FOOTNOTES:
[68] The word Cuyo, according to Angelis, in the Araucanian language signifies arena, or sand, which is the general character of the soil.
[69] The cactus, which is found in every variety throughout the province of Cuyo, abounds in the neighbourhood of San Luis, and the natives collect the cochineal from it, and make it into cakes, which they use in dying their ponchos.
[70] Although from June to December it is either wholly or partially covered with snow, I have seen it in the month of May wholly bare, when only a few days before there had been heavy falls of snow on the Cumbre, or central ridge, &c. I mention these facts to show that Tupungato cannot attain a higher level than that assigned to the limit of perpetual congelation, which in this latitude to about 15,000 feet, though, from the known height of the Cumbre, and its supposed elevation above the central ridge, I am disposed to conclude that its actual elevation cannot be far short of 16,000 feet (Miers).
[71] Dr. Gillies says where the Diamante joins it, it is called the Salado.
[72] In the more southern parts of the province, in the direction of the Diamante, corn may be grown without the labour and expense of artificial irrigation, the rains which fall there being sufficient to render it unnecessary.
[73] The dried fruits of figs, peaches, apples, nuts, olives, &c.
Between 300 and 400 mules were sold for Chile in the same year. The load or carga is equal to about 200 lbs.
[74] The mark is eight Spanish ounces, or seven ounces, three pennyweights, fourteen grains, troy, English. The caxon is fifty quintals, or 5000 lbs. of ore.
[75] According to Myen, a recent traveller, this part of the Cordillera is not so elevated as more to the south:—he says it is passable at several points of the province of Copiapo.
[76] These heights are given on the authority of Dr. Gillies.
[77] Zamudio, an officer in the service of Buenos Ayres, who examined it the year before M. de Souillac, is said to have actually passed it with a two-wheel cart. Dr. Gillies does not give so favourable an account of its present state.
PART III.
TRADE AND PUBLIC DEBT.
CHAPTER XV.
TRADE.
Advantages of the situation of Buenos Ayres in a commercial point of view. Amount of Imports into Buenos Ayres in peaceable times. From what Countries. Great proportion of the whole British Manufactures. Articles introduced from other parts of the World. The Trade checked by the Brazilian War, and subsequent Civil Disturbances. Recovering since 1831. Proportion of it taken off by Monte Video since its independence. Comparative view of Exports. Scarcity of Returns. Capabilities of the Country. Advantage of encouraging Foreigners. The Wool Trade becoming of importance owing to their exertions. Other useful productions which may be cultivated in the interior. Account of the origin and increase of the Horses and Cattle in the Pampas.
In a commercial point of view we have only to look at the map to be satisfied of the great importance of the geographical position of Buenos Ayres. From the Amazons along a line of coast upwards of 2000 miles in extent, the River Plate affords the only means of communicating with all those vast regions in the interior of the continent comprised between the Andes and the mountainous districts which bound Brazil to the west. Not only the provinces of the Argentine Republic and of Paraguay, but the now independent states of Bolivia and Peru, are as yet only accessible from the Atlantic through the Rio de La Plata.
If there is but little intercourse between these states at present, it must be ascribed to political causes alone, and to such confined and restrictive notions as are, perhaps, to be expected from governments in their infancy.
The people of Bolivia and the eastern districts of Peru, whose wants from Europe were formerly supplied through Buenos Ayres, are now under separate governments of their own, which seem anxious to display their commercial as well as political independence of their old connexions by endeavouring to force the trade through other channels more immediately under their own control; but, however desirous those governments may be, under present circumstances, to establish a direct intercourse with Europe through their own ports in the Pacific, and however well adapted those ports may be for the supply of the provinces upon the west coast of America, there can be no doubt, so far as regards all those which lie to the eastward of the Cordillera, that, whenever the intermediate rivers shall be navigated by steam, for which they are so admirably calculated, the people of those vast countries will be much more easily supplied with all they want from Europe by inland water-carriage direct from Buenos Ayres than by the present circuitous route round Cape Horn, and the subsequent expensive conveyance by mules across the sandy deserts of Atacama, and the precipitous passages of the Andes.
