See New South Wales, Statistics, 1849–1853, p. 33.Google Scholar An additional 10,449 bushels of wheat were sent from South America to Van Diemen's Land in 1840, while £10,430 worth of flour was sent from Chile to New Zealand in 1840–2 PP/HC, 1847, XXXVII, 186, 217–26.Google Scholar Assuming conservatively that the grain would sell for at least 10s. od. per bushel, the value of reported Chilean wheat and flour imported by Australasia was no less than £218,000. This estimate varies sharply from the £125,000 assigned by LC/VP (1843), p. 547,Google Scholar and by PP/HC (1847), xxxvii, 186,Google Scholar to the grain imports of NSW, 1840–2, as supplemented by the imports of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand. On the other hand, Coghian, T. A., Labour and Industry in Australia ( vols., Melbourne, 1969), I, 481, felt that NSW spent £466,000 for foreign grain in the two years of 1840–1, while the Australian (2 Sept. 1841) averred that more than £500,000 were expended by NSW for foreign grains in the two years of 1839–40.Google Scholar

40 For Freire in exile, see Diego, Barros Arana, Un decenio de la historia de Chile. Obras Completas (Santiago, 1908–1914), xiv, 289–300.Google ScholarCarlos, López Urrutia, Historia de la Marina de Chile (Santiago, 1969), p. 168.Google ScholarPereira, Salas, ‘Moerenhaut’, p. 17. For his warm reception in Sydney, see SMH,Google Scholar 3 July 1837, and Spark, A. B., Diary, 21 07 (1841), ML MSS 4869–4870.Google Scholar

41 Richard, Bourke to Lord, Glenelg, 30 12 1836, HRA, Series I, xviii, 628;Google ScholarLord, Glenelg to SirRichard, Bourke, 30 09 1837,Google Scholar with enclosures, ibid., I, xix, 107–8. Australian, 8, 12 July 1836. By 1837 Chilean ships were sailing to Sydney on speculation; SMH, 28 September 1837.

42 This correspondence is in enclosures and sub-enclosures of Lord, John Russell to SirGeorge, Gipps, 12 06 1841.Google Scholar ML MSS, A-1285. See also HRA, Series I, xxi. Sir George was sensitive particularly to a charge made by Walpole that a ship of French registry, the Justine, had been allowed to sell a cargo of grain in Sydney. The Governor answered angrily that the Justine had sold only beans, barley and potatoes – produce required as New South Wales desperately needed foodstuffs. Geo., Gipps to Lord, John Stanley, 31 01 1842.Google ScholarHRA, Series I, xxi, 667–9.Google Scholar The official or formal treaty giving Great Britain de jure most-favored-nation status was signed on 10 May 1852: Michael, G. Mulhall, The English in Latin America (Buenos Aires, 1878), p. 570.Google Scholar Walpole's efforts to serve as a protector of the Navigation Acts were complicated by a tendency of Chilean ship captains to fly the British flag whenever possible. During the latter 1830s ‘when it was known here [in Santiago] that Santa Cruz had fitted out Privateers the Chilean merchant vessels took the English flag for protection and were allowed to carry on the Chilean coastal trade’. Richard, Pollard to the Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State, No. 69, 10 04 1839. National Archives, Washington, D.C.Dispatches [sic] from United States Diplomatic Agents in Chile.Google Scholar

43 The Diary of A. B. Spark, 13 Aug. 1838. ML/MSS 4869.

44 ibid., 23 October 1838. LC/NSW/VP, 26 October 1838. Gipps, to Glenelg, , 8 04 1839; HRA, Series I, xx, 107–9.Google Scholar The wheat trade of 1838 was hampered further because the ports of Chile were periodically closed by the order of government in Santiago. The reason for the closure was an effort to disguise the preparation of a war fleet which was preparing to sail north against Peru. Richard, Pollard to the Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State, No. 60, 8 08 1838. Dispatches… U.S.Google Scholar

45 Phillip Parker King to the Court of the Agricultural Company (hereafter King to Court) Archives, Manuscript Bureau, Australian National University, Canberra; ANU/MSS/File 78/1/16, 12 April 1839.

