Trade, Credit, and Royal Revenues: The Case of Francisco Ximenez de Mesa, Merchant and Director of the Aduana of Buenos Aires

In 1788, Viceroy Loreto investigated Francisco Ximenez de Mesa, serving as the Director of the Aduana of Buenos Aires, and discovered that this officer utilized royal revenue to finance his viceroyalty-wide trading network. Previous scholarship treated Ximenex's dealings primarily as an example of local corruption that justified the implementation of the Bourbon Reforms and, as a paradigmatic case for illustrating trading patterns in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. This paper continues with this research emphasizing the importance of royal revenue as a source of credit before the creation of a Consulado in Buenos Aires in 1794.