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:--

Year. Declared Value. Observations. 1822 £981,047 } 1823 664,436 } Years of peace; average 1824 1,141,920 } £909,330. 1825 849,920 }

1826 371,117 } Buenos Ayres blockaded 1827 154,895 } by the Brazilians. 1828 312,389 }

1829 758,540 } 1830 632,172 } 1831 339,870 } 1832 660,151 } 1833 515,362 } Average from 1829 to 1834 831,564 } 1837, £643,291. 1835 658,525 } 1836 697,334 } 1837 696,104 }

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 164,022_l._ 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.:--

Exports from Imports from the Year. France. 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:--

Exports from the Imports from Year. United States. 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 350,000_l._ to 400,000_l._, 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 Average Quantity from 1822 to 1825, from 1834 to 1837, inclusive. 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.

EXPORTS.

The nature of the _export-trade_ from Buenos Ayres may be generally gathered from the following summary, or comparative valuation of the exports from thence in 1822, 1825, 1829, and 1837; though, being taken from the Buenos Ayrean custom-house accounts, some allowance must be made for short manifests by the shippers, perhaps an addition of twenty per cent. to the amount officially accounted for in each year. The returns of specie and bullion exported are especially liable to this observation.

Comparative Return and Valuation of the principal Articles Exported from Buenos Ayres in the years 1822, 1825, 1829, and 1837.

+------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | | 1822. | | +------------------------+----------+ | |Quantity.| Price. | Value. | | +---------+--------------+----------+ | | |Dollars. | Dollars. | | | | | | |Spanish Dollars | 474,633 | -- | 474,633 | |Marks of Silver | 84,690 | at 8 | 677,520 | |Gold (ounces) | 12,020 | 17 | 204,340 | |Gold (uncoined) | -- | -- | -- | |Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | 145 | 16 | 2,321 | |Ox-hides | 590,372 | 4 |2,361,488 | |Horse-hides | 421,566 | 1 | 421,566 | |Jerk Beef (quintals) | 87,663 | 4 | 350,652 | |Horns | 673,000 | 70 per mil.| 47,110 | |Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 38,137 | 3 | 114,411 | |Sheeps' wool (arobes) | 33,417 | 1 | 33,417 | |Chinchilla skins (dozens) | 9,077 | 4 | 36,308}| |Nutria skins (dozens) | 9,914 | 3 | 29,742}| |Tallow (arobes) | 69,400 | 2 | 124,800 | |Bark (lbs.) | 5,824 | 1/2 | 2,912 | |Cotton (arobes) | -- | -- | -- | |Sheep-skins (dozens) | -- | -- | -- | |Flour (fanegas) | -- | -- | -- | |Corn (do.) | -- | -- | -- | |Sundry Minor Articles | -- | -- | 118,780 | |------------------------------+------------------------+----------+ |Totals {Value of Precious Metals 1,358,814} |5,000,000 | | {" Native Produce 3,641,156} | | +-------------------------------------------------------+----------+

+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | | 1825. | | +---------+-----------------+---------+ | |Quantity.| Price. | Value. | | +---------+-----------------+---------+ | | | Dollars. | Dollars.| | | | | | |Spanish Dollars |1,272,745| -- |1,272,745| |Marks of Silver | 10,559|at 8 | 89,751| |Gold (ounces) | 10,625| 17 | 180,625| |Gold (uncoined) | --| -- | 6,000| |Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | 175| 16 | 2,800| |Ox-hides | 655,255| 5 |2,621,020| |Horse-hides | 339,703| 1 | 339,703| |Jerk Beef (quintals) | 130,361| 4 | 521,444| |Horns |1,553,880|60 per mil. | 93,228| |Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 44,776| 3 | 134,028| |Sheeps' wool (arobes) | --| -- | --| |Chinchilla skins (dozens) | 35,670| 5 | 178,350| |Nutria skins (dozens) | | | | |Tallow (arobes) | 12,167|1-1/2 | 18,250| |Bark (lbs.) | 5,879| 1/2 | 2,939| |Cotton (arobes) | 2,000|2-1/2 | 5,000| |Sheep-skins (dozens) | --| -- | --| |Flour (fanegas) | --| -- | --| |Corn (do.) | --| -- | --| |Sundry Minor Articles | --| -- | 84,117| |------------------------------+---------+-----------------+---------+ |Totals | Precious Metals 1,551,921}|5,550,000| | | Native Produce 3,998,079}| | +----------------------------------------------------------+---------+

