350 TRADE. PART IV. Ayres, are now under separate Governments of their own, which seem anxious to make a display of their commercial as well as political independence of their old connexions by endeavouring to supply themselves through other channels more immediately under their own control on the coasts of the Pacific; but however that may answer, as no doubt it will to the people who inhabit the Provinces situated on the western slopes of the Andes, it must be evident that, so far as regards those to the eastward of the Cordillera, they must eventually be much more easily supplied with what they want from Europe by way of the Rio de la Plata, especially when its great affluents are navigated by steam vessels, for which they are so admirably adapted, than by the present circuitous route round Cape Horn, and the subsequent very difficult and expensive conveyance by mule-carriage across the sandy deserts of Atacama and the precipitous passages of the Andes. As these young States acquire more practical knowledge of their real interests, it may be expected that they will make arrangements amongst themselves for an exchange of commercial advantages for their mutual benefit; and turn to better account the means of internal communication which nature seems expressly to have provided for them. In the mean time, however, the trade of the Rio de la Plata is limited to the people of the Provinces so called and of the State of the Banda Oriental del Uruguay. I need not say that Buenos Ayres is the capital of the Argentine Provinces, and Monte Video that of the Banda Oriental, and that these two places are the chief ports of entry through which the trade of these countries is carried on with foreign nations. In treating generally of the trade with the Rio de la Plata it does not appear to me to be necessary to enter into any discussion as to the more or less amount of it which, under special circumstances, may be carried on through either Buenos Ayres on the one side or Monte Video on the other. At whichever of these ports the largest amount of foreign goods is landed, it will be found that they are for the most part destined for the consumption of the inhabitants of the countries watered by the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries, of which the people of Monte Video and of the Banda Oriental, taken separately, at present form a very insignificant element. The amount of foreign goods, so totally out of all proportion to its population, which a few years back was landed at Monte Video, is solely to be ascribed to the blockades of Buenos Ayres, which temporarily diverted the trade from its ordinary course. Whenever Buenos Ayres has the misfortune to be so attacked, the advantageous situation of Monte Video as a neutral port will always give it importance as an entrepôt for goods eventually destined for the Provinces in the interior. There is no doubt also that its situation offers facilities for the supply at all times by indirect means of the adjoining Provinces of Brazil and of the Argentine Confederation, of which the Monte Videans will probably avail themselves to the detriment of their neighbours' interests, unless in self-defence they so regulate their customs duties as to countervail all temptations to avoid them; and this observation applies especially to the duties levied by the Government of Buenos Ayres on goods intended for re-export either by land or water for the consumption of the people of the interior, and particularly those of the Riverine Provinces, subject as they must be afterwards to such heavy additional charges for transport, &c., ere they reach their final destination. I have shown in Chapters V. and VI. of this volume the very limited nature of the trade of these countries under the colonial rule of Spain, as well as the circumstances which led to its being first thrown open to the English and other nations by the last Viceroy, Cisneros, in 1809. In my former work I traced its rise and progress up to 1837-it is now only necessary to show its subsequent development. In order best to do so, and beginning with the Exports, I have prepared the following four tables: х 352 EXPORTS. PART IV. EXPORTS. No. 1, showing their amount from 1822 to 1837. No. 2, a similar return from the middle of 1848 to the close of 1851. No. 3, a return showing the several foreign countries for which the leading articles were shipped, and the amount of shipping of each, in 1850 and 1851. No. 4 shows the proportion of these exports which are supplied from the Riverine Provinces. These are independent of the produce exported from Monte Video, which, however limited in amount in the last period-1850-1-may be assumed to have been at least equal in value to any apparent excess in the general imports into the Rio de la Plata over and above the amount of exports from Buenos Ayres alone. TABLE I.-Quantities and Estimated Valuation of the principal Articles Exported from Buenos Ayres in the years 1822, 1825, 1829, and 1837. In 1842 they were valued at £1,440,440, and in 1843 at £1,668,920. From September 1845 to June 1848, the port was blockaded. £1,110,000 Precious Metals..722,955 }5,200,000 Precious Metals..677,928 Native Produce.4,959,210 }5,637,138 £ 1,040,000 £ 1,127,427 |