Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:32:53.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

To be Waterproof or to be soaked: importance of packing in British textile exports to distant markets: The cases of Chile and the River Plate, c.1810-1859*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2011

Manuel Llorca-Jaña
Manuel Llorca-Jaña*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Department of Historical Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, manuel_llorca@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The literature on Anglo-South American trade during the first half of the 19th century has taken British exports for granted. There are no specific considerations of textile exports, which were the backbone of British trade to the continent. Accordingly, when explaining the growth of British exports, historians have paid tribute solely to economic developments in South America. Important developments taking place in Britain have long been neglected. This paper provides the first account of the impact that improvements in the packing of textiles to protect against seawater damages had on British exports to distant markets, focusing on the particular markets of Chile and the River Plate c.1810-1859.

Resumen

La mayoría de la historiografía que ha tratado las relaciones económicas entre Gran Bretaña y el Cono Sur durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX ha ignorado las relaciones comerciales entre ambos. Ni la inversión directa ni la de portafolio fueron importantes durante este periodo: las principales ganancias para los británicos provinieron del comercio de bienes (textiles en particular) y de los ingresos invisibles asociados al mismo: créditos, fletes y seguros. Los pocos estudios disponibles sobre las relaciones comerciales entre Gran Bretaña y el Cono Sur se refieren en su mayor parte a importaciones británicas de materias primas, mientras que sus exportaciones se han tomado como dadas. A tal extremo llega este sesgo historiográfico, que no hay estudios específicos sobre las exportaciones textiles a Sudamérica, aún cuando en este periodo los textiles fueron la principal manufactura comercializada a nivel mundial. Consequentemente, al tratar de explicar la evolución y crecimiento de las exportaciones británicas, historiadores económicos han concentrado su atención en desarrollos dentro de Sudamérica. Sin embargo, hubo eventos importantes en el Reino Unido, los que no han recibido atención. Este artículo muestra como importantes desarrollos en el empacado de textiles fueron introducidos exitosamente en el Reino Unido para proteger los textiles contra daños causados por agua fresca y salada, promoviendo de este modo las exportaciones británicas.

Keywords

Anglo-Latin American tradeChileArgentinaeconomic historypackingmarine insurancesN70O31Comercio Anglo-LatinoamericanoChileArgentinaHistoria EconómicaEmpacadoSeguros Marinos
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , 10 March 2011 , pp. 11 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Archivo Nacional de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile, Archivo Judicial de Valparaiso (ANCH-AJV) and Archivo Judicial de Santiago (ANCH-AJS).Google Scholar
Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hugh Dallas & Co. archive, loose papers (HDP).Google Scholar
Baring Brothers papers at ING, London, UK (HC).Google Scholar
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, William Lupton & Co. papers (WLP).Google Scholar
Glasgow University Archives, Glasgow, UK, John Wylie papers (UGD/28).Google Scholar
Guildhall Library, London, UK, George Frederick Dickson papers, Volume MSS 28969 (GFDP) and Gibbs & Son papers (AGSP).Google Scholar
John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, Green Hodgson & Robinson papers (GHR) and Owen Owens & Son papers (OWN).Google Scholar
The National Archives, Kew, London, UK, Ledgers of Exports Under Countries (CUST/8) and Foreign Office Correspondence with Argentina (FO 118).Google Scholar
University College London, Special Collections, London, UK, Huth & Co. papers, English Letters (HPEL).Google Scholar

