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ABSTRACT
This research focuses on the operations of the Royal Company of the Philippines in the global market, in particular on the slave trade between Africa and Spanish America, as a way to examine the local dimensions of global trade. It identifies the causes and consequences of a failed venture that, despite its failure, opened a new cycle in the Río de la Plata slave trade and its place in the global economy of the late eighteenth century.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Stefan Rinke, for his hospitality, and Alex Borucki for his support. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions, and to Thomas Passananti for his observations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Classical studies of slave trade in Buenos Aires and Córdoba were Molinari, La trata de negros; Studer, La trata de negros; Molina, Las primeras experiencias; and Assadourian, El tráfico de esclavos. Here I will refer primarily to studies on the Atlantic slave trade and the circulation of slaved workers in the internal market. While they fall beyond the scope of my research, I acknowledge the value of the contributions made by Garavaglia, “The Economic Role”; Gelman, “Sobre esclavos, peones”; and Amaral, “Rural Production,” to understand the ways in which slaves were included in the Rio de la Plata economy.
2 At the end of his exhaustive research, Borucki concludes that 70,000 people were forcibly introduced to the Río de la Plata between 1777 and 1812, of which about 40 percent arrived directly from Africa and the rest from Brazil, through Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The largest repository of information regarding trafficking is available in https://www.slavevoyages.org. For a periodization of regional trafficking, see Borucki, Eltis and Wheat, “Atlantic History,” 433–461. Research done by Maximiliano Camarda at the Buenos Aires archives focuses on the perspective of local actors of the slave trade. See Camarda, “Una aproximación,” 43–71, and more extensively his PhD dissertation, La Región Rio de la Plata.
3 For an evolution of the subject, in a wide spectrum of interests, see the account of Vela, “Encuentros intelectuales,” 199–211. Regarding Afro-descendants, Rosal’s book offers a broad description of the life of “Afroporteños” in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
4 The venture was studied by Díaz-Trechuelo, La Real Compañía, 222–226, in her study of the Company and by Studer, La trata de negros, 244–246, in his exhaustive book on African slavery in the Rio de la Plata; however, due to the approach taken and the scale of his research – a general study of the company and the flow of slaves – he did not focus on the significance of this episode. The approach of my own research, considering the “trial” as part of a global market strategy, makes other contours of the problem visible.
5 As Díaz-Trechuelo’s classic study explains, the Royal Company of the Philippines was a partnership between the Crown and merchants who sought competitive advantage in royal privilege, once the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas had been liquidated. Strictly speaking, the RCP intended an integration of the circulation of Asian goods that would overcome the power accumulated by the Consulado de Comercio de Mexico, which had controlled the transit between the Philippines and Europe. It also aspired to create an organization equivalent to its English, Dutch, and French counterparts that would corporatize global control of colonial trade. In this context, trafficking was a “trial” in a broader business strategy. Díaz-Trechuelo, La Real Compañía, 33–58.
6 For an updated view on global history, from a Latin American perspective, see the work of Hausberger, La globalización temprana.
7 This was made known to the Viceroy of the Rio de la Plata, in a communication from the Marques de Sonora of 2 June 1787, answered on 27 September of the same year, instructing him “para su inteligencia y gobierno, y a fin de que al arribo de los Buques de este comercio a cualquiera de los puertos de la comprensión de ese Virreinato los admita, proteja y procure despachar con la brevedad posible para evitar gastos en su demora que han de recaer forzosamente en el valor de los Negros cuyo comercio se procura fomentar” [“for his intelligence and government, and with the aim that, upon arrival in any of the ports of this Viceroyalty, the ships of this commerce are to be admitted, protected, and dispatched soon in order not to incur in expenses by the delay, expenses which may forcefully fall on the value of Negroes whose commerce is to be encouraged.”] Archivo General de Indias (hereafter AGI), Reales Ordenes 1787–1788. Reproduced in Molinari, La trata de negros, 511–512.
8 Jumar, “El comercio rioplatense,” 22–98; Borucki, “Notas sobre el tráfico,” 7–28.
9 Regarding the French asiento, see Jumar’s Ph.D. thesis “Le commerce atlantique au Río de la Plata,” as well as Jumar and Paredes, “El comercio rioplatense,” 33–98. See a panoramic vision of trafficking in the Rio de la Plata in Borucki, De compañeros de barco; see also Crespi’s vision, “El comercio de esclavos,” 237–252, on sources and themes.
