Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The great mission system of Paraguay deteriorated rapidly after the
Jesuits departed, whereas Paraguay survived the Jesuits quite easily.
The economy and its principal export, yerbamate, continued expand-
ing. Private entrepreneurs took up the cultivation and harvesting of
the yerba leaves and established commercial links with merchants at the
expanding port of Buenos Aires. Now versed in Hispanic customs, the
Guaraní made the transition from being wards of the church to being
peons for Paraguayan agriculturists. Many also settled as squatters on
the abundant land south and east of Paraguay.
The Jesuit agricultural estates, schools, and other properties, many of
them large and containing hundreds of African slaves and Indian work-
ers, now became resources for local officials to rent out to members of
the gentry. Some estates were well maintained, others not. One of the
largest Jesuit estates in Uruguay, the Estancias de las Vacas, was taken
over by a lay brotherhood made up of wealthy Spanish merchants at
Buenos Aires. The religious brotherhood sent out professional admin-
istrators and extra workers to the estate. The cattle herds proliferated.
Cattle hides were sold for export, and wheat and dried meat were
brought in to Buenos Aires to be sold in support of the orphanage and
girls' school that the brotherhood also managed. Meanwhile, the king's
officials collected the rent.
Local merchant groups applauded the humbling of the powerful
Jesuit “state within a state,” but certainly not all colonial whites liked
the decision. By the 18th century, most of the Jesuits had in fact been
born in the Americas and were from influential families; moreover,
the sons of many wealthy local families owed their education to Jesuit
schools located in nearly every city.
Growth of Buenos Aires
Another result of the Bourbon reforms was the rise of a powerful group
of Spanish merchants in Buenos Aires. Trade in contraband did not end
as the Spanish Crown had wanted, but legal, Spanish-controlled com-
mercial exchange burgeoned at the port. Agents of the great trading com-
panies of Cádiz, Seville, and other Spanish ports arrived at Buenos Aires
to establish local trading houses. Using their powerful connections to
Spanish metropolitan commercial and political interests, the merchants
moved into the collection of silver from Bolivia for export. They also
imported mercury and African slaves. Hardware and textiles continued to
come from northern Europe, but now through the warehouses of Spain
and in greater volume. Likewise, these wholesale merchants collected
 
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