46 Minutes of the meeting are in Executive Council Minute Book, Archives of New South Wales, Manuscript 4/1520; meeting No. 39/8 (28 March 1839) and No. 39/9 (30 March 1839). See also Governor Gipps' Address to LC/NSW/VP (1839), 11 06 1839. The tariff fee eventually was returned to Hughes and Hoskins; see Executive Council Minute Book, 4/1520; meeting No. 39/38 (12 Dec. 1839) and Appendix to Executive Council (1839), NSW Archives 4/1446.Google Scholar

47 The Diary of A. B. Spark, 27 July 1839, ML/MSS 4869.

48 Gipps, to Stanley, , 13 11 1839, HRA, Series I, xxi, 90–1. King to Court, ANU, MSS File 78/1/17, 11 10 1841.Google Scholar

49 King to Court, ANU, MSS File 78/1/17, 26 Jan. 1842.

50 Arthur, C. Wardle, Steam Conquers the Pacific: A Record of Maritime Achievement, 1840– 1940 (London, 1940), p. 42. The first PSN ship sailed from Chile on 25 Oct. 1840. For particulars of this trade, see King to Court of Directors of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 14 April 1841 as enclosure to King to Court (A.A. Co.) ANU/MSS 78/1/16, 24 April 1841. The substance of the letter is included in the Minutes of Pacific Steam Navigation Company, meeting of 20 Oct. 1841. A microfilmed copy of the PSN Minutes has been made by the Bancroft Library, University of California (Berkeley).Google Scholar

51 King to Court, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/16, 30 Oct. 1840. Gipps, to Stanley, , 13 11 1839, HRA, Series I, xxi, 90–1. See also SMH, 27 07 1841.Google Scholar

52 J. Edward Ebsworth to Governor and Directors of the Australian Agricultural Company, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/16, 31 Aug. 1838; King to Court, ibid., 10 October 1839.

53 Roberts, , op. cit., pp. 318–19.Google Scholar

54 SMH, 23 04 1838. See also SMH, 3, 14 and 24 05 1838.Google Scholar

55 Padre J. J. Guzman as quoted in Bauer, , ‘Rural Labor’, p. 1070.Google Scholar

56 ibid., p. 1074.

57 King to Court, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/16, 2 April 1840. See also King to Court, ibid., 78/1/16 and ANU/MSS/File 78/1/17, 1 May 1841. King had taken over as Commissioner in April 1839. Huasos are, of course, Chilean cowboys.

58 Lockyer to Immigration Committee, LC/NSW/ VP (1841), 8 July 1841. William Lawson Sr, of Prospect, ibid., 6 July 1841.

59 Dartnell had returned to Sydney from Chile on the Stirlingshire on 29 Aug. 1837; SMH, 4 09 1837. For the advertisements, see the Australian, 16 and 20 04 1840.Google Scholar

60 Lawson to Immigration Committee, LC/NSW/VP (1841), 6 July 1841. King, ibid., 8 July 1841. For indenture initiating in Chile, see the letter King to Court, 26 Dec. 1842, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/17 and compare the date to the date of the departure of the John Barry from Chile.

61 King to Court, 26 Dec. 1842, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/17. King tried desperately to convince the Chilean foreman to stay on. See also King to Court, 3 Nov. 1841, ibid., and King to Court, 20 July 1840, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/16.

62 King to Immigration Committee, LC/NSW/VP (1841), 8 07 1841.Google Scholar

63 John, Dunsmore Lang, An Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales (2 vols., London, 1875), 1, 306.Google ScholarR., Therry, Reminiscences of Thirty Years Residence in New South Wales and Victoria (London, 1863), p. 227.Google Scholar

64 Diary of A. B. Spark, 23 June 1842, ML/MSS 4869.

65 National Archives, Washington, D.C. Dispatches, U.S. Consulate, Sydney. Williams, J. H. to the Honorable Daniel Webster, 1 01 1842. Tables, fn. 36 above.Google Scholar