10 Studer, La trata de negros, 239–253; Berquist, “Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment,” 188.
11 Borucki, “The Slave Trade,” 81–107. A global vision for Luso-Spanish America, in the classic text by Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade.
12 Studer, La trata de negros, 255–270.
13 Borucki, “Notas sobre el tráfico,” 20; Medeiros, O trafico de escravos, 80–85.
14 “Estado general que manifiesta el numero de piezas de Esclavos que cargaron en Boni las fragatas nombradas Príncipe, Princesa, Indiano, Africano, Favorita y Elisavet (sic) de Cuenta de la R(ea)l Compañía de Filipinas: los que entregaron en Montevideo; muertos en la navegación, en d(ic)ha plaza y esta Capital; su venta; remisión con destino a Lima, existencia; total de los que me hice cargo y valor de los vendidos.” Archivo General de la Nación Argentina, Buenos Aires (hereafter AGNA) IX, 33-6-1. The translations are mine, and I hope the readers will excuse any errors on my part, considering the difficulties that the Spanish formal documents present even for Spanish speakers. I have tried to remain as faithful as possible to the original meaning and have kept the Spanish expressions between brackets when I could not find a satisfying translation.
15 The case has already been addressed in Studer’s classic study La trata de negros, 274–277, with a more anecdotal than analytical intention, about the failure of the Royal Company of the Philippines.
16 Thus, were the terms used to refer to slaves. For a critical appraisal of the “infame comercio,” see Medeiros, O tráfico de escravos.
17 The route was comprised of 370 leagues and the Andean crossing, through the Uspallata Pass, the great obstacle of the journey. Crespi, “El comercio de esclavos,” 243. See also Sobarzo’s recent work on this, “La garganta del comercio,” 345–384.
18 In the report of the project it was said that “On the 4th of this month two slave ‘negreras’ vessels of 350 tons each were to depart Bristol to Bonny owned by the Company, even if in appearance English, in which several young Spaniards that have some training in Commerce and Sailing are embarked in order to be instructed in this traffic and navigation and [thus] become capable of directing by themselves similar expeditions in the future. In this [venture] the Classified Plan has been followed, a plan that was communicated to the Company by the illustrious zeal of His Excellency Count de Floridablanca by way of His Excellency Deceased President the Marquis of Sonora” in “Memoria de las primeras operaciones de la Real Compañía de Filipinas y su estado actual” 1787. AGI/Filipinas, 986. I thank Alex Borucki for the generous transmission of the summary of the text.
19 It was the English vessels Prince and Pilgrim, respectively named “El Príncipe” and “La Princesa” upon their arrival in Buenos Aires. Studer argues that the Príncipe entered under the alias of Alexandro. Studer, La trata de negros, 274.
20 Two named Elizabeth, one registered upon arrival as “El Indiano” and another as “El Africano,” while the third Favorite was named “La Favorita.”
21 The English vessel’s name is “Prince.” https://www.slavevoyages.org, voyage no. 18008. Bonny was located in the region known Bight of Biafra, the region with the highest mortality rate in all of transatlantic trafficking.
22 https://www.slavevoyages.org, voyage no. 18275.
23 Fermín de Tastet would be the “broker” between the PRC and the British slavers of the East Indian Company, thanks to his political ties and commercial agency. He offered shipping, commercial and financial services: he was an intermediary who, along with his brother Antonio, formed companies involved in trafficking and Asian trade. His services to the RCP surely brought him a good income. “Fermin Tastet – says Aragón in his study about the brothers – served as the representative of the Royal Company of the Philippines in London from at least 1783. In 1788 Fermín Tastet, who had been designated plenipotentiary by the Spanish Crown on 9 June of that same year, met with the chairman, Nathaniel Smith, and the secretary, Thomas Morton, of the East India Company with a view to entering into trade negotiations. Although a commercial treaty authorizing the East India Company to supply the Royal Company of the Philippines with goods was indeed drafted in 1788, the changes proposed by Fermín Tastet were not accepted.” Aragón Ruano, 13–15. I thank Alex Borucki for this information.
