1 Barreta, Silvio R. Duncan and Markoff, John, ‘Civilization and Barbarism: Cattle Frontiers in Latin America’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 20/4 (1978) 587–620Google Scholar; Blok, Anton, ‘Infamous Occupations’ in: idem, Honour and Violence (Cambridge 2001) 44–68Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Why Chimney-Sweeps Bring Luck’ in: idem, Honour and Violence, 69–86.

2 Gallant, Thomas W., Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity, and Power in the British Mediterranean (Notre Dame 2002) ix-x, 213–214.Google Scholar

3 Sahlins, Marshal P., Islands of History (Chicago 1985).Google Scholar

4 Blok, ‘Infamous Occupations’, 56, 66.

5 The public executioners of early modem Europe, simultaneously loathed and venerated, provide a remarkable example of this. See Blok, ‘Infamous Occupations’, 52–53; as well as Mauss, Marcel, A General Theory of Magic, trans. Brain, Robert (Boston 1972) 29Google Scholar. [first published 1950]

6 Nadelmann, Ethan A., ‘Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society’, International Organization 44/4 (1990) 479–526Google Scholar; Heyman, Josiah McC. and Smart, Alan, ‘States and Illegal Practices: An Overview’ in: Heyman, Josiah McC. ed., States and Illegal Practices (Oxford 1999) 1–24.Google Scholar

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8 For the work that has been done to date on práctlcos in the colonial Spanish Caribbean, see Grahn, Lance, The Political Economy of Smuggling: Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon New Grananda (Boulder 1977)Google Scholar; Aizpuaia, Ramón, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas: Introducción al estudio del contrabando de la Provincia de Venezuela en tiempos de la Compania Guipuzcoana, 1730–1780 (Caracas 1993)Google Scholar; Klooster, Wim, Illicit Riches: Dutch Trade in the Caribbean, 1648–1795 (Leiden 1998)Google Scholar; and Ramos, Hector R. Feliciano, El contrabando inglés en el Caribe y el Golfo de México (1748–1778) (Seville 1990).Google Scholar

9 Emmer, Pieter, ‘The Dutch in the Making of the Second Atlantic System’ in: idem, The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580–1880: Trade, Slavery, and Emancipation (Brookfield 1998) 16–17.Google Scholar

10 The following discussion of the Curaçaoan Kleine vaart with Venezuela draws heavily on Ramón Aizpurua, ‘El comercio holandés en el Caribe a través de Curazao, 1700–1756: Datos para su estudio’ in: idem, Temas de historia colonial de Venezuela y del Caribe (Caracas 1996) 126–143.

11 This occurred twice a year, in June and December, and the Dutch ships flocked to Venezuela's coastal valleys and inlet in the months that followed. Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 64–75; Piñero, Eugenio, The Town of San Felipe and Colonial Cacao Economies (Philadelphia 1994) 113–138Google Scholar; and Farías, Eduardo Arcila, Zavala, D.F. Maza, and Figueroa, Federico Brito, La Obra Pía de Chuao, 1568–1825 (Caracas 1968).Google Scholar

12 Early in the eighteenth century Curaçaoan merchants established an outpost at Tucacas, on the western edge of the Province of Venezuela, where they constructed warehouses, residences, and a synagogue. Colonial authorities in Caracas sent various excursions against the settlement, only to see it rebuilt and reoccupied after Spanish forces had withdrawn. Monfante, Celestino Andréa Arauz, El contrabando holandés en el Caribe durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII (Caracas 1984) 65–66Google Scholar, 198–201; Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 193–194; Klooster, Illicit Riches, 135–138, 145–148.

13 By the 1740s and 1750s, the eastward expansion of the Caracas cacao frontier into Barlovento helped make Higuerote, at the Tuy River delta, the first stop for many Curaçaoan trading vessels. Before then, Curaçaoan ships had tended to concentrate on the coast west of La Guaira, avoiding confrontations with the Spanish naval forces stationed there. Also, ships that participated in the grote vaart between the United Provinces and Curaçao often made stops along the Venezuelan coast, first in New Andalusia and then in the province itself, on their way to their final destination.