+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | | 1829. | | +---------+-----------------+---------+ | |Quantity.| Price. | Value. | | +---------+-----------------+---------+ | | | Dollars. | Dollars.| | | | | | |Spanish Dollars | 189,581| -- | 189,581| |Marks of Silver | 12,699|at 8 | 101,592| |Gold (ounces) | 24,595| 17 | 418,115| |Gold (uncoined) | --| -- | 13,667| |Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | --| -- | --| |Ox-hides | 854,799| 4 |3,419,196| |Horse-hides | 64,563| 1-1/2 | 96,844| |Jerk Beef (quintals) | 164,818| 2 | 329,638| |Horns |1,500,905|60 per mil. | 90,000| |Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 26,682| 3 | 110,046| |Sheeps' wool (arobes) | 30,334| 1 | 30,334| |Chinchilla skins (dozens) | {6,625| 5 | 33,125| |Nutria skins (dozens) | {59,756| 3 | 179,268| |Tallow (arobes) | 21,757| 3 | 65,271| |Bark (lbs.) | --| -- | --| |Cotton (arobes) | 968| 2 | 1,936| |Sheep-skins (dozens) | --| -- | --| |Flour (fanegas) | --| -- | --| |Corn (do.) | --| -- | --| |Sundry Minor Articles | --| -- | 121,387| |------------------------------+---------+-----------------+---------+ |Totals | Precious Metals 722,955}|5,200,000| | | Native Produce 4,477,045}| | +----------------------------------------------------------+---------+

+------------------------------+----------------------------+---------+ | | 1837. | | | +---------+------------------+---------+ | |Quantity.| Price. Value. | | +---------+------------------+---------+ | | | Dollars. | Dollars | | | | | | |Spanish Dollars | 258,748 | -- | 258,743 | |Marks of Silver | 4,881 |at 8 | 39,048 | |Gold (ounces) | 21,999 | 17 | 373,983 | |Gold (uncoined) | 362 | -- | 6,154 | |Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | -- | -- | -- | |Ox-hides | 823,635 | 4 |3,294,540| |Horse-hides | 25,367 | 1-1/2 | 38,046| |Jerk Beef (quintals) | 178,877 | 2-1/2 | 446,192| |Horns | 434,456 | 60 | 26,070| |Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 70,372 | 3 | 211,116| |Sheeps' wool (arobes) | 164,706 | 2 | 329,412| |Chinchilla skins (dozens) | 3,317 | 4 | 13,268| |Nutria skins (dozens) | 51,853 | 2-1/2 | 129,632| |Tallow (arobes) | 100,249 | 1-1/2 | 150,373| |Bark (lbs.) | -- | -- | --| |Cotton (arobes) | 160 | 3 | 480| |Sheep-skins (dozens) | 56,188 | 2-1/2 | 140,470| |Flour (fanegas) | 14,069 | 4 | 56,268| |Corn (do.) | 4,150 | 3-1/2 | 14,525| |Sundry Minor Articles | -- | -- | 108,818| |------------------------------+---------+------------------+---------+ |Totals | Precious Metals 677,928}|5,637,138| | | Native Produce 4,959,210}| | +-----------------------------------------------------------+---------+

The annual account of the imports and exports, continuing to take the year 1822 as an example, may perhaps be generally stated as follows:

Dollars.

