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Consuls and Silver Contraband on Mexico's West Coast in the Era of Santa Anna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

John Mayo
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Extract

Mexico achieved independence in 1821. With the definitive cutting of the imperial ties with Spain, already weakened by the impact of the Napoleonic Wars, the country began to play an individual role in the world economy. The end of Spanish rule and the departure of many Spaniards opened up new positions and new opportunities for Mexicans. Some they seized immediately as in government and the army; others they lacked in some measure the skills, inclination or capital to exploit. One of the more difficult areas was overseas trade, which had been largely the preserve of peninsulares. Their departure provided the occasion for the arrival of numbers of foreigners, who established merchant houses in trading centres, and assumed the role of middlemen in Mexico's foreign trade.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , November 1987 , pp. 389 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

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2 Barron to Palmerston, Paris, 18 November 1848. F.O. 50/223.

3 Archivo general de la nación (AGN) Mexico City. Archivo histórico de hacienda legajo 175/19 (comprising 95 documentos del derechos de consumo. Some legajos in this archivo are bound volumes, others bundles of papers. Leg. 175/19 is the latter).

4 Barron, Forbes & Co. to O'Gorman, Tepic, 14 October 1831. F.O. 203/44. Mexican pesos were usually called dollars in English-language correspondence, and had the same value as the U.S. dollar. See also Meyer, Jean, ‘El cielo y sus primeros favoritos’, Nexos no. 40 (04 1981), p. 31Google Scholar for further figures.

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33 F.O. Memo, 8 December 1848. F.O. 50/223.

34 Meyer, op. cit. p. 28. For the Escandons see Cardoso, C. F. S. (ed.), Formation y desarrollo de la burguesía en México, siglo XIX (México, 1978), pp. 25–55.Google Scholar

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37 Ibid., Private & Confidential, Pakenham to Barron, 8 May 1833.

38 Confidential, Barron to Pakenham, 24 May 1833. F.O. 204/40.

39 Confidential, Barron to Aberdeen, 20 March 1844. F.O. 50/179.

40 Ibid.

41 No. 39, Doyle to Clarendon, 3 May 1855. F.O. 50/277.

42 No. 12, Doyle to Clarendon, 2 January 1854. F.O. 50/266. Doyle was British Minister to Mexico, and against smuggling, though firm in upholding British rights.

43 Capt. Clavell, H.M.S. Champion, to Barron, Mazatlán, 23 June 1844. F.O. 207/46.

44 Log, H.M.S. Curacoa, 21 May 1842. On the same day the ship received 8 packages said to contain treasure, 22 bars and 2 bags said to be specie, and 69 silver bars. ADM 51/3582.

45 Barron to O'Gorman, 28 January 1831. F.O. 203/44.

46 No. 1, Barron to Aberdeen, 16 January 1844. F.O. 50/179.

47 No. 37, Doyle to Clarendon, 2 April 1854. F.O. 50/267.

48 Onslow to Barron, 14 April 1832; Barron to O'Gorman, 20 April 1832. F.O. 203/44.

49 To Luis Correa, 18 September 1834. F.O. 204/44.

50 No. 38, Doyle to Clarendon, 3 May 1855, encl. Parres to Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, 20 March 1855. F.O. 50/277.

51 Collector of Customs, San Blas to Kuper, 5 July 1853; Kuper ‘at sea’ to Collector, 6 July 1853. F.O. 204/114.

52 No. 105, Doyle to Clarendon, 3 October 1854. F.O. 50/269.

53 Memoria de Hacienda (Mexico, 1845), pp. 114–19.Google Scholar This is the report for the calendar year 1844, so far as information in Mexico City permitted.

54 No. 8. Barron to O'Gorman, 16 January 183;. F.O. 203/67.

55 No. 6 Barron to Aberdeen, 18 June 1844. F.O. 50/179.

56 Doyle to Foreign Office, 9 January 1851. F.O. 50/267.

57 Lindley, Richard B., Haciendas and Economic Development; Guadalajara, Mexico at Independence (Austin, 1983), p. 4, and pp. 95–9Google Scholar, discusses the presence of foreign merchants in Jalisco and especially Guadalajara.

58 Meyer, op. cit. He does not identify the document. For an example of the Barrons' power see Mayo, J., ‘The Impatient Lion: Britain' ‘Official Mind’ and Latin America in the 1850s’ Ibero-Amerikanisches Archiv, vol. 9. no. 2 (1983), pp. 197–223.Google Scholar

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63 Thomson, op. cit., pp. 138–9.