As these young states acquire some practical knowledge of their real interests, and advance in the science of political economy, it may be expected that they will naturally make such arrangements amongst themselves for an interchange of commercial advantages as cannot but prove to their mutual benefit. And what could be of more importance, either to Buenos Ayres or Bolivia, or the back provinces of Brazil, than the establishment of an internal communication with each other by means of steam-navigation?
In the mean time, however, the trade of Buenos Ayres is limited to the supply of the people of her own provinces. If I may so call those in more immediate political connexion with her,—the soi-disant republic of the Rio de La Plata.
In order to show what may be the extent of that trade in times of peace and domestic quiet, it is necessary to go some years back.
From 1821 to 1825 the Republic was in a state of comparative tranquillity, and the government of Buenos Ayres in the hands of a provincial administration, wise enough to see how mainly the prosperity and importance of their country depended upon the fostering of its trade, and the establishment of a commercial intercourse with the rest of the world upon the most liberal principles. It was during that interval of repose and prosperity that I first landed in Buenos Ayres, and found all classes of the people rejoicing in the blessings of peace.
All the information which it was my duty to collect tended to show the great commercial capabilities of the country, and the facilities afforded by Buenos Ayres as an emporium for the trade with a very great part of the population of the interior of South America.
From a variety of documentary evidence in confirmation of this, which was furnished to me at the time, both by the British merchants and by the local authorities, I shall in the first instance quote the returns for the year 1822, as exhibiting the nature and amount of the trade of Buenos Ayres under the circumstances of undisturbed peace to which I have referred—that is, the trade of Buenos Ayres independently of the supply of any part of Peru, Bolivia, or Paraguay.
And first, with regard to the import trade:—
From a return furnished by the custom-house at Buenos Ayres of all their imports from foreign countries in the year 1822, it appears that they amounted to 11,287,622 Spanish dollars, according to their official valuation, which, generally speaking, may be considered to be about twenty per cent. below the wholesale prices in the market.
This amount was computed to be made up from the several foreign countries as under, viz:—
| 1st. | From | Great Britain to. the value of | 5,730,952 |
| 2nd. | " | France | 820,109 |
| 3rd. | " | the North of Europe—Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark | 552,187 |
| 4th. | " | Gibraltar, Spain, and Sicily | 848,363 |
| 5th. | " | the United States | 1,368,277 |
| 6th. | " | Brazil | 1,418,768 |
| 7th. | " | China | 165,267 |
| 8th. | " | the Havana | 248,025 |
| 9th. | " | Chile and Peru | 115,674 |
| Spanish Dollars | 11,267,622 | ||
of which about 1,323,565 dollars were afterwards reshipped for ports on the neighbouring coast of Brazil, Monte Video, Chile, and Peru.
The important proportion of the British trade in this statement is very manifest; it amounts in fact to as much as the trade of all other foreign countries with Buenos Ayres put together. Comparing it with the importations in the most liberal period of the Spanish colonial system, it is more than double the average value[78] of the whole yearly imports into the Vice-Royalty, for the supply, not only of the provinces immediately attached to Buenos Ayres, but of all Upper Peru and Paraguay, containing a population numerically threefold that of the present republic of the Provinces of La Plata.
At that period British cotton manufactures were unknown at Buenos Ayres; silks from Spain, and French and German linens, alone were in use, the high prices of which generally confined them to the rich, the poorer classes being miserably clad in the coarse manufactures of the interior. It is true that in some parts of Peru and Paraguay the native manufactures were brought to some perfection, but it was by so tedious a process, that if they reached any degree of fineness they were rather articles of luxury and curiosity than of any advantage to the people at large for their domestic purposes. But when the port opened, and British manufactures became known, the low prices at which they were sold at once occasioned a great and general demand for them, and this has gone on yearly increasing, till, amongst the country population especially, the manufactures of Great Britain are become articles of primary necessity. The gaucho is everywhere clothed in them. Take his whole equipment—examine everything about him—and what is there not of raw hide that is not British? If his wife has a gown, ten to one it is made at Manchester; the camp-kettle in which he cooks his food, the earthenware he eats from, the knife, his poncho, spurs, bit, all are imported from England.