14 Klooster, Illicit Riches, 135.

15 Klooster, Illicit Riches, 68–69. See also his ‘Subordinate but Proud: Curaçao's Free Blacks and Mulattoes in the Eighteenth Century’, New West Indian Guide 68/3 (1994) 283–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Often the promises committed large portions of future harvests. Some of these debts were substantial. In 1709, Juan Chourio, factor (agent) for the French asiento, owed the West Indies Company 15,000 pesos and various merchants on Curacao, 10,000 pesos. In 1722, the total debt owed to Curaçaoan creditors by Spanish merchants in Venezuela and Santo Domingo was calculated by Dutch authorities at 400,000 pesos. See Aizpurua, ‘Comercio exterior’, 29; Klooster, Illicit Riches, 129–130. For Venezuelans’ visits to Curaçao, see Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 258–280; and Klooster, Illicit Riches, 126–129. For the use of the small, uninhabited islands off the Venezuelan coast, see Aizpurua, ‘El comercio holandés en el Caribe’, 129–130, and Klooster, Illicit Riches, 128–129.

17 Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 264–270, 281–283; and Klooster, Illicit Riches, 125–126.

18 The term is one of various applied by colonial officials - scribes, administrators, and law enforcement officers - to individuals who did much more than guide vessels in unfamiliar coastal waters. Other terms include plácticos, peritos, and sometimes lenguas, a Spanish word for translator. In their respective discussions, Klooster uses the English term pilots; Grahn uses the Spanish term plácticos, and Aizpurua uses prácticos and pilotos de la costa. Klooster, Illicit Riches, 126–127; Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling, 85; and Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 281–282.

19 See the royal decree issued in Madrid, 27 November 1657, Archivo General de la Nación, Caracas, Venezuela (hereinafter AGN), Sección La Colonia, Reales Cédulas, Segunda Sección, Volume 1, Number 105, folio 159; ‘Autos del decomiso de contrabando introducidopor Francisco Mańn, efectuado por Diego de Matos, Comisionado del Gobernador’, 10 September 1717, Archivo de la Academia Nacional de Historia de Venezuela (hereinafter AANHV), Registro Principal (hereinafter RP), Signature 1–10–4, folios 1–438; ‘Autos contra Joseph Luis Felipes y Ignacio de Goya’, 1746, AANHV, RP, Signatura 2–384–1. Also see Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 281–282; and Klooster, Illicit Riches, 125–126.

20 ‘Autos del descamino de contrabando introducido por Francisco Marín, efectuado por Diego de Matos, comisionado del gobernador’, AANHV, RP, Civiles, Signatura 1–10–4, folios 145, 247v–248, 407, 410–410v; Pedro José de Olavarriaga, Instrucción general y particular del estado presente de la Provincia de Venezuela en los anos de 1720 y 1721 (Caracas 1965); and Arcila Farías et al.. La Obras Pía de Chuao.

21 Pardos in colonial Venezuela were people of mixed ancestry, usually African and European. By the end of the eighteenth century, they represented the majority of Venezuela's population. See Lombardi, John V., People and Places in Colonial Venezuela (Bloomington 1976) 67–75.Google Scholar

22 Nirgua and nirgüeños suffered incessant ridicule during the eighteenth century for their supposed close collaboration with Dutch smugglers and disloyalty to the Spanish Crown. See Mendoza, Irma Marina, ‘El cabildo de pardos de Nirgua, siglos XVII y XVIII’, Anuario de Estudios Bolivarianos 4/4 (1995) 95–120Google Scholar; Nùnez, Torcuato Manzo, ‘Montalbán, hijo de la pugna racial’, Boletin de la Academia Nacional de la Historia 62/247 (1979) 621–639Google Scholar; and the discussion of Nirgua in Jeremy David Cohen, ‘Informal Commercial Networks, Social Control, and Political Power in the Province of Venezuela, 1700–1757’ (PhD dissertation, University of Florida 2003) 139–199.

