Conflictos, negociaciones y comercio durante las guerras de independencia latinoamericanas

Abstract

This collection of essays forms part of a series on “issues related to the social, economic and cultural framework and interaction of the conduct of trade in conflict situations.” Two initial essays focus on institutional approaches to the understanding of Latin American economies after independence. Seven other contributions deal with commerce in various regions of Latin America during, or slightly after, the struggle for independence.Jorge Gelman asserts that institutional analyses of Latin American economies neglect the role of geography and transportation costs as constraints on economic growth. Gelman contends that institutional interpretations treat national economies as a whole, neglecting crucial regional variations. He also notes, in the case of Mexico, the damage to silver mining in the independence struggle and the loss of highly productive lands in the war of 1846 – 48. Finally, he notes that nineteenth-century Cuba, depending on the institution of slavery, enjoyed substantial economic growth, comparable to that of Buenos Aires, which operated under a very different labor system. Gelman concludes that institutions are not irrelevant but may be of secondary importance.Alejandra Irigoin also points to key methodological problems in some well-known institutional analyses. Irigoin, however, rather than rejecting institutional approaches to Latin American backwardness, emphasizes the importance of Latin America’s inheritance from the colonial period of fragmented fiscal institutions as an economic constraint after independence. In effect, she is proposing a different sort of institutional analysis.The Irigoin essay suffers from some occasional loose generalization. The author asserts (p. 41) that all Latin American countries suffered from frequently changing constitutional systems. This was a common pattern but in two important cases, Chile and Brazil, early constitutional frameworks remained in force for many decades. Her assertion that fiscal problems were responsible for political instability (p. 44) may well be true in many cases, but frequently political and partisan motives also came into play. Nonetheless, this is a serious essay, which I found instructive.Some essays on specific regions deal with commerce in time of conflict in the independence era. Diana Birrichaga Gardida discusses the breakdown of commerce in central Mexico in the context of the independence war. Sara E. Mata describes commerce in Salta with particular reference to the mule trade in 1810 – 1822, a time of relative decline of exchange between the Argentine interior and Alto Peru. Antonio Escobar Ohmstede, on the other hand, deals with Huasteca commerce in postindependence Mexico.A third section focuses on conflictive frontier areas. Sara Ortelli describes economic interactions between mobile indigenes and Hispanic settlers in northern Mexico, involving both robbery and commerce in livestock. Silvia Ratto gives a well-specified treatment of somewhat similar interactions between indigenes and Hispanics in the Pampa and Patagonian frontiers. Helen Osório discusses war and commerce between Brazilians and Spanish Americans in the Banda Oriental. In common with the cases of Ortelli and Ratto, she shows that in time of war cattle and horses become key economic resources. Juan Francisco Jiménez also focuses on frontier areas in Chile (1821 – 26), but on military rather than commercial aspects. His particular interest is in the role of indigenes as cavalry, complementing Hispano-criollo foot soldiers.The regional studies tend to complement each other, dealing in several cases with Hispano-indigenous interactions involving both robbery and more formal commerce. Most helped to map out commercial patterns in areas not usually at the center of scholarly attention. The two essays focusing on institutional explanations of economic retardation I also found instructive and engaging on a different level.