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The Imperial Response to ‘Free Trade’: Spanish Imports from Spanish America, 1778–1796

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

John Fisher
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The present study comprises the results of the second stage of a research project into the general question of trade between Spain and its American empire in the period 1778–96. The historiographical context of the project, and the significance of the time scale, were explained in an article published in 1981, which analysed the consequences for Spain's economy, its regions, and its major ports of the greater freedom to export to America provided by the decree of free trade of 1778. Using as its basic source the registers of 3,809 ships which sailed from Spanish ports for America between 1778 and 1796, that work produced the following principal conclusions, (i) Free trade promoted a massive expansion in the value of exports from Spain to America. The rise was uneven, but in the period 1782–96 as a whole their average annual value was 400 % higher than in the base year of 1778. (ii) The share of Spanish products in total exports from Spain to America rose from 38% in 1778 to an average of 52% in 1782–96. (iii) Despite the impossibility of measuring with precision the relative importance of Spanish manufactures and agricultural goods in exports, it seems that agricultural producers were more responsive than industrialists to the wider opportunities in the American market offered by free trade.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1985 , pp. 35 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 John, Fisher, ‘Imperial “Free Trade” and the Hispanic Economy, 1778–1796’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 13 (1981), pp. 21–56.Google Scholar An excellent modern edition of the free trade legislation is provided by Bibiano, Torres Ramírez and Javier, Ortiz de la Tabla (eds.), Reglamento para el comercio libre, 1778 (Sevilla, 1979).Google Scholar

2 Thirteen Spanish ports were formally enfranchised in 1778, Twelve of them received ships from America, but no record has been found of entries into Almería (there are nil returns for certain years). As Tables B9 and B 14 indicate, there were a few entries into two additional ports, San Sebastián and Vigo; the special permission granted to Sanlúcar to participate in free trade generated a few departures for America, but as with Almería there appear to have been no direct entries into the port: thus, although sixteen ports were entitled to receive American ships, only the fourteen covered in Appendix B actually did so. (Two ships did put in to Sanlúcar from Cartagena in 1787, but only for shelter from a storm, and as soon as it cleared they continued their voyages to Cádiz: Juez de Arriv's de San Lucar to Marqués, de Sonora, 06 1787, Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla (hereafter cited as AGI) Indiferente Gen., leg. 2180.)Google Scholar

3 All 4,012 of the registers are in AGI, Indiferente Gen. There are some inconsistencies in their exact location and organization: for the period 1781–6 most are in a series of legajos (2209A–2212) entitled ‘Entradas y registros de las embarcaciones de América’, which also contains some registers of departures for America; those for 1786 spill over into a separate set of legajos (2441–61), entitled ‘Presupuesto de la carga con que regresan a España las embarcaciones del Comercio libre’, in which most of the 1787–96 registers are located. However, some arrival registers for this latter period have been misfiled in the legajos supposedly dealing with departures (‘Salidas y presupuestos de las embarcaciones para América’), which are numbered 2173–96: for example, 59 registers of arrivals in Cádiz in 1783, together with smaller numbers for six other ports, are in leg. 2175. The majority of the registers for Málaga are in a separate set (2397‐401) dealing specifically with that port (‘Presupeusto de la carga con que entran y salen los buques en Málaga’).

4 The majority of the annual returns for individual ports are in Archivo General de Simancas, Dirección General de Rentas, 2a remesa (hereafter cited as AGS, DGR. 2), although some are in AGI: full details of those used are in Appendix A.

5 The real was the basic unit of account for the compilers of ships' registers, although those of the few ships which entered San Sebastián, and some of those at La Coruña, tend to show values in pesos. For purposes of conversion 20 reales de vellion = 1 peso fuerte.

6 The indirect approach is employed in Javier Cuenca Esteban, ‘Statistics of Spain's Colonial Trade, 1792–1820; Consular Duties, Cargo Inventories, and Balances of Trade’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 61 (1981), pp. 381–428.Google Scholar

7 ‘Relación del número de embarcaciones procedentes de… América… desde primero de enero hasta fin de Dizre de 1778…’, AGS, DGR. 2, leg. 568.

8 ‘Estado general que manifiesta los buques que han regresado a este Puerto de los de América desde principios del año de mil setecientos setenta y ocho hasta fin de Diziembre di mil setecientos ochenta y siete… ’, Barcelona, 21 May 1788, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2183.