The imports for that year, as stated at page 337 (less those re-exported), were valued at 9,944,057

From the gross value of the imports about 30 per cent. must be deducted for duties, landing charges, commission, guarantee of debts, and warehouse rent, say 2,983,217 --------- 6,960,840

The exports are estimated at 5,000,000 Add for short manifests 1,000,000 For charges, 10 per cent. 600,000 ---------- 6,600,000 --------- 360,840

This difference, which upon the whole was of little importance, was at once accounted for by the investments of foreign capital in the purchase of every kind of property in the country previously to the war with Brazil.

Although foreigners, as has been already observed, were heavy sufferers by the events of that war, the country was benefited in a way which could hardly have been foreseen. In the impossibility of making returns to Europe during the continuance of the blockade, the greater part of the large amount of foreign property locked up in it was laid out in cattle-farms, agricultural establishments, saladeros (where the _jerk_ beef is made), houses, and a variety of speculations, the general tendency of which was greatly to improve the real resources of the country. Thus, although upon the whole there was afterwards apparently a falling off in the foreign trade of the port of Buenos Ayres compared with what it was before the war, there was in reality an increase in the quantities of the staple commodities of the country brought to market.

This was encouraging, inasmuch as it is in proportion to the increase and multiplication of the native productions that we must look for the stability and improvement of this trade--the great difficulty being to collect returns for the importations from foreign countries. Hides and skins have been till lately the only articles of any importance obtainable, though it is manifest that the country is highly capable of producing a variety of other articles of great value in a commercial point of view.

Had the provincial governments been sufficiently settled, and the state of the laws in the interior been such as to have afforded any adequate security to foreigners, intelligent men would doubtless long ago have resorted to those parts, and would have given a stimulus to the industry of the native population; for it is to such persons the natives must look to teach them to what account the productions of the soil and climate of the interior of South America may be turned in other countries, as well as how they should be prepared for those markets. Foreigners would soon show them new sources of wealth, and give value to those which have hitherto been neglected or unknown. To them also the natives must look for the introduction of machinery, which may in some measure compensate for the want of hands, which at present makes labour dear, and deprives them of a hundred comforts and conveniences in the commonest use in the civilised countries of Europe. It would be folly to disguise that these new countries are in the very infancy of civilisation; studiously brought up by the mother-country in entire ignorance of all that could teach them their own value and importance, no wonder they now have all to learn.

When I state that in many of the towns of the interior a common wheelbarrow is as yet unheard of, that in the capital itself the first pump ever seen in a private house was put up a very few years ago by an Englishman, it will easily be understood how much the natives have yet to gain by the settlement amongst them of the intelligent mechanics and artificers of more civilised countries. Still greater will be the importance to the community if foreign capitalists should find sufficient encouragement and protection to fix themselves in the country.

The province of Buenos Ayres, as contrasted with the interior, has strikingly exhibited the fruits of a more liberal policy towards foreigners; and could the practical administration of the new laws keep pace with their spirit, and with the general desire amongst the people for improvement, the consequences would be still more apparent. As it is, Buenos Ayres is at least a century in advance of the provinces in general knowledge and civilisation, and her wealth and importance have increased in proportion. Amongst other improvements which she owes to foreigners, she is indebted to some enterprising Englishmen for the introduction of late years of a new source of wealth, which bids fair to rival in importance the most valuable of her old staple commodities.

It is but a few years ago that the wool of the Buenos Ayrean sheep was hardly worth the expense of cleaning it; and as to the meat, I doubt whether the wild dogs would have touched it. It is well known that their carcases, dried in the sun, were used for fuel in the brick-kilns. The great pains and persevering exertions, however, of some intelligent foreigners to introduce and cultivate a better breed has met with a success beyond all expectation, and now promises to be of the greatest importance to the future commercial prospects of the country. The rapid increase in the value of this article of production will be shown by the following comparative account of the quantities which have been imported into Great Britain alone in the last eight years:--

Imports of Wool from Buenos Ayres.

lbs.