66 Campbell, W. S., ‘Wheats in New South Wales’, Royal Australian Historical Society, 22 (1936), pt. 6, 425–9.Google ScholarLaunceston Examiner, 15 07 1846, reported that wheat exported from Van Diemen's Land almost tripled between 1841 and 1843.Google Scholar

67 For the decline of wages, see King to Court, 28 April 1843, ANU/MSS/File 78/1/17. For unemployment, see the Australian, 30 08 1843; SMH, 5, 6, 9 and 18 01 1843;Google Scholar and SirGeorge, Gipps to Lord, Stanley, 19 08 1843, HRA, Series I, XXIII.Google Scholar

68 The only significant study of the emigration is that recently published by Abbott, C. J., ‘The Emigration to Valparaiso in 1843’, Labour History, 19 (11 1970), pp. 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The emigration attracted brief notices from Roberts, , op. cit., p. 193,Google Scholar and Gavin, Souter, A Peculiar People: The Australians in Paraguay (Sydney, 1968), footnote, p. 62.Google Scholar See also SirGeorge, Gipps to Lord, Stanley, 4 11 1843. HRA, Series I, xxiii, 211–13. It seems probable that some left New Zealand to seek an improved fortune in Chile. El Mercurio, 6 01 1844, mentioned immigrants arriving aboard the Brougham, while a letter to the London Times, dated Wellington, 24 April 5843, and extracted in the Times on 20 09 1843, p. 6, col. 2, described the Brougham as ‘a regular trader’ between Port Nicholson and Valparaíso. Trade increased sharply between New Zealand and Chile in 1843; see the table in fn. 36 above.Google Scholar

69 El Mcrcurio, 8 01 1844;Google ScholarPort Phillip Patriot, 23 10. 1843,Google Scholar as cited in Abbott, , op. cit., p. 15. It seems likely that some of the immigrants were settled on government lands in the area around Concepción. Walpole to Earl of Aberdeen, April 25, 1844. F.O. 16/52, Reel 52. The coincidence of time also suggests that some of the Australians may have settled in the Patagonian area, but I have found no evidence yet to support such an hypothesis.Google Scholar

70 SMH, 7 02. 1844.Google Scholar

71 Martner, , op. cit., I, 183, 198, 223.Google Scholar

72 Marthe, Barbance, Vie Commerciale de la Route du Cap Horn au XIXe Siécle (Paris, 1969), p.78.Google ScholarEl Mercuro, 3 11 1843.Google Scholar

73 SMH, 9, 13 09, 28 11, 22 and 28 12 1843. LC/NSW/VP (1843), 10, 28 11, 27 and 28 12Google ScholarNew South Wales Magazine (07 1843), p. 317; (10 1843), pp. 514/15, 562.Google Scholar In general Gov. Gipps favored an increase of the ad valorem tax but ‘would not hx anything like a protection duty on grain’. The protectionists, ably represented by Mr Panton, were anticipating the theme which would result in the raising of inter-colonial barriers in the 1840s: see LaNauze, J. A., ‘Merchants in Action. The Australian Tariffs of 1852’, The Economic Record, 31 (1955), p. 80.Google Scholar

74 Combining two letters: Robert Towns to D. C. Mackey & Co., 29 Nov. 1848, and Robert Towns to Goldsmith, Robert Towns Manuscripts, Mitchell Library, Uncatalogued Set 307, item 58. A wool price decline was complicated by a virulent disease (inflamed spleen) which struck down and killed cattle, sheep and men: Therry, , op. cit., p. 264.Google Scholar

75 Martner, , op. cit., I, 240.Google Scholar

76 Petition of Landowners and Agriculturists of Penrith, LC/NSW/VP (1841). The petition is summarized in Dunsdorfs, op. cit., p. 58.Google Scholar For yield per acre, see Dunsdorfs, , p. 532.Google Scholar

