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   107 Chapter 3 En Route and in the Loop: Trade, Metals, and Elites, circa 1700–1750 I n a manuscript titled Reflections on the Decline of the Spanish Monarquía Due to the Expenditure of Treasures and Depopulation That Wars in the Seventeenth Century and This One Caused, an anonymous writer noted that because foreigners could not rob Spain of its treasures by force, they resorted to “artful inventions .” He detailed the complicity of Spaniards on both sides of the Atlantic in the illegal trade conducted by foreign merchants: Engaged in this, foreigners achieved their purpose first in Spain, draining it of the gold and silver that was arriving from the Indies, because extravagance is the child of abundance. This pestilence later passed to the Indies, through the hands of the Spaniards themselves, who bought products from foreigners, lured by the profits gained from transporting [and reselling] them, and even being content to be their agents in exchange for a percentage of the profits. All the measures of our government to ban foreigners from the Indies were undercut, thinking that if the oil passed through our hands at least our palms would be greased. (Anonymous, Reflexiones 63v.) During the War of the Spanish Succession, European powers that had been friends became implacable enemies, and the French and the English fought over who would control illegal trade and the smuggling of gold and silver in Spanish America: And amidst these upheavals the French merchants, by taking the long route of Cape Horn, sought to transport many goods to Peru, and also, in registered ships, following the usual route to Mexico, and though it might be out of place, I will tell Your Majesty what is going on in Paris, and it just so happens that while Your Majesty’s grandfather was desiring to deny his subjects the Indies trade, one of his ministers told him that the English would do the same trade and with what it earned them they would wage war on both Crowns, and for this reason he lifted the ban. (64r.) 108   Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America During his reign of nearly half a century (1700–1724, 1724–1746), the first Spanish Bourbon, Philip V, signaled an interest in halting illegal trade between European powers and the Spanish Indies. Even before he triumphed in the War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1713), it appears that he had a handle on what our anonymous author wished to explain in his treatise. Philip V issued twelve decrees between 1703 and 1715 aimed at quashing illegal trade between the French and merchants in the Viceroyalty of Peru (Villalobos 1965, 32). Illegal trading in foreign goods and the smuggling of untaxed gold, silver, and mercury were to be persistent, interrelated practices in the viceroyalties of New Spain, New Granada, and Peru throughout the eighteenth century.1 Both kinds of fraud relied not only on caminantes, or traders, who often traveled the postal routes, but also on the collaboration of Crown and church officials at the highest levels. El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes insinuates these commercial continuities between the first and second halves of the eighteenth century, which analyses attached to the middle period model underestimate. The following pages examine how these illicit practices in the first half of the eighteenth century contributed to the economic rivalry between Lima and Buenos Aires and to the formation of elites in each city, both of which were important to the gestation of Alonso Carrió de Lavandera’s exposé. As we shall see, mules, traders , and the post were often linked in the Crown’s efforts to put a lid on the smuggling of precious metals out of the Spanish Indies and the trade in contraband goods. The following also suggests an allegorical interpretation of Pedro, Pardo, Paulino, and Perulero that links the posts on the inspector’s itinerary to the Kingdom of Guatemala in New Spain, revealing that the latter was part of the trading and smuggling loop that connected the viceroyalties of New Spain, New Granada, and Peru to Asia and to each other. Smuggling and the Economic Rivalry between Lima and Buenos Aires In 1705, after the death of the count de la Monclova, the last Habsburg viceroy of Peru, the interim president of the high court in Lima called its judges into session; together they issued a decree, dated September 28 of that year, aimed at stemming the illegal exportation of gold and silver (Real Audiencia de Lima...

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