I am tempted here to go further, and to ask, who enables him to purchase those articles? who buys his master's hides, and enables that master to employ and pay him? who but the foreign trader? Stop the trade with foreign nations, and how long would it be ere the gaucho would be reduced to the state of the Indian of the pampas, fed on his beef and horse-flesh, and clothed in the skins of wild beasts? I put the question to those people in Buenos Ayres, for there are still some such there, who continue to look with jealousy on foreigners, and would fain have the lower orders believe that the country has been ruined since they were allowed freely to come amongst them.
To return, however, to our subject. By far the greatest part of the British imports into Buenos Ayres consist of the plain and printed calicoes and cloths, which, as I have just stated, are become of the first necessity to the lower orders in this part of South America: the cheaper we produce them, the more they will take; and thus it is that every improvement in our machinery at home, which lowers the price of these manufactures, tends to contribute (we hardly perhaps know how much) to the comforts of the poorer classes in those remote countries.
In the sale of most of these articles no other foreign country can compete with Great Britain, from the low cost of their production; and as to any native manufactures, it would be idle to think of them in a country as yet so scantily peopled, where every hand is wanted, and may be turned to a tenfold better account, in augmenting its natural resources and means of production, as yet so imperfectly developed.
Besides our cotton, linen, woollen, and silk manufactures, we also send to Buenos Ayres considerable quantities of ironmongery and cutlery, coarse and fine earthenware, glass, foreign brandies and wines, and a variety of other articles, the nature and value of which, in detail, is fully exhibited in the general return given in the Appendix of the principal articles of British growth and manufacture which have been exported from this country to the River Plate in all the several years from 1830 to 1837 inclusive.
The total amount of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom alone (exclusive of foreign and colonial produce), exported direct from Great Britain to the River Plate to the last sixteen years, has been as follows:—
To these amounts may be yearly added about £40,000 more for the value of foreign and colonial produce sent direct from Great Britain.
This will give some idea of the general nature and amount of our direct trade with the River Plate, and it will be evident how mainly Great Britain contributes to all the essential wants, as well as domestic comforts, of the people of that part of the world.
The trade of France is different;—whilst we administer to the real wants of the community, France sends them articles rather of luxury than necessity, such as superfine cloths and linens, merinos, cashmeres, silks and cambrics, lace, gloves, shoes, silk stockings, looking-glasses, fans, combs, jewellery, and all sorts of made-up finery.
In 1822 it has been shown that the imports into Buenos Ayres from France were calculated to amount to 820,109 Spanish dollars, or about 164,022l. sterling. By official returns since published in the latter country it appears that, from 1829 to 1836, the imports and exports were as follow, calculated in English sterling, viz.:—
| Year. | Exports from France. | Imports from the River Plate. |
|---|---|---|
| 1829 | £184,732 | £182,861 |
| 1830 | 69,378 | 155,838 |
| 1831 | 92,675 | 128,732 |
| 1832 | 187,486 | 186,100 |
| 1833 | 201,348 | 187,053 |
| 1834 | 154,219 | 234,116 |
| 1835 | 178,766 | 215,809 |
| 1836 | 231,373 | 198,787 |
From Germany and Holland the imports, generally speaking, are of a more substantial kind again. German cloths and linens, and printed cottons from the Rhine, were at one period introduced in considerable quantities. A branch of the Rhenish Manufacturing Company was set up in Buenos Ayres in 1824, for the sale particularly of the latter articles, and the low prices at which, for a time, they were sold threatened to interfere with the demand for similar goods of British manufacture; it turned out, however, that the prices in question did not remunerate the company, and the establishment, not answering, was broken up:—the German printed cottons have been quite driven out of the field by British goods of the same description.