23 Cardot, Felice, La rebelión de Andresote (Valles de Yaracuy, 1730–1733) (Bogotá 1957)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Rebelión de Andresote’ in: Vila, Manuel Perez ed., Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela 3 (Caracas 1988) 305–306Google Scholar; idem, Rebeliones, motines y movimientos de masas en el siglo XVIII venezolano (1730–1781) (Madrid 1961); Sucre, Luis Alberto, Gobernadores y Capitanes Generates de Venezuela (Caracas 1964) 246–247Google Scholar (first published 1928); and Klooster, Illicit Riches, 153–154.

24 Lasso, Marixa, ‘Haiti as an Image of Popular Republicanism in Caribbean Colombia: Cartagena Province (1811–1828)’ in: Geggus, David P. ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Columbia 2001) 181–182.Google Scholar

25 Lasso, ‘Haiti as an Image of Popular Republicanism’, 182 n32.

26 Helg argues that the geographic, social, and racial fragmentation that characterised Caribbean Colombia thwarted the development of the kind of unified political project or rejection of colonial authority so feared by civil and Church officials. Aline Helg, ‘A Fragmented Majority: Free “Of All Colors”, Indians, and Slaves in Caribbean Colombia During the Haitian Revolution’ in: Geggus ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 157–175.

27 Philip D. Morgan writes, ‘Nobody had a kind word for “Boat Negroes”’. See his ‘Black Life in Eighteenth-Century Charleston”, Perspectives in American History, New Series 1 (1984) 199–201; and idem, Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry (Chapel Hill 1998) 239, 337–339.Google Scholar

28 Cecelski, David S., The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina (Chapel Hill 2001).Google Scholar

29 Scott, Julius S., ‘Afro-American Sailors and the International Communication Network: The Case of the Newport Bowers’ in: Howell, Colin and Twomey, Richard J. eds. Jack Tar in History (Fredericton 1991) 37–52Google Scholar; idem, ‘Crisscrossing Empires: Ships, Sailors, and Resistance in the Lesser Antilles in the Eighteenth Century’ in: Paquette, Robert L. and Engerman, Stanley L. eds, The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion (Gainesville 1996) 128–143Google Scholar; and Bolster, W. Jeffrey, Black Jacks: African-Americans in the Age of Sail (Cambridge, MA 1997)Google Scholar. For general concerns over subaltern groups in the English colonies in the eighteenth century, see also Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus, ‘The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, and the Atlantic Working Class in the Eighteenth Century’, Journal of Historical Sociology 3/3 (1990) 225–252Google Scholar; and idem, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Boston 2000).Google Scholar

30 NAT. Hall, ‘Maritime Maroons: Grand Marronage from the Danish West Indies’ in: Sheperd, Verene A. and Beckles, Hilary McD. eds, Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World (Princeton 2000) 905–918Google Scholar; and Ramón Aizpurua, ‘En busca de la libertad: Los esclavos fugados de Curazao a Cora en el siglo XVIII’, manuscript in the author's possession.

31 For exaggerated estimates of runaways in eighteenth-century Venezuela, see, for example, Olavarriaga, Instrucción general y particular, and Figueroa, Federico Brito, ‘Venezuela colonial: Las rebeliones de esclavos y la Revolución Francesa’, Caravelle 54 (1990) 263–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 For example, in 1657 the Spanish ambassador to the United Provinces informed the Crown that in the previous two years, twenty-eight ships had left Rotterdam for the Indies, most with a Spanish prático. He was able to name two: Juan de Cosa, originally from Old Castile, sailed for Havana, and Marcos de la Rama, from Seville, sailed for Buenos Aires. Another ship headed for Buenos Aires included twelve Basque sailors. See AGN, Reales Cédulas, Segunda Sección, Volume 1, Number 105, 27 November 1657, Madrid, folio 159.

