Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PEOPLE
OF BUENOS AIRES, 1783
A
ccording to reports that I [Juan Francisco de Aguirre] have been
able to acquire, the population of Buenos Aires varies between
30,000 and 40,000 souls of all kinds of people. Among them the white
or Spanish are the more considerable, at less than half the population;
the other half consist of blacks, mulattoes, and a few Indians from
outside. The Spanish type is divided into two classes, Europeans and
Americans, who dedicate themselves to commerce, to the mechanical
arts and to agriculture. The people of color are almost only for service.
In commerce the most important merchants of the community
come from the families of patricians and foreigners; the majority, 31, are
of this sort. By way of their correspondents in Spain and mainly in the
Port of Cádiz they supply the financing with which the stores and shops
send goods throughout the viceroyalty and provision this city.
. . . In Buenos Aires . . . one sees the clothing styles of Spain and
especially of [the Spanish province of] Andalucía, whose sons seem to
be into many things in this port. Buenos Aires is a city which proves
the refrain that says: “the father a merchant, the son a gentleman, and
the grandson a beggar.” Nevertheless, neither is the opulence excessive,
nor is the poverty ragged and miserable. The dress jewelry of the great
and common women of Buenos Aires consists of topaz; and because
diamonds are scarce here, it is said in jest that the main adornments
of women are caramels [the color of topaz]. Men is one species that
Spain gives to America, to which they transmigrate for commerce and
to improve their fortune; among them come some high-born men and
many, many more who are not, and according to the profits which arise
in business, the houses and families also rise of this country, where the
richest [and not the well born] are considered the highest order.
Source:
“Diario de don Juan Francisco de Aguirre.” In Luna Félix.
Historia integral de la Argentina
. 10 vols. (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1995),
Vol. 3, pp. 264, 308.
many other changes, were instituted during the long reign of Charles
III (1759-88).
“Free trade,” as the Spanish reformers called it, was finally imple-
mented in 1778. Henceforward, merchants and shippers could use 10
