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Commerce and Industry in Nineteenth Century Paraguay: The Example of Yerba Mate*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Vera Blinn Reber*
Affiliation:
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

Extract

Yerba mate, a primitive forest industry, demonstrates the interaction of private and state enterprise in nineteenth century Paraguay. A low capital investment industry based upon utilizing seasonal and unskilled labor, yerba mate was financed, collected, and sold by the private entrepreneur and the state. Demand for yerba in both internal and external markets assured satisfactory profits for businessmen, above average wages for laborers, and necessary revenues for government. As a major export of Paraguay from the end of the seventeenth century until the War of the Triple Alliance, The Great War of 1864-1870, yerba mate provides insight into government regulations, taxation, price controls, and foreign trade policies. Because of the significance of yerba mate for the Paraguayan economy, the state was involved in both production and trade, although government