References

Anguita, R. (1912): Leyes Promulgadas en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Barcelona.Google Scholar
Beaumont, J. A. B. (1828): Travels in Buenos Ayres. London: James Ridgway.Google Scholar
Bishop, N. H. (1869): The Pampas and Andes. Boston. Mass.: Lee & Shepard.Google Scholar
Burgin, M. (1946): The Economic Aspects of Argentine Federalism, 1820-1852. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavieres, E. (1999): Comercio Chileno y Comerciantes Ingleses, 1820-1880. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria.Google Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1985): «British-Based Investment Groups before 1914». Economic History Review, 38 (2), pp. 230-251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1992): Merchant Enterprise in Britain: from the Industrial Revolution to World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, S. D. (1996): «The Commercial Sector», in M. B. Rose (ed.), The Lancashire Cotton Industry: A History Since 1700. Preston: Lancashire County Books, pp. 63-93.Google Scholar
Clapp, B. W. (1945): John Owens. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
D'Orbigny, A. (1945): Viaje a la America Meridional. Buenos Aires: Editorial Futuro.Google Scholar
Davis, R. (1978): «Maritime History: Progress and Problems», in S. Marriner (ed.), Business and Businessmen. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 169-187.Google Scholar
Donaghy, T. J. (1972): Liverpool & Manchester Railway Operations, 1831–1845. New Abbot: David & Charles.Google Scholar
Encina, F. (1945-1952): Historia de Chile desde la Prehistoria hasta 1891, vol. 10. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Nascimiento.Google Scholar
Ferns, H. S. (1950): «Investment and Trade between Britain and Argentina in the Nineteenth Century». Economic History Review, 3 (2), pp. 203-218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenhill, R. (1977): «Shipping, 1850-1914», in D. C. M. Platt (ed.), Business Imperialism, 1840-1930. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 159-197.Google Scholar
Halperín-Donghi, T. (1987): «Economy and Society», in L. Bethell (ed.), Spanish America after Independence, c.1820-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-47.Google Scholar
Irigoin, M. A.Schmit, R. (2003): «Introducción», in M. A. Irigoin and R. Schmit (eds), La Desintegración de la Economía Colonial. Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos, pp. 17-36.Google Scholar
Jones, G. (2000): Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Llorca-Jaña, M. (2009a): «Knowing the Shape of Demand: Britain's Exports of Ponchos to the Southern Cone, c.1810s-1870s». Business History, 51 (4), pp. 602-621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llorca-Jaña, M. (2009b): British Textile Exports to the Southern Cone During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Growth, Structure and the Marketing Chain, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leicester.Google Scholar
Llorca-Jaña, M. (2010): «The Marine Insurance Market for British Textile Exports to the River Plate and Chile, c.1810-1850», in R. Pearson (ed.), The Development of International Insurance. London: Pickering & Chatto, pp. 25-36.Google Scholar
Lubbock, B. (1927): The Last of the Windjammers. Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson.Google Scholar
Lynn, M. (1999): «British Policy, Trade, and Informal Empire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century», in A. Porter (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 101-121.Google Scholar
Martin, F. M. (1823): A Compendium of the Practice of Stating Aberages [sic]. Liverpool: George Cruickshank.Google Scholar
Mathias, P. (1983): The First Industrial Nation. An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1914, 2nd edn. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Mayo, J. (1987): British Merchants and Chilean Development, 1851-1886. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Mcculloch, J. R. (1852): A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical of Commerce and Commercial Navigation. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.Google Scholar
Miller, R. (1993): Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Milne, G. J. (2000): Trade and Traders in Mid-Victorian Liverpool. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
Platt, D. C. M. (1972): Latin America and British Trade, 1806-1914. London: Adam & Charles Black.Google Scholar
Platt, D. C. M. (1980): «Dependency in Nineteenth-Century Latin-America: an Historian Objects». Latin American Research Review, 15 (1), pp. 113-130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reber, V. (1978): «Speculation and Commerce in Buenos Aires: the Hugh Dallas House, 1816-1820». Business History, 20 (1), pp. 19-36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rector, J. L. (1976): «Merchants, Trade and Commercial Policy in Chile, 1810–1840», Unpublished PhD Thesis, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Rippy, J. (1948): «British Investments in Latin American, End of 1876». Pacific Historical Review, 17 (1), pp. 11-18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydell, R. (1952): Cape Horn to the Pacific. California: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Scholler, P. (1951): «L’Évolution Séculaire des Taux de Fret et D'Assurance Maritimes 1819-1940». Bulletin de l'Institute de Recherches Économiques et Sociales, 17 (5), pp. 523-540.Google Scholar