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Some Reflections on Early Anglo-paraguayan Commerce*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Thomas Whigham
Thomas Whigham*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
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Extract

Scholars of the British experience in Latin America have given considerable attention to the adventures of the two Scottish merchants John Parish Robertson and his brother William, who visited Paraguay between 1811 and 1814. The image of the taciturn Dictator José Gaspar de Francia attempting to use the two British subjects to establish commercial links with Europe has appeared in virtually all histories of the period. Francia's failure in this regard, we are frequently told, ushered in a period of self-imposed isolation for Paraguay. Few foreigners, merchants or otherwise, were permitted to breech the barriers set up by the Dictator and Paraguay quickly took on the reputation of an “inland Japan.” That these barriers were not as absolute as the traditional portrayal would suggest has been established only in the last fifteen years. With few exceptions, the historical accounts have assumed that, with the departure of the Robertsons, British merchants lost all interest in Paraguay. In fact, however, a strong desire to “open” the trade of that country characterized the British mercantile community of Buenos Aires throughout the life of the Dictator and, on one occasion at the very end of Dr. Francia's reign, a concerted effort was made by certain Britons to reintroduce British commerce to Paraguay.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , January 1988 , pp. 279 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1988

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Jerry W. Cooney for his help with this piece. An earlier version was published in the Anuario del Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez Francia, año VII, no. VII (Dec. 1985), pp. 66-71.

References

1 Parish, John and Robertson, William Parish, Letters on Paraguay, 3 vols. (London, 1838–1839), II: 281–84.Google Scholar

2 See especially Williams, John Hoyt, “Paraguayan Isolation under Dr. Francia: A Re-evaluation,” Hispanic American Historical Review 52:1 (1972), pp. 102–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Williams, John Hoyt “Woodbine Parish and the ‘Opening’ of Paraguay,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 116:4 (15 Aug. 1972), p. 344.Google Scholar

4 Pedro Nolasco Torres, Commandant of Pilar de Ñeembucu, to José Gaspar de Francía, Dictator of Paraguay, Ñeembucu, 17 March 1822. Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Sección Histórica, volume 383, number 2 (hereinafter cited as ANA-SH 383 no: 2).

5 William P. Robertson, R. Montgomery and John Watson to Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy, Buenos Aires, 17 Feb. 1823. Public Records Office (London), Foreign Office documents, volume 6, number 4 (hereinafter cited as PRO FO 6:4).

6 Hardy to Robertson, Montgomery and Watson, Buenos Aires, 26 Apr. 1823. PRO FO 6:4.

7 Consul Woodbine Parish to Francía, Buenos Aires, 17 July 1824. ANA Colección Río Branco (hereinafter CRB), 1–30, 7, 33.

8 Parish to Foreign Secretary George Canning, Buenos Aires, 22 Aug. 1824, PRO FO 354.

9 Parish to Canning, Buenos Aires, 19 Feb. 1825, PRO FO 354.

10 Secretary Bernardino Villamayor to Parish, Asunción, 26 Jan. 1825. ANA-CRB 1–30, 7, 38.

11 Parish to Francia, Buenos Aires, 14 Apr. 1825. ANA-CRB 1–30, 7, 38.

12 Webster, C.K., Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812–1830 (London, 1938), p. 157.Google Scholar

13 British Packet and Argentine News, 1 Oct. 1828.

14 Regarding the internal development of Paraguay during the Francia years, see White, Richard Alan, Paraguay’s Autonomous Revolution, 1810–1840 (Albuquerque, 1978)Google Scholar, passim.

15 Hadfield, William, Brazil, The River Plate, and the Falkland Islands (London, 1854), p. 305.Google Scholar

16 Carlyle, Thomas, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (London, 1888), IV: 249–94.Google Scholar (The Francia essay appeared originally in 1842.)

17 Consul T.S. Hood to Foreign Secretary Lord Aberdeen, Montevideo, 30 June 1842, PRO FO 51:20 (referring to earlier correspondence).

18 Hood to Mr. Bidwell, Montevideo, 28 Oct. 1840. PRO FO 51: 17.

19 Prime Minister H.J.T. Palmerston to Hood, London, 31 Oct. 1840. PRO FO 51:16.

20 El Comercio (de Corrientes), 13 Aug. 1855; Page, Thomas J., La Plata, The Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay (New York, 1859), p. 303.Google Scholar

21 Ramos, R. Antonio “Informe sobre el Paraguay del agente inglés George J.R. Gordon, 1843,” Historia paraguaya 19 (1982), pp. 19–59.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.

23 Kieman, V.G. “Britain’s First Contacts with Paraguay,” Atlante 3 (1955), p. 180.Google Scholar

24 He remained interested in outside trade, despite the few opportunities offered Paraguay. For example, he operated a “free port” at the Paraná river town of Itapúa, where he maintained quasi-official trade links with Brazil. White, , Paraguay’s Autonomous Revolution, pp. 129–51.Google Scholar