9 ‘Comercio libre de América. Año de 1783. Plan que demuestra lo que há producido al Real Herario en dho a˜o el libre Comercio de Indias…’, Madrid, March 1784, AGS, DGR. 2, leg. 572.

10 ‘Comercio libre de Indias. Año de 1785. Plan gral que demuestra lo que há producido al Real Herario en el a˜o de 1785 el libre comercio de América…’, AGS, DGR. 2, leg. 572.

11 Gazeta de Madrid, 18 04 1786, 259–60.Google Scholar

12 ‘Comercio libre de América. Año de 1788. Plan que demuestra los valores de los generosy frutos… qe se han conducido à Indias…: valor de los efectos de América, sus dros…’, AGS, DGR, 2, leg. 575.

13 Fisher, , ‘Imperial “Free Trade”’, p. 29.Google Scholar

14 Balanza del comercio de España con los dominios de S.M. en América y en las Indias en el año de 1792 (Madrid, 1805).Google Scholar

15 ‘Estado…’, La Coruña, 30 July 1792, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2452.

16 ‘Estado…’, La, Coruña, 25 01 1792, and ‘Estado general…’,Google ScholarSanta, Cruz de Tenerife, 13 01 1792, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2451.Google Scholar

17 ‘Estado…’, La, Coruña, 26 02 1791,Google Scholar AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2449. ‘Estado…’, Málaga, , 4 01 1791, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2187.Google Scholar

18 The goods in this unvalued category tended to be sundry items of little value, such as honey, sweetmeats, herbs, and planks of wood.

19 Fisher, , ‘Imperial “Free Trade”’, p. 29.Google Scholar

20 The registers of these eight ships are in AGI, Indiferente Gen., legajos 2442–3. See, too, Reglamento para el comercio libre, pp. 74–5.Google Scholar

21 Registers of San Miguel and El Catbalan: AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2446.

22 Registers of San Antonio Abad, El Famoso Sevillano and Nuestra Señora de Aranzaru: AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2446.

23 Acta of Consejo de Estado, 16 May 1784, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter referred to as AHN), Estado, libro 7.

24 All figures for exports to America are from Fisher, ‘Imperial “Free Trade”’.

25 The registers are in AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2209A.

26 Miguel de Vallejo to Directores de Rentas, 25 July 1783, AGS, DGR.2, leg. 571.

27 The relevant registers are in AGI, Indiferente Gen., legajos 2209 A, 2209 B, 2211, and 2212.

28 Manuel González Guira to Antonio Valdés, 13 January 1789 and 7 August 1789, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2445.

29 A report to Gardoqui, 21 June 1793, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2453, gives details of a vessel from Buenos Aires which changed course from Santander to Cádiz to unload its cargo as a result of the outbreak of war.

30 Juan Pablo Valiente to Gardoqui, February 1795, AGI, Indiferente, Gen., leg. 2194.

31 The registers for 1797 are in AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2161. Three of the vessels unloaded their cargoes in smaller ports (Ayamonte, Algeciras, San Pedro) for transfer to Cádiz by small boats.

32 For a general discussion of the post-1796 impact of warfare upon Spain's American trade, see Antonio, García-Baquero González, Comercio colonial y guerras revolucionarias: la decadencia económica de Cádiz a raiz de la emancipación americana (Sevilla, 1972).Google Scholar

33 As García-Baquero points out (Comercio colonial…, p. 138) the general approval of neutral commerce in November 1797 was preceded by a number of piecemeal permits, including that of 17 March which allowed neutral shipping to enter Havana. Although individual Cádiz merchants put pressure upon the crown for permission to charter neutral vessels, customs officials in the port opposed the measure on the grounds that it would prejudice the interests of those Spanish merchants who were keeping their ships ready for sea in the hope that the crown would again organize a convoy system: customs administrator to Pedro de Varela, 7 April 1797, AGS, Secretaria y Superintendencia de Hacienda, leg. 844.

34 An anonymous report written in 1785 alleged that considerable quantities of oil, spirits, flour, beans and saffron were smuggled to America on the mail-boats. AHN, Estado, leg. 32081.

35 The register is in AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2456.

36 For a general survey of the numbers of ships entering Spain's major ports in the 1780s see Jean-François, Bourgoing, Travels in Spain (3 vols. London, 1789), vol. II, pp. 41–7.Google Scholar

37 A contemporary survey is provided by Manuel, Deogracias Nifo, Noticia de los caudales, frutos y efectos que ban entrado en España de América en el feliz reynado de nuestro Católico Monarca Don Carlos III (Madrid, 1788).Google Scholar

38 Details from registers in AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2442.

39 The navy ship Nuestra Señora de la O, for example, imported into Cádiz in 1789 one Negro and two Negresses: AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2445.