From the Netherlands arms, especially swords and pistols, are brought; and Holland sends gin, butter and cheese, and Westphalia hams, for all which there is a large demand amongst the natives. This trade is chiefly from Antwerp, which is the principal market for the sale of the Buenos Ayrean hides on the continent.
The importations from the Baltic consist of iron, cordage, canvas, pitch and tar, and deals.
The Mediterranean trade is principally in Sicilian and Spanish produce, of which the most important items are the cheap red wines of Sicily, the common wines of Catalonia, brandies, olive oil, maccaroni, and dried fruits, and used to be chiefly carried on in British shipping, and through British houses at Gibraltar:—latterly, however, a great part of these importations have been in Sardinian vessels, from twenty to thirty of which now visit Buenos Ayres annually, instead of three or four, as was the case ten years ago; in amount this trade is fully equal to that from France, or from the north of Europe. Had Spain at an earlier period recognised the independence of the new states, she, instead of foreigners, would undoubtedly have reaped the advantages of this trade. Nor would this have been all: the habits of the people, the customs they had been brought up in, not to speak of international ties and connexions,—all would have most forcibly tended to an active commercial intercourse between her ci-devant colonies and Spain, which would have been of vast importance to the latter:—as it is, she has waited till those habits, and customs, and ties have passed away, and till a new race has grown up destitute of those kindred feelings which naturally animated the last generation, if not hostile to her from the disastrous effects produced by her long and obstinate refusal to recognise their political existence.
Spain must now take her chance in competing with other nations, with the disadvantage of being the last in the field. The cheapness, however, of her wines will always ensure a large demand for them, especially the common red wines of Catalonia. There is also still some demand for Spanish serges, and silks, and velvets, the sewing silks of Murcia, and Spanish snuff; but, as most of these articles can be imported from France of as good quality, and at lower prices, the sale of them is very limited:—great quantities of paper also were formerly introduced from Spain, but it is now brought from other countries, especially from Genoa, of a quality which is preferred, and at lower prices. The annual importation of Spanish and Sicilian wines is from 10,000 to 12,000 pipes, and about 1000 of brandy.
The trade with the United States was long a very unnatural one, the principal article of import from thence being flour, of which the average importations for several years amounted to above 50,000 barrels.
It is not, perhaps, to be wondered at that the larger profits of cattle-breeding should for a time have superseded the pursuits of agriculture, but the inconvenience and evils of an habitual dependence upon any foreign country, particularly upon one at such a distance as North America, for the daily bread of a whole population, became at last so manifest that the legislature found itself called upon to interpose to put an end to it, and to pass such enactments as were necessary to foster and protect the agricultural interests of the native proprietors. The consequence has been that the province of Buenos Ayres, which is capable of producing as good wheat as any country in the world, has again commenced growing not only a sufficiency for the consumption of its own population, but for exportation; and in the last two or three years both flour and corn have been articles of shipment from the River Plate, chiefly to Brazil.
If we except the flour, the principal articles of import from the United States for several years were the coarse unbleached cloths of their own manufacture, called "domestics," of which, for a time, very large quantities were sent to the Spanish-American markets; indeed the very low prices at which these goods were long sold brought them into great demand in almost every part of the world where they were admitted, although now, I believe, like the printed goods from Germany, they can with difficulty compete with similar manufactures made at Manchester. Their other imports into Buenos Ayres consist of spirits, soap, sperm candles, dried and salted provisions, tobacco, furniture of an ordinary though showy description, and deals.
From the returns laid before Congress it appears that the amount of the direct trade between the United States and the river Plate from 1829 to 1836 was as follows, calculated at the rate of five dollars per pound sterling:—
| Year. | Exports from the United States. | Imports from River Plate. |
|---|---|---|
| 1829 | £125,210 | £182,422 |
| 1830 | 125,977 | 286,376 |
| 1831 | 131,956 | 185,620 |
| 1832 | 184,608 | 312,034 |
| 1833 | 139,945 | 275,423 |
| 1834 | 194,367 | 286,023 |
| 1835 | 141,783 | 175,723 |
| 1836 | 76,986 | 210,700 |
Besides their direct trade, the North Americans have at times found a profitable employment for their shipping in carrying Buenos Ayrean produce (jerk beef) to the Havana, and in the coasting trade between Brazil and the River Plate, though the latter is now for the most part taken out of their hands by the Brazilians themselves, who of late years have become the carriers of their own produce.