1830 19,444 } 1831 12,244 } 269,190 lbs. 1832 30,359 } 1833 207,143 }

1834 1,099,052 } 1835[79] 962,900 } 5,343,319 lbs. 1836 1,073,416 } 1837 2,207,951 }

Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Harratt are the individuals to whom Buenos Ayres is principally indebted for this new source of wealth: the greater part of the wool sent to England in 1834 was of their production, and sold at Liverpool at very high prices compared with those obtained for the old native wools of the country, the quality of which comes perhaps nearest to the low Scotch wools, and is only suited for carpeting, and other strong descriptions of goods. In a country where any quantity of land applicable for the purpose may be had almost for nothing, it is impossible to calculate to what extent the breeding and improvement of sheep may be carried, now that the wool is known to fetch a remunerating price in foreign markets.

Nor is wool the only raw material for our manufactures which we may expect to derive from Buenos Ayres. In my notices of the interior I have stated that in Paraguay and some of the Upper Provinces, especially Corrientes, cotton of a quality equal to the average of that of Brazil is produced:--this has been often satisfactorily shown by samples sent to Liverpool. The natives cultivate it and make cloths of it for their own domestic purposes; and we shall probably obtain large quantities of it whenever foreigners shall enjoy such security as may induce them to carry into the interior the machinery necessary to clean and pack it for the markets of Europe.

From the same part of the Republic, as well as from several of the Upper Provinces, any quantity of indigo may be obtained, of an excellent quality. M. Bonpland, the celebrated naturalist, who has spent so many years in those parts, took the trouble years ago to draw attention to the peculiarity of the indigo found in the province of Corrientes. Speaking of those parts called the Missions, he says, "The whole of this country exceeds description; at every step one meets with things both new and useful in natural history. I have already collected 2000 plants, a large quantity of seeds, &c.

"Amongst the number of interesting plants to which my attention has been called, I am of opinion that this country may hereafter derive great advantages from the three new species of indigo which I have found in these fertile regions. They are very different from the plant from which the indigo is obtained in Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and India; and I flatter myself that the South Americans will avail themselves of this discovery, and cultivate a plant which has hitherto been disregarded under the common name of _yuyo_. The superior quality of indigo that may be obtained from this newly-discovered plant, and the facility of its conveyance down to a port of shipment, render it an object of great importance to a country that has only a few exports, and its cultivation, if encouraged by the government, and undertaken by capitalists, will in a few years furnish an interesting and staple commodity for trade."

This account of the Corrientes indigo was copied from the Buenos Ayrean papers into the Annual Register for 1822, together with the following remarks on some other of the natural resources of the provinces of La Plata, which seem well deserving the notice of those interested in the trade with that part of the world:--"there are many other natural resources of the country to which the attention of the government of Buenos Ayres ought to be called. The _seda silvestre_, a sort of wild silk left in the woods by a certain caterpillar, is found abundantly on the banks of the Paranã, and would constitute a valuable export. Very good cochineal may be gathered in Tucuman, besides a great quantity of bees'-wax.

"The _rubia tinctoria_ is found in many of the extensive forests, but the best is in Tarija, the Chaco, and the Sierra de Cordova; it yields a brilliant colour. It was not till within these few years that notice was taken of a new mode of dyeing a green colour from a production called by the Spaniards _clavillo_, from its resemblance to a little nail. Some persons consider it to be the excrement of a certain insect smaller than the cochineal; others believe it to be the insect itself. Hitherto it has only been gathered in Carquejia, and the point is found introduced into the bark of a shrub; it was first used by the poor people of the country, and it has since been proved by repeated experiments that the Vicuña and Alpaca wools, as well as cotton, after being prepared with astringents, such as alum, and previously boiled in a yellow dye, when thrown into a solution of clavillo, acquire a beautiful green colour; the shade of this simple is in itself greenish, and by keeping grows darker: abundance of it is found in the valley of Catamarca and province of Tucuman, but as yet no scientific experiments have been made with it."

