Contraband Trade and Sovereignty in Revolutionary Rio de la Plata, 1808–25

This paper examines the changing patterns and definitions of contraband trade during the revolutionary period in the Rio de la Plata region (1810-1825), specifically in the Banda Oriental. As Montevideo broke its political links from Buenos Aires by 1810, several competing political projects emerged in the Banda Oriental. By 1816, Montevideo’s elites supported the occupation of the Banda Oriental by Luso-Brazilian forces and the subsequent annexation of the region to the Luso-Brazilian Empire as the Provincia Cisplatina. In nearly a decade, Montevideo’s mercantile elites connected to Luso-Brazilian networks built a state apparatus based on old regime institutions and political principles, most notably, the preservation of the centrality of the cabildos as the source of sovereignty. During this period, the geography of contraband trade changed. Smuggling routes traditionally connected to Montevideo weakened, as new routes for contraband trade emerged in smaller ports closer to Buenos Aires, namely Colonia del Sacramento. This work illuminates how local political factions re-defined the notion of contraband trade in close relationship to competing notions of sovereignty and political projects. Between 1810 and 1825, Montevideo transitioned from a hot-spot for contraband trade to the main center in charge repressing contraband in the area under its jurisdiction. As a consequence, new smuggling routes and a new architecture of trans-imperial networks of trade emerged. The changes in the patterns of illegal trade reflected the disputes involving concepts of sovereignty and authority over legal trade in the Rio de la Plata. In a period in which territorial limits were re-drawn, sovereignties were contested, and imperial and republican projects competed, the regulation of trade became a central variable for the political and commercial elites in revolutionary Rio de la Plata.