This trade (with Brazil) has been even more disadvantageous to Buenos Ayres than that with the United States. The only article of native produce to any amount which Brazil takes from the River Plate is the jerk beef; whilst there is hardly an article of Brazilian produce sent there which might not be grown within the republic itself. The tobacco, the sugars, the coffee, and the rice sent from thence, might all be produced in any quantity in the northern provinces of La Plata:—even the yerba-maté, or Paraguay tea, once so fruitful a source of profit to the Vice-Royalty of Buenos Ayres, is now introduced from the southern provinces of Brazil. It is true that Paraguay Proper, where the greater part of it was grown, has been closed for some years, but there is no reason why it should not have been cultivated in Corrientes or the Missions with just as much success as in the Brazilian province of Rio Grande:—as it is, owing to the inferior method of preparing it, the Brazilian yerba-maté is not equal to that of Paraguay, and its use is, in consequence, very much confined to the lower orders, whilst the higher classes are imbibing a very general taste for the teas of China as a substitute.
The imports from China, which appear in the account quoted at page [337], consisted of assorted cargoes of teas, silks, crapes, nankeens, wearing-apparel, tortoise-shell for ladies' combs, earthenware, matting, and a variety of minor articles, introduced principally on British account, though under the American flag, in consequence of our own restrictive regulations not allowing at that time the employment of British shipping in such a speculation. Cargoes of a similar description have since occasionally been introduced, but I believe it has been found to answer better to import the articles into Buenos Ayres as they may be wanted, either from the United States, or from Rio de Janeiro, or from England, than to freight ships expressly to introduce cargoes direct from China. A certain quantity of Chinese goods will always find a ready sale in the Buenos Ayrean market.
The Havana trade has been an important one to Buenos Ayres. Besides large shipments of mules which are sent there, it takes off the greatest portion of the jerk beef made in the country. It is used there and in Brazil as an article of food for the slave population; and the method of preparing it having of late years been greatly improved, there is a constant and increasing demand for it. If permitted to be equally imported into the British West India colonies it would probably find a large sale amongst the same class of persons. I have been given to understand that the best quality might be delivered there under twopence a-pound, allowing for a moderate duty:—its wholesomeness may be estimated from the fact that, during the prevalence of the cholera a few years back at the Havana, it was observed there was a much less mortality among the slaves fed upon jerk beef than on those plantations where they were kept on other diet.
With respect to the trade with Chile and Peru, it is of very trifling importance, and, whenever it has been otherwise, has mainly consisted of re-exports from Buenos Ayres of surplus stocks of European goods, for the favourable sale of which there may have been an occasional opening in the ports of the Pacific. There is no sale for Buenos Ayrean produce on the western coast, since the stoppage of the supply of yerba-maté, of which, in old times, an immense quantity was sent across the Andes to Chile and Peru, and paid for in the precious metals.
From 1821 to 1826 the trade between Buenos Ayres and foreign countries underwent little change, but the breaking out of the war with Brazil then interrupted it, and for nearly three years Buenos Ayres was blockaded by the naval forces of the Emperor, during which time the only foreign goods imported were by such few vessels, chiefly North American, as broke the blockade:—hardly was that war concluded, when the troops returning from the Banda Oriental, elated with their successes against the Brazilians, revolted, overturned the government, and threw the whole republic into confusion; in the long struggle to put them down which ensued, the country population, taking part, abandoned their industrious pursuits, amongst the consequences of which were a loss and destruction of property infinitely greater and more ruinous to the nation than all the waste and cost of the war with Brazil. Public confidence was shaken to its foundation, and, although it is true that, after a time, the constitutional authorities were re-established, it was at an enormous sacrifice of public and private wealth.
