Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
century resulted in the peak of the slave trade through Buenos Aires.
African contributions to the racial makeup of the region's population
also rose. Some observers reported that half of the residents of Buenos
Aires were African or mulatto. Even in the interior, the number of non-
white residents increased. Whites were a minority population in Río de
la Plata by 1810.
The Colonial Militias
Defense of the empire remained a prime concern of Spain, and the
Crown intended both to bolster colonial military forces and to shift the
expense for defense onto the colonies. After 1760, new militias made up
of part-time citizen soldiers were created throughout Spanish America,
manned and paid for by the colonists themselves. Buenos Aires had
4,600 militiamen organized in the city within 10 years. To recruit mili-
tiamen, the authorities had to give new legal rights to mulattoes and
mestizos, for the white colonials were attracted only to posts as officers.
Ordinary citizens who brought suit against members of the militias
now could do so only in military courts. For the first time, mulattoes
and mestizos could bear arms and wear uniforms. The white elites
were not pleased, for they resented those whom they considered their
racial inferiors having received identical privileges to theirs. Moreover,
Argentine-born white militia officers could not rise to the top military
ranks; Spaniards reserved the ranks of colonel and general for them-
selves. Therefore, the military reforms of the Bourbons appeared to be
another in a long succession of attacks on the privilege and rank of
white colonists. Later on, when the empire came into crisis, these white
Argentine officers would take matters into their own hands.
Taxation
Defense and many other reforms depended on enlarging the tax base
and increasing imperial revenue. Royal monopolies, an old device
seemingly at odds with the trade reforms, were imposed on a greater
number of popular commodities. Tobacco,
aguardiente
and other spir-
its, gunpowder, salt, and other items were converted to monopolies,
their manufacture and distribution run by Spanish administrators. Free
workers and small producers of these products either became incorpo-
rated into the royal reorganization of the industry or faced elimination.
The profits from the sale of tobacco and spirits, sold only in monopoly
stores, now went into royal coffers. With monopoly control of these
popular articles of consumption, the state had to raise prices in order