A variety of valuable gums and medicinal balsams may be had from Paraguay, of the efficacy of which marvellous stories are related by those who have resided in those regions. The tree producing caoutchouc is found in abundance about the rivers in the upper part of that province, where the Indians have long known its value, and use it as a substitute for candles: the children make balls of it to play with. They obtain it by making an incision in the tree, from which the gum is run into a hide placed beneath to catch it, and when cold is wound upon large balls for use.

In addition to these, I may mention nitrate of soda, so much used now in our cotton manufactories, which may be procured in any quantity from the provinces of La Plata;--as yet, I believe, not a single bag of it has ever been brought from Buenos Ayres, although there is no reason why it should not be imported from thence at as low a cost as from Chile and Peru; from which countries alone, of late years, the annual importations have been from 50,000 to 100,000 cwt.

War in Europe will always create an increased demand for the produce of such a country as Buenos Ayres. In the last years of the general war, not only was there an enormous demand for the hides of Buenos Ayres, but considerable quantities of tallow also were shipped from thence; and, although those shipments ceased to answer when the Russian markets were reopened, they may always be calculated upon again should any stoppage take place of our ordinary supplies through the Baltic. At present, though Buenos Ayrean tallow is worth as much as Russian in the English markets, there is no great quantity of it produced, in consequence of the animals being killed for their hides as soon as they are marketable, which is before they yield tallow in any quantity worth collecting.

Corn also was an article of export from Buenos Ayres during the general war in Europe, and is again beginning to be exported to Brazil--as is shown by the account of the exports in 1837. It is of an excellent quality, and might be grown to any extent.

Mules, horses, and asses have at times been shipped in large numbers for the West Indies and for the Isle of France, and have been sold there at an enormous profit.

In the short notices given of the provinces of the interior, I have given such accounts of any other of their native productions as I could collect. The silver and gold mines of Cordova, La Rioja, Mendoza, San Juan, and Salta, may eventually become productive; and, when an intercourse is once more permitted with Bolivia through the interior, it may be expected that some portion of the precious metals produced there also will, as formerly, find their way to Buenos Ayres.

In old times, not only were the rich and populous provinces of Bolivia exclusively supplied through the Rio de la Plata with all such articles as they wanted from Europe, but they took from the lower provinces a variety of useful productions of their own, for all which they paid in gold and silver. Of mules alone upwards of 60,000 were annually sent to Potosi from the provinces of Tucuman and Santa Fé.

This internal trade, once of so much importance to the people of the intermediate provinces, was annihilated in the struggle for establishing the independency of the Republic; for, Bolivia remaining to the last in the hands of the Spaniards, of course all commercial intercourse was prohibited with the provinces of La Plata, which had thrown off the yoke of the mother-country. To this may be ascribed in great measure the extreme poverty and backwardness of many of those provinces at the present day. Salta, Tucuman, Cordova, Santa Fé, and Paraguay, lost the best markets for their native produce; whilst the people, dragged from their pastoral and agricultural pursuits in the first instance to fight against their old masters, and afterwards to destroy one another in support of the ephemeral authorities which succeeded them, naturally contracted such unsettled and disorderly habits as it will require many a year of domestic peace and better government to wean them from. To time, and a continuance of those blessings, as I have elsewhere said, we must, I believe, look for the remedy of these evils, and for any material improvement in the condition of the interior provinces of the republic.

HORSES AND CATTLE.

In connexion with what I have said upon the trade of Buenos Ayres, a brief notice of the origin and extraordinary increase of the vast herds of horses and cattle which at present constitute so large a portion of the riches of Buenos Ayres, may perhaps be not uninteresting to some of my readers.