24 https://www.slavevoyages.org, voyage no. 81208. It was also named “Elizabeth.”
25 https://www.slavevoyages.org, voyage no. 81203.
26 The calculations for the period can be made in https://www.slavevoyages.org, by region and by slavery ship’s flag.
27 https://www.slavevoyages.org, voyage no. 81208.
28 “The Viceroy says that the Caste of Negroes shipped is so unknown that none among the many that there are there knows their language, [they are] so arrogant, untamed and cruel even for themselves, and so barbarian that they rather eat rats and raw meat than have any condiment. They have arrived very sick, at sea there have been 64 deaths in the first remittance and 71 in the second.” AGI/Filipinas 991. I thank Alex Borucki for the generous sharing of this document.
29 Studer, La trata de negros, 275.
30 Studer, La trata de negros, 276.
31 Borucki agrees with these figures. “Notas sobre el tráfico,” 19.
32 Studer, La trata de negros, 276. Our sales figures do not match the author’s, since the sources I work with preceed the accounts we have described.
33 Borucki explains that the slaves were taken to Lima because they could not be sold in Buenos Aires because of their high price, compared to the price of slaves after the arrival of several Portuguese ships in 1782–1783. Borucki, De compañeros, 33–34. Díaz-Trechuelo argues that there were no buyers in Buenos Aires, La Real Compañía, 224–225.
34 Mazzeo, Los comerciantes limeños, Table III, 167.
35 Ibid., 167–168.
36 Ibid., 153n, and Table II, 163. In his study on the III Conde de San Isidro de Lima, Flores Guzmán testifies to the Company formed by the Conde, his brother and Angel Izquierdo to import slaves from Brazil through Buenos Aires, for which they designated Martin de Sarratea as their representative. Flores Guzmán, “El destino manifiesto,” 111–113. An extension of the topic is available in his valuable thesis: I thank the author for sharing it.
37 Letter from Letamendi to Funes, 26 March 1800, Martínez Paz, Papeles, 37.
38 Letter from Letamendi to Funes, 26 April 1800, Martínez Paz, Papeles, 38.
39 According to his source, 200 thousand pesos were taken from Lima and 1 million from Buenos Aires (AGI/ Filipinas, 987). However, I did not find this evidence in the accounts of the RCP, probably because it could not extract the amount in cash or because it was prorated for the following years, with predictable delays. Borucki claims that the price of slaves went from 200–250 in Buenos Aires to an average of 400 in Lima, with a 63 percent benefit. Borucki, “Notas sobre,” 19 Vid AGI, Filipinas 986; AGI, Filipinas 987.
40 AGI/Filipinas 984. I thank Alex Borucki for his kindness in sharing the document.
41 For the value of the pesos of Carlos III at 8 reales – the universal currency for foreign trade changes, equivalent to 20 reales of vellon – as I have standardized the amounts, see Muñoz Serrulla, La moneda castellana, 153–156.
42 AGI/Filipinas 984.
43 AGI/Filipinas 990. “Minuta sobre la trata de negros, por vía de ensayo entre Londres, África y Buenos Aires.” Undated, circa 1790.
44 Ibid. Underlined in the original.
45 Ibid. Underlined in the original.
46 Borucki, in “The U.S. slave ship,” shows that the Angloamerican trade that exchanged slaves for leather, jerky meat and silver between Mozambique, the Rio de la Plata, the Caribbean region and North-America, consolidated their role as “neutral” intermediaries during the Napoleonic wars and made them occupy a significant place in intra-American commerce.
47 Sarratea to Royal Treasury Prosecutor Velasco, 18 July 1798. AGNA, IX, 22-6-1, ffs. 24–25. Emphasis added, AI.
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Antonio Ibarra
Antonio Ibarra is Full Professor of Economic History at the School of Economics, National University of México (UNAM). Author of Mercado e institución: corporaciones comerciales, redes de negocios y crisis colonial. Guadalajara en el siglo XVIII, UNAM/Universidad de Guadalajara, CONACyT, México, 2018, and editor with A. Alcántara y F. Jumar, of Actores sociales, redes de negocios y corporaciones en Hispanoamérica, siglos XVII-XIX, México, 2019.