40 Table 5 simply aggregates the figures in Tables C1 and C2, and thus covers 88% of the value of goods imported in 1782–96. Figs 2 and 3 are also based upon Tables C1 and C2, although their ‘Others’ category includes a number of commodities which are listed separately in the tables.

41 Joseph, Townsend, A Journey through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787 (London, 1791), p. 141, reported that Barcelona had ‘a company… for spinning American cotton’.Google Scholar

42 The current value of 40 reales a lb. for vicuña compared with that of 3 reales for sheep's wool.

43 Pedro de Lerena informed the Junta de Estado in 1788 that 170,000 of the 260,000 hides imported annually into Cádiz were re-exported: Acta, 27 October 1788, AHN, Estado, libro 2.

44 The Santa Rosalia, for example, brought a small quantity of cuzqueño sugar from Montevideo to Cádiz in 1786: AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2211.

45 Royal order, 21 November 1792, AGI, Audiencia de Mexico, leg. 2505.

46 See Moreno Fraginals, M., El ingenia: el complejo económico-social cubano del azúcar (Havana, 1964).Google Scholar

47 The 1784 imports amounted to 8,870 arrobas from Havana, of which all but 217 were for the crown, and 23,971 arrobas from La Guiara for private individuals.

48 During a debate in the Council of State about means of raising money to cover wartime expenditure, Diego de Gardoqui reported that he was shipping as much crown silver as he could from America: Acta, 9 May 1794, AHN, Estado, libro 7.

49 It is possible to confirm from other sources that most of it was derived from Cuba's trade with New Spain. In 1789, for example, almost a third of the silver exported from Vera Cruz (5,940,490 pesos out of 18,393,460) was sent to other American destinations, of which Cuba was by far the most important: ‘Estado de los caudales que se han embarcado en este Puerto de Veracruz…’, 16 January 1790, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2187.

50 This 15.5% consisted almost entirely of imports from Vera Cruz—Havana (15.3 %).

51 In 1790, for example, 375 ships entered Havana and 283 departed: ‘Noticia de las embarcaciones que han entrado y salido en el Puerto de Havana en todo el año de 1790’, enclosed with Domingo de Hemani to Pedro de Lerena, 3 January 1791, AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2449.

52 The Junta de Estado decided in 1791 to extend privileges granted to foreign merchants in 1782 to trade with these areas, but it do so reluctantly, ‘reflexionando qe la voz de libertad absoluta puede causar malas sensaciones, y comparaciones en los otros dominios de America qe no la gozan, y son mucho mas importantes, e infinitamente mas utiles a la Monarquia…’: Acta, 17 Oct. 1791, AHN, Estado, libro 4.

53 In 1787, for example, La Luisiana arrived in Cádiz with a cargo worth 15.1 million reales, of which tobacco accounted for 15 million: AGI, Indiferente Gen., leg. 2442.

54 For further information on New Granada see Anthony, McFarlane, ‘El comercio exterior del virreinato de la Nueva Granada: conflictos en la política económica de los borbones, 1783–1789’, Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura, nos. 6–7 (1971–72), pp. 69–116.Google Scholar

55 The two latter areas benefited from the crown's decision in 1789 to allow minor ports to export their products to Spain duty-free: Acta of Junta de Estado, 23 February 1789, AHN, Estado, libro 3. For a general discussion of the role of the consulado in promoting trade, see Humberto, Tandrón, El real consulado de Caracas y el comercio exterior de Veneuzuela (Caracas, 1976).Google Scholar

56 John, Lynch, Spanish Colonial Administration, 1782–1810 (London, 1958), pp. 121–2.Google Scholar See also Jonathan, C. Brown, A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776–1860 (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 70–2.Google Scholar

57 Consulado of Lima to viceroy, 10 February 1779, Archivo General del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Lima, Sección Colonial, libro 2–2.

58 See Fisher, J. R., Government and Society in Colonial Peru (London, 1970), p. 134.Google Scholar

59 See Fisher, J. R., Silver Mines and Silver Miners in Colonial Peru 1776–1824 (Liverpool, 1977).Google Scholar