77 Such figures are but rough estimates. For ocean freights, see Douglas, North, ‘Ocean Freights and Economic Developments, 1750–1913’, Journal of Economic History, 18 (12 1958), 537–55.Google Scholar The rates declined during the period of 1815–48. The Maitiand Mercury, 8 01 1843, itemized the expense factors involved with the importation of Chilean wheat, but the paper estimated that grain could be purchased in Concepción even at $2.50/fanega and still be sold at a profit in Australia. I believe this to be too generous an estimate.Google Scholar

78 Daniel, Martner, op. cit., I, 214, 230, 241.Google ScholarSergio, Sepúlveda, El trigo chileno en ci rncrcado mundial (Santiago, 1959), p. 50.Google Scholar The Australian, 2 09 1845, claimed that Chilean wheat was selling at 2s. 6d. or 3s. od., but such a price was unusual as six grain ships had just arrived in Sydney Harbour.Google Scholar

79 Dunsdorfs, , op. cit., p. 202.Google Scholar

80 ibid., pp. 92–3. SMH, 28 12 1843.Google ScholarRoberts, , op. cit., p. 171.Google Scholar

81 Coghlan, , op. cit., I, 464–5.Google ScholarNew South Wales Magazine (09. 1843), p. 508. SMH, passim. Governor Grey of South Australia claimed in 1845 that farmers of that colony could produce wheat at only 2s. 6d.Google Scholar a bushel. Cited in Roberts, , op. cit., p. 352.Google Scholar

82 El Alfa (Talca), 5 March 1849, as quoted in Bauer, Arnold, ‘Chilean Rural Society in the Nineteenth Century’. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley (1969), p. 19.Google Scholar

83 Domingo, Santa María, Memoaria del intendente de Colchagua (Santiago, 1848), p. 10,Google Scholar as cited in ibid., p. 103.

84 Same sources as those used for fn. 36. The impounded ship was the Valparaiso; Australian, 20, 27 06 and 12 09 1840.Google Scholar

85 King to Court, ANU/MSS 78/1/16, 14 April 1841. Minutes of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 29 Sept. and 20 Oct. 1841. Many ships continued from London to Valparaiso via Sydney and carried goods to Chile on consignment orders issued in London; see as examples SMH, 27 03 1844, discussing the Alfred and SMH, 27 05 1844, discussing the Mary Nixon.Google Scholar

86 Robert Towns, 20 May 1844, Sydney to Messrs Gimmel and Co., Valparaíso. Uncat. MSS/ML. Set 307, Item 86, Letter Book (1844). King to Court, ANU/MSS 78/1/16, 2 April 1840.

87 For the Laws of Navigation, see 3 & Wm. IV, C. 54, sec. 15. The complaints of the farmers are discussed in LC/NSW/VP (1841), 17 08 1841.Google Scholar

88 King to Court, ANU/MSS 78/5/56, 14 June 1841. See also SMH, 27 05 and 31 07 1840.Google Scholar

89 Martner, , op. cit., I, 1831, 198, 244;Google ScholarSepsúlveda, , op. cit., p. 36;Google ScholarVéliz, , Marina mercante, pp. 49–52.Google ScholarLópez, Urrutia, op. cit., p. 185, notes the decline of the Chilean navy during the 1840s. Véliz, ‘La mesa’, provides the clearest statement of dominance of the economic triarchy in Chile.Google Scholar

90 Demetrio, Ramos, Trigo chileno, nauieros dcl CalIao y hacendados limcños entre la crisis agrlcola del siglo XVII y la comercial de la primera mitad del XVIII (Madrid, 1967). Sergio Sepsúlveda, El trigo chileno.Google Scholar

91 The clearest discussion of the Chilean expansion vs. improvement pattern is that provided by Bauer, , ‘Rural Labor’, loc. cit.Google Scholar

92 Blainey, , op. cit., p. 285.Google Scholar

93 Sepúlveda, , op. cit., p. 33.Google ScholarEugenio, Pereira Salas, ‘Las primeras relaciones entre Chile y Australia’, Boletin de la Academia Chilena de la Historia, Año 22 (Segundo Semestre de 1955), no. 53, p. 5.Google Scholar