The commercial interests of the community were greatly depressed by these events. When the blockade of the river was raised at the close of 1828 there had been by no means such an influx of foreign goods as might have been expected; and, when civil dissensions shortly afterwards broke out, it was evident that the mercantile houses in Buenos Ayres had suffered too severely from the consequences of the war, and the ruinous depreciation of the currency, to encourage their correspondents in Europe to recommence extensive speculations in a country which, to all appearance, was destined to be sacrificed to the passions of contending factions.
Whilst the republic was grievously suffering from these evils, the results also of the newly constituted independence of the Banda Oriental began to develop themselves in a manner very detrimental to the interests of Buenos Ayres.
So long as Monte Video was in the hands of the Portuguese, its trade was extremely insignificant; but no sooner was it freed from that yoke than the people began to turn to account their local advantages, and in a way which it soon became manifest would greatly interfere with the trade of their old metropolis. In proportion as the domestic embarrassments of Buenos Ayres increased, and led that government to raise its duties on foreign trade, so the Monte Videans lowered theirs, and offered advantages which were irresistible in the adjoining provinces, where the duties levied by Buenos Ayres on foreign goods had always been considered a grievance, and where there was no national feeling strong enough to induce the petty authorities to forego their own separate interests in order to aid in sustaining the honour and credit of the capital.
Monte Video has in consequence become a sort of entrepôt for the supply of those provinces, as well as of a portion of the neighbouring Brazilian population in the Rio Grande; and to such an extent, that the importations of foreign goods there were valued at no less than 3,000,000 in 1835, and had reached 3,500,000 hard dollars in 1836; whilst the exports were nearly equal in amount, and now constitute an important proportion of the returns in the general account of the trade with the River Plate.
The amount of the imports into the port of Buenos Ayres has been diminished in proportion. In 1837 they were barely equal to 7,000,000 hard dollars, according to the official valuation, being a falling off of nearly a third from what they were before the war with Brazil.
Making allowances for this difference in its course, the foreign trade with the River Plate has varied little in its general amount for the last five years.
So far as regards the British trade, although there may appear to be a diminution in the value of our exports to the River Plate, as compared with what they were in the years immediately preceding the war between Buenos Ayres and Brazil, it will nevertheless be found upon analysis that there has been a large increase in the quantity, especially of our most important manufactures, viz., the cottons, the quantity of which now sent to the River Plate is double what it was in 1825, though the total declared value has only increased in the proportion of from about 350,000l. to 400,000l., the apparent discrepancy being accounted for by the greatly reduced rate at which we can now afford to sell these goods; in the linens there is also an increase; in the woollens there is, on the other hand, a slight falling off; the silk goods sent out have varied very little in value, but their amount was never of any importance.
The following is an account, taken from the custom-house returns, of the average quantities of these several descriptions of goods sent to the River Plate in the four years from 1822 to 1825, inclusive, compared with the last four years from 1834 to 1837, inclusive:—
| Average Quantity from 1822 to 1825, inclusive. | Average Quantity from 1834 to 1837, inclusive. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottons, | yards | 10,811,762 | 18,151,764 |
| Linens, | do. | 996,467 | 1,176,941 |
| Woollens | pieces | 40,705 | 30,428 |
| yards | 139,037 | 100,183 | |
| Silks, | value | £16,612 | £15,047 |
Upon the whole, the River Plate has been decidedly the most important of all the markets which have been opened to us for the sale of British manufactures in Spanish America. It takes off a much larger quantity of them than either Mexico, Columbia, or Peru; and although it would appear on the face of the official returns that of late years an equal or rather larger amount has been sent to Chile, the truth is, that a considerable part of those shipments were in reality destined for the southern ports of Peru, and the west coast of Mexico.
A comparative account of our exports to all those several countries during the last nine years will be found with the other returns of trade in the Appendix, and will show the relative and aggregate amount of British produce and manufactures taken by the new states during that period.
The average yearly value of them sent to the River Plate in the last five years amounted to £680,000.