Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
port. The first half of the 19th century also witnessed the usurpation of
the import-export trade by non-Spanish, especially British, merchants
who had important connections in industrial markets. They assumed
the risks and reaped the profits of the era's commerce.
It would be erroneous, however, to view Buenos Aires merely as a
commercial submetropolis whose trade was dominated by England or
even by industrial markets. True, the prosperity of the entire region
depended on foreign trade, and the major portion of that trade went
to industrial nations of the North Atlantic. Yet, important shares of
Buenos Aires's exports went to nonindustrial nations as well: Brazil,
Cuba, Italy, and Spain. After an initial period of British shipping pre-
eminence up to the 1830s, Great Britain lost its dominance of the
carrying trades out of Buenos Aires to the vessels of other nations.
Judging from the destinations of the ships clearing the port of Buenos
Aires from 1849 to 1851, the pastoral products of the region were
going to a diversified set of customers.
By today's shipping standards, the port of Buenos Aires was a miser-
able place to load and unload the freight of international commerce.
Sailing vessels of 150 to 300 tons had to venture almost 190 miles up
to the city by tacking back and forth across the sandbars of the estuary.
The trip from Liverpool took about 70 days and from New York about
Destination of Ships Leaving the Port of Buenos Aires, 1849-1851
No. of
Percent of
Destination
Ships
Tonnage
Tonnage
Great Britain
322
71,140
22.8
United States
253
67,589
21.6
Cuba
205
41,107
13.2
German states
173
37,526
12.0
Brazil
207
35,320
11.3
France
135
28,548
9.1
Italy
75
15,622
5.0
Spain
56
15,700
5.0
Sources: Nicolau, Juan Carlos. “Comercio exterior por el puerto de Buenos Aires:
Movimiento Maritimo (1810-1855).” (Unp. ms., table II); Parish, Woodbine.
BuenosAyres
andProvincesoftheRiodelaPlata:TheirPresentState,Trade,andDebt
(London: J. Murray,
1852), p. 355.