America is indebted to Europe for these animals, which were unknown to the people of the New World before its discovery by the Spaniards. Of the two it will easily be understood that the horses, which formed so important a feature in the military equipment of the conquerors, were the first introduced. In 1535, the Adelantado Mendoza, who was the first to effect a landing at Buenos Ayres, took seventy with him on board the expedition which accompanied him from Spain, of which perhaps half were lost on the voyage, if we may judge from the small number of cavalry--one author says twelve, another thirty--which he was able to muster in his first battle with the Indians. The few that survived, when his followers were shortly afterwards driven out of that part of the country by the warlike natives, were turned loose into the pampas, where they multiplied exceedingly, and were found in great numbers forty years afterwards by De Garay, when he re-established the Spanish settlement at Buenos Ayres.

It was in that expedition (in 1580) that De Garay carried from Paraguay the first horned cattle ever seen in the pampas. How the stock had previously reached Paraguay is thus told by Dean Funes, the native historian. He says, "In 1555 there arrived at Assumption, from San Francisco, on the coast of Brazil, a few straggling emigrants, amongst whom were two Portuguese gentlemen, brothers, of the name of Goa, having with them a bull and eight cows, the origin of that mighty stock of cattle which now forms the wonder of the provinces of La Plata." The Portuguese servant intrusted with the important charge of these animals in their long over-land journey from the coast, whose name was Gaete, was rewarded for his care of them with one of the cows, a payment thought so much of at the time, that it gave rise to a saying still in use in those parts--"Es mas caro que las vacas de Gaete" ("Dearer than Gaete's cows").

But the value then set upon all European animals carried to America was enormous, as well it might be when the difficulties are considered of safely transporting them in the crazy and inconvenient shipping of those days. In Peru, in the same year (1555), so highly were horses prized, that it was thought worth recording in the public archives of Cuzco that 10,000 dollars had been refused for one offered for sale;--in that city a boar and sow, about the same time, were sold for 1600 dollars, and European sheep and goats fetched prices nearly as high.

Of the cattle carried by De Garay to Buenos Ayres it was not long before some escaped into the territory of the Indians, where they increased and multiplied, as the horses had done before. The settlers were too few, in the first instance, to domesticate more than were necessary for their own immediate wants, neither was the extent of their lands, for some time, adequate to the maintenance of any considerable stock; the cattle, therefore, ranged at liberty in the Pampas, and, though occasionally hunted down by the Spaniards for the hides, or by the Indians for food, the destruction was as nothing compared with the prodigious increase which went on:--they also found their way into the Banda Oriental, probably from Paraguay, where they multiplied even faster than in the Pampas, from the better quality of the pasturage and the more constant supply of water; and here it was that the illicit trade established by the Portuguese appears first to have awakened the Spaniards to a notion of the future importance of these animals.

The vicinity of their establishment at Colonia, immediately opposite to Buenos Ayres, not only facilitated their smuggling across it the European goods and tobacco and slaves which were wanted, but made it a convenient station for collecting from the Spaniards the hides for which they were but too glad to find any sale under the restrictions then imposed upon all trade. The Portuguese took good care to buy them only at such low prices as insured them an enormous profit upon their exportation for other markets; but the speculation answered to both parties, and as the contraband trade of the Portuguese with Buenos Ayres increased, so we find did the cattle establishments of the Spaniards in the Banda Oriental.

Cargoes of hides were occasionally shipped for Spain, particularly after the Spaniards founded Monte Video, in 1726; but the demand was far from equal to the production, and the stock of cattle went on gradually increasing till the partial opening of the colonial trade in 1778. At that period the cattle had reached an amount which, perhaps, has never been equalled at any subsequent period, but the increased demand for country produce which then took place was well nigh exterminating the whole stock. In 1783 no less than 1,400,000 hides were officially registered for exportation, besides a vast number clandestinely shipped.

Superabundance also led to waste to an enormous extent; a gaucho would kill an ox for the tongue, or any other part of the animal he might fancy for his dinner, and leave the rest of the carcase to be devoured by the vultures, or by the wild dogs which swarmed in the country, and destroyed an incredible number of the young cattle. Little respect was then paid to this description of property, and the peons were easily bribed to kill their masters' or their neighbours' cattle to barter their hides for the tobacco and spirits offered to them by the peddling traders who wandered over the country to collect them.

