| Description |
1 online resource (viii, 314 pages) |
| Contents |
Old habits : commercial neglect and peripheral innovation in early Venezuela -- Socialized into smuggling : the consumer culture of the black market -- New cures : the Caracas Company, the crown, and commercial control -- Networking statelessness in a bordered world : foreign smugglers -- The societal ties of smuggling : Venezuelan merchants -- "Men of good who will harm no one" : Venezuelan officials -- Contrabandists or cargo? : People of color, smuggling, and the illicit slave trade -- The political power of covert commerce : the rebellion of Juan Francisco de León, 1749-1751 |
| Summary |
The Smugglers' World examines a critical part of Atlantic trade for a neglected corner of the Spanish Empire. Testimonies of smugglers, buyers, and royal officials found in Venezuelan prize court records reveal a colony enmeshed in covert commerce. Forsaken by the Spanish fleet system, Venezuelan colonists struggled to obtain European foods and goods. They found a solution in exchanging cacao, a coveted luxury, for the necessities of life provided by contrabandists from the Dutch, English, and French Caribbean. Jesse Cromwell paints a vivid picture of the lives of littoral peoples who normalized their subversions of imperial law. Yet laws and borders began to matter when the Spanish state cracked down on illicit commerce in the 1720s as part of early Bourbon reforms. Now successful merchants could become convict laborers just as easily as enslaved Africans could become free traders along the unruly coastlines of the Spanish Main. Smuggling became more than an economic transaction or imperial worry; persistent local need elevated the practice to a communal ethos, and Venezuelans defended their commercial autonomy through passive measures and even violent political protests. Negotiations between the Spanish state and its subjects over smuggling formed a key part of empire making and maintenance in the eighteenth century |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Smuggling -- Venezuela -- Atlantic Coast -- History -- 18th century
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Smuggling -- Social aspects
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Smuggling -- Political aspects
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HISTORY -- Latin America -- South America.
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Commerce
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Commercial policy
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Smuggling
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Spanish colonies
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| SUBJECT |
Venezuela -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century
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Spain -- Colonies -- America -- History -- 18th century
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Spain -- Commercial policy -- 18th century
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| Subject |
America
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Spain
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Venezuela
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Venezuela -- Atlantic Coast
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, publisher.
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| ISBN |
9781469636917 |
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1469636913 |
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9781469636948 |
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1469636948 |
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