33 Feliciano Ramos, El contrabando inglés, 88–89.

34 Klooster, ‘Subordinate but Proud’.

35 ‘Sumaria hecha por don Diego Iníquez de Soriano, teniente cabo a guerra y juez de comisos del Valle de Cuyagua, contra diferentes reos de comercio ilícito’, AGN, Comisos, Volume 15, Expediente 7, folios 167–200; ‘Autos criminales seguidos de oficio contra Tomás Moncada y Juan Clavería por introducción de ropa de ilícito comercio’, AGN, Comisos, Volume 12, Expediente 3, folios 39–78; “Autos criminales fechas por el Real Oficio de Justicia contra Pedro Lopez Cadenas, vecino de la ciudad de Cartagena de las Indias, sobre ser practico de los holandeses en los tratos de comercio ilicito, y por una herida que dió con una lanza a Santiago de Acosta, vecino del Valle de Morón’, AGN, Comisos, Volume 24, Expediente 1, folios l–12v; and ‘Autos contra Joseph Luis de Felipes y Ignacio de Goya’, AANHV, RP, Civiles, Volumes 378–390. Feliciano Ramos documents the circulation of notes between English merchants and their far-flung contacts and representatives in Spanish American. See Feliciano Ramos, El contrabando inglés, 89–91.

36 ‘Consejo hecho por don Ignacio Bazasábal, teniente de la ciudad de Carora, de 51 cargas de tabaco, 53 mulas y 2 bestias cavallares y roes comprehendidos en su introducción y apprehension’, 11 November 1736, AANHV, RP, Civiles, Signatura 1–167–4, folios 1–12.

37 ‘Causa criminal sobre comercios ilícitos en las costas de esta provincia, remitida al tribunal del seńor Comandante General por don Domingo Aróstegui con las personas de Juan Blanco, de nación irlandesa, Francisco Lorenzo Carambeo, Juan Pascual Miquilarena, y don Ambrosio Bello, cabo a guerra y juez de comisos del valle de Morán”, 17 September 1733, AGN, Comisos, Volume 14, Expediente 3, folios 149–284; and ‘Autos contra Joseph Luis de Felipes y Ignacio de Goya’, AANHV, RP, Civiles, Volumes 378–390.

38 ‘Autos sobre tres hombres prácticos aprehendidos en el Valle de Patanemo’, 26 September 1736, AGN, Volume 17, Expediente 7, folios 177–179, 188–188v.

39 ‘Autos contra Joseph Luis de Felipes y Ignacio de Goya’, AANHV, RP, Civiles, Volume 384.

40 ‘Causa criminal sobre comercio ilicito contra Pedro Zurita, Juan Aragonés, Francisco, y Pedro Ledo, reos ausentes, y contra Juan Andrés de Sequera y Eugenio Riveros, presentes’, Patanemo, 20 June 1734, AGN, Comisos, Volume 14, Expediente 1, folios l–109v.

41 ‘Causa criminal sobre comercio ilicito contra Pedro Zurita’.

42 ‘Autos criminales fechas por el Real Oficio de Justicia contra Pedro Lopez Cadenas’.

43 ‘Causa criminal seguida contra Diego Ventura Rodriguez y otros reos por comercio ilícito’, Puerto Cabello, 4 December 1735, AGN, Comisos, Volume 20, Expediente 1, folios l–89v.

44 ‘Causa criminal sobre comercio ilicito contra Pedro Zurita, Juan Aragonés, Francisco, y Pedro Ledo’, and ‘Consejo hecho por don Ignacio Bazasábal’.

45 ‘Causa criminal sobre comercio ilícito contra Pedro Zurita, Juan Aragonés, Francisco, y Pedro Ledo’, and ‘Autos contra Joseph Luis Felipes y Ignacio de Goya’, 1746, AANHV, RP, Signature 2–384–1.

46 This example is from Aizpurua, Curazao y la Costa de Caracas, 282 n55. For Andresote, see Felice Cardot, La rebelión de Andresote.

47 Military entrepreneurs are individuals whose stock in trade is the credible threat of violence. From Gallant, Thomas W., ‘Brigandage, Piracy, Capitalism, and State-Formation: Transnational Crime from a World-Systems Perspective’ in: Heyman, Josiah McC. ed., States and Illegal Practices (Oxford 1999) 25–61.Google Scholar

48 I have yet to come across a Basque or white Creole práctico originally from Venezuela, at least for the time and place under consideration - the Province of Venezuela in the first half of the eighteenth century.