The government was obliged, at last, to take strong measures to stop these evils:--they enacted heavy penalties on those found destroying or selling what did not of right belong to them; whilst, for the better identification of property, every proprietor was obliged, by a given day, to brand his cattle with his own particular mark:--all beasts found without a mark after that time were declared to be the king's, and the right to seek for and seize them was sold to or farmed by individuals. Proprietors were obliged to take out licenses to sell their hides, and the slaughter of cows and calves was entirely prohibited. War, also, to extermination, was declared against the wild dogs.

These regulations, however feebly enforced, were not without effect:--the protection, at any rate, which they promised to property was enough to induce the people to extend their cattle establishments, whilst their own experience, after a time, led them to regulate their annual sales in more due proportion to their stocks.

The annual increase on a well-regulated estancia has been ascertained to be from 30 to 40 per cent., which yields an enormous profit to the proprietor, whilst his expenses are comparatively trifling. The only serious casualty to which the cattle-owner is liable is from the effects of occasional droughts, which in these countries are, at times, attended with frightful devastation:--the cattle then rush in thousands from their own pastures in search of water in every direction, and perish for want of it in immense numbers. In the last great drought, which continued during the summers of 1830, 31, and 32, it was calculated that from a million and a half to two millions of animals died:--the borders of all the lakes and streamlets in the province were long afterwards white with their bones[80]. But for this calamity the quantity of hides brought forward in the last five years would have been much greater than it has been.

In the years immediately preceding the independency of the republic the annual export of hides from the river Plate was from 700,000 to 800,000, besides an enormous consumption of them for every conceivable purpose by all classes of the people of the country, and great destruction by waste; so that it is generally supposed that at that time the number of cattle in the provinces was not less than five millions. Azara estimated them at _twelve_ millions (in 1792), but I never met with any one who would agree with him in that calculation.

By far the greater part of these animals were then reared in the Banda Oriental and Entre Rios:--nor was it till subsequently to the commencement of the struggle for their independence, when those provinces became the seat of war, and were laid waste by the Portuguese and by Artigas, that the people of Buenos Ayres began to occupy the lands south of the River Salado, which have given so much increased importance to that province. Since that period every encouragement and protection which it is possible to give to this source of national wealth has been wisely afforded by the ruling authorities.

The Pampas are no longer a vast, useless, and unappropriated waste in which the animals run wild as formerly; by far the greater part of the lands comprised within the boundary line laid down in the map having been carefully measured by the government officers, and allotted to individuals, who, as they occupy them, are obliged to set up and preserve their marks of possession, which, together with the bounds and extent of every separate estancia, are duly registered in the topographical department of the state. Of the hundreds of thousands of cattle now reared in these lands there is hardly, perhaps, a single animal of a year old which is not branded with the mark of an owner, and that mark is equally registered by the authorities, and entitles him to claim his property wherever he may find it.

It is calculated by the best authorities,--the most extensive proprietors in the province,--that the present stock of cattle in the territory of Buenos Ayres alone may be from three to four millions; and it is supposed there may be above another million in the other provinces:--from this we ought to calculate upon an annual exportation of nearly a million of hides, gradually increasing.

FOOTNOTES:

[78] The official valuation of the average imports from 1792 to 1796, inclusive, was only 2,606,754 dollars; though at that period every article sent from Spain was charged at the most exorbitant price to the colonists.

[79] In 1835 nearly a million and a half lbs. were also sent to the United States, and the demand for it was likely to increase with its production.

[80] The drought in question was one of the most destructive on record; large lakes in the south, never before known to have been without water, were entirely dried up, in which immense numbers of fish perished, the stench from which was described as enough to have produced a pestilence. Another serious consequence from it, of a different description, was the prodigious increase of all kinds of vermin, especially field-mice, myriads of which overran the country, and entirely destroyed the maize-harvest for 1833.