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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: September 22, 2020 at 11:29:23 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Borucki on Freeman, 'A Silver River in a > Silver World: Dutch Trade in the Rio de la Plata, 1648-1678' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > David Freeman. A Silver River in a Silver World: Dutch Trade in the > Rio de la Plata, 1648-1678. Cambridge Latin American Studies Series. > Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2020. xiv + 226 pp. $99.99 > (cloth), ISBN 978-1-108-41749-5. > > Reviewed by Alex Borucki (University of California, Irvine) > Published on H-LatAm (September, 2020) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > The more we read about the Dutch, the more we realize that our > understanding of the Atlantic World will continue to have significant > gaps until we engage more deeply with their actions across the > Atlantic-Pacific axis of silver, slaves, and trade emerging in the > sixteenth century. Historians of Spanish America rarely read Dutch > primary sources, and historians of the Dutch Atlantic rarely read > Spanish records (though most commonly both of these groups read > English). David Freeman is one of the few historians who read these > three languages as well as Portuguese, all essential for examining > colonial Río de la Plata's Atlantic trade. In addition, Freeman is > one of the very few historians to have conducted archival research in > both the Netherlands and Buenos Aires, further supplemented in this > book with archival sources from France, Spain, and the United > Kingdom. Indeed, Freeman is the first to examine Spanish-language > notary registers inserted within Dutch-language files in the Dutch > notarial archives (only Zakarías Moutoukias has worked on the Dutch > records of the Río de la Plata). Freeman affirms the centrality of > archives in the historian's toolkit as that which sets this > profession apart from other scholars in the humanities and social > sciences. It takes a vocation and great patience to dig through these > repositories and master the knowledge to connect historical > characters and processes in seventeenth-century notarial records in > Spanish and Dutch. Freeman's work makes clear that historians who > fail to do this work may end up repeating commonplace impressions and > interpretations. This excellent book instead surprises the reader on > many fronts regarding Dutch-Spanish trading partnerships in Buenos > Aires, and it should be translated into Spanish for further > circulation in Latin America. > > Freeman puts forward an important argument about how we envision > "contraband" as a form of local governance in the Spanish Americas. > As he puts it: "Dutch trade flowed through Buenos Aires both inward > and outward not because the governors were greedy and corrupt (which > ultimately increased risk and diminished opportunities), but because > they functioned within a system of governance that allowed them to > interpret royal will to best serve local and regional communities" > (p. 7). Indeed, seventeenth-century Spanish colonial authorities > rarely used the word _contrabando_ to refer to what we would call > contraband today. Instead, Freeman uses the terms "registered" and > "unregistered" to refer to the legal standing of the commodities > (including enslaved people) being exchanged in Buenos Aires and on > board of Dutch ships, in order to avoid modern conceptions of > contraband that could misinform our understanding of these > developments. > > Dutch trade in the Río de la Plata depended on establishing reliable > connections with local governors and merchants and on a legal > architecture centered on notarized agreements between Spanish and > Dutch associates. The centrality of local authorities and > partnerships between Dutch traders living outside and inside Buenos > Aires and Spanish merchants and officials of Buenos Aires is > illustrated by the close relationship between the governor of Buenos > Aires, Pedro de Baygorri, and Dutch merchant Albert Jansen. Local > government and merchant communities mattered. In this Spanish-Dutch > partnership, the Buenos Aires-based Spanish merchants took on the > less risky role_, _while the Dutch took most of the risk. Spaniards > (some of mixed European and African ancestry) conducted commerce of > Dutch merchandise from Buenos Aires to Lima and Potosí, the source > of the silver lubricating this trade, and probably enjoyed > comparatively greater profits from this commerce than transatlantic > shippers, such as the Dutch, who were more exposed to losses and > uncertainty. A quantitative analysis of merchant accounts, if these > survive, could shed light on this issue. Most of these transactions > were notarized rather than being done secretly and informally in the > middle of the night . A structure of ink and paper, of legal > jurisdiction and rights on property, knit together Amsterdam and > Buenos Aires: "the notarial cultures in Amsterdam and Buenos Aires > bound these men even when their face-to-face contacts were rare" (p. > 193). These contracts functioned to set in writing the legalization > of this unregistered merchandise and enslaved Africans, which allowed > a safe passage from Buenos Aires to the inland (and thus provided > safeguard against Spanish officers in such places as Córdoba, > Tucumán, and Mendoza, who could confiscate merchandise and slaves). > This world of ink and paper, combined with family links and > friendships, reduced the risk for the Dutch and their local Spanish > counterparts conducting cross-cultural trade in the Río de la Plata > and bridged different legal communities and cultures. > > Events in Buenos Aires and the Atlantic World brought this trade to > an end about 1680. Freeman finds that specific prohibitions against > Dutch trade in Buenos Aires issued by Madrid, a greater number of > ships (_navíos de registro _and _navíos de aviso_) sent from Spain > to more frequently connect the Río de la Plata with the metropolis, > and the renewal of the Portuguese trade in the Río de la Plata after > 1668 and prior to the Portuguese foundation of Colonia del Sacramento > in the shores opposite to Buenos Aires in 1680, all contributed to > this decline. The creation of the _audiencia_ (high court) of Buenos > Aires in 1663 with a new governor who intended to curtail > unregistered ships arriving in the context of the Spanish loss of > Jamaica (1655, with Spanish recognition in 1670) also influenced the > decline of Dutch trade in Buenos Aires. While the Third Anglo-Dutch > War (1672-74) that crippled Dutch shipping also had a role, Freeman > rightfully recognizes that Curaçao became the main Dutch center of > transshipping in the Americas in the 1660s, which led the Dutch > shipping presence in Buenos Aires to disappear by 1680. > > Freeman addresses the Dutch presence in the Caribbean at the > beginning and at the end of his book. Yet we may wonder about the > commonalities and differences of Dutch trade in the Río de la Plata > in 1648-78, compared to Dutch involvement in New Granada and > Venezuela in those years. Detailed scrutiny of the Dutch in the > Caribbean could have helped qualify Freeman's assessment of Dutch > commerce in Buenos Aires. Freeman asserts that between 1654 and the > 1660s "much of the [Dutch] direct trade with Spanish America went > through Buenos Aires" (p. 87). Evidence from the traffic of captives > shows that, in the decade of 1650, more captives arrived in Dutch > ships from Africa to the Spanish Caribbean and circum-Caribbean than > to the Río de la Plata (www.slavevoyages.org), before the decline of > Dutch trade in Buenos Aires in the 1660s. And this is without > counting the slave trade from Curaçao to the Spanish colonies. > Evidence from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database suggests the > need for further clarification and qualification when comparing the > Dutch commerce of goods in the Spanish circum-Caribbean vis-à-vis > Buenos Aires. Notwithstanding, this is the best examination of the > Dutch trade in colonial Río de la Plata to date, and an example of > micro-analysis based of the itinerant life of Jansen in the > Netherlands, Spain, and the Río de la Plata, among other places. > > Citation: Alex Borucki. Review of Freeman, David, _A Silver River in > a Silver World: Dutch Trade in the Rio de la Plata, 1648-1678_. > H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. September, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55407 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#1824): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/1824 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77015378/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
