The register ships now supplied the market with European commodities at a cheaper rate, and at all times of the year; and Buenos Ayres became from that time a place of importance.
Other relaxations in the mercantile system followed soon after: in 1774 a free trade was allowed between several of the American ports, and in 1778 seven Spanish sea-ports were declared free, to which in 1788, five others were added, and these were allowed an open trade to Buenos Ayres, and the ports of the Pacific.
The city and the captain-generalship was now advancing with rapid strides into political importance; this was rendered stable by the erection of the government into a viceroyalty in 1778; and since that time its trade has progressively increased.
Previous to this epoch, not more than fifteen registered vessels traded to South America, and these not oftener than once in two or three years; but in 1778, their number at once augmented to 170. They kept gradually increasing till 1797, when the memorable war began between Spain and Great Britain, and a death blow was given to the commerce of Spanish America, for in 1798, it was calculated, that three millions of hides were rotting in the warehouses of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, for which no vent could be had, so active and vigilant were the British cruizers. Various causes have since contributed to fluctuate the commerce of this government; sometimes it has risen to an amazing height, whilst at others, owing to foreign causes, or to its own internal convulsions, it has been totally at a stand.
Nothing of any material moment occurs in the political history of Buenos Ayres, till the year 1806; when there appeared a British squadron in the Rio de la Plata, from which a body of troops was landed for the purpose of taking the capital; and this object General Beresford accomplished in a very spirited manner. He had not however had possession of the city for more than six weeks, when he was assailed by such a superiority of force, that his garrison were obliged to surrender on the 12th of August. Reinforcements arriving under Sir Home Popham, from the Cape of Good Hope, Fort Maldonado at the mouth of the La Plata was taken, and Monte Video unsuccessfully besieged. Other troops commanded by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, coming to the assistance of their companions, Monte Video was eventually taken by storm, and here the combined forces waited for a further succour, to resume the attempt on the capital. In May, 1807, these succours arrived, under General Whitelocke, who assumed the chief command, and was joined on the 15th of June by General Crawford. The army now amounting to 8000 men sailed up the river, and disembarking below the capital, marched towards it. But no sooner had they entered the place, than they were assailed from all quarters, with a tremendous fire of grape and musquetry. The subsequent results are well known; a convention was entered into, and the British troops evacuated the territories of the viceroyalty.
When Sir Samuel Auchmuty took Monte Video, the people of Buenos Ayres were in a state of ferment. They assembled an extraordinary junta, and deposed their viceroy, Sobremonte, placing in his seat, Don Santiago Liniers, a French emigrant, who had headed the military force, which retook the metropolis, on the 12th August, 1806. This man had sunk himself by a propensity for gambling into a state of great obscurity; but when the British landed in the country, his superior military talents, at once placed him above the inactive and ignorant Spanish officers, who composed the army of the viceroyalty, and by his success in retaking the capital, the populace looked upon him as the only man fit to guide them to repel the second attack, which they were in constant expectation of; thus rose Liniers to the highest station, which could be obtained in a country, where a very short time before, he had been unknown. But his reign lasted not long, attempting to thrust on the people the yoke of Buonaparte, they began to doubt his sincerity; and aided By Xavier Elio, who had been dispatched from the junta of Cadiz, to assume the viceregal title, and who had succeeded in getting possession of Monte Video, they became turbulent.
To quell this spirit, Liniers sent an expedition against Monte Video; but while this was going on, Don Josef de Goyeneche arrived from Spain, to endeavour to mediate between the newly formed parties. He caused the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres to proclaim Ferdinand the Seventh; advising at the same time, that a junta should be immediately formed. So powerful were his measures, that on the 1st of January 1809, the people rose in all parts of the city, and demanded the establishment of a junta. They were however dispersed, and the leaders punished by the troops who remained faithful to Liniers.
But this temporary triumph was not of long continuance, as in August, 1809, Cisneros, the new viceroy, arrived from Spain, and Liniers was deposed by the junta, which now solemnly declared their rights. Liniers was then exiled to Cordova, but the spirit of insurrection had spread itself too widely by this time to admit of the new viceroy continuing long in the exercise of his functions; commotion succeeded to commotion, and on the 26th of May, 1810, a provisional government assembled itself; deposed the new viceroy and sent him to Spain; against this measure the interior provinces and Monte Video protested. Liniers formed an army in the neighbourhood of his retreat, and in Potosi another assembled under General Nieto. To check these, a force marched from Buenos Ayres; Liniers and Nieto were defeated, and themselves and six of their principal officers beheaded.
This violent measure did not extinguish the loyal feelings of the natives of the kingdom; a force was put in motion in Paraguay, under the governor Velasco, who was however taken prisoner and sent to Buenos Ayres, but Monte Video still remained firm in her allegiance to Spain, and repelled every attempt of the new government. Since this period Monte Video has been taken possession of by the Portuguese. Buenos Ayres, though threatened with a counter-revolution, still retains its provisional government; the mines of Potosi are in the hands of the viceroy of Peru; the greater part of Paraguay is quiet, and the spirit of insurrection is chiefly confined to the capital; which furnishes a great number of privateers that much annoy the Spanish merchant vessels trading to Peru and the coasts of the Pacific. It would be endless to recount the different actions which have taken place between the royal troops and the insurgents, or between the city of Monte Video and that of Buenos Ayres; but the latter have been generally victorious, and the privateers of this new government still dare to show their flag in the Pacific, and to keep the coasts of Chili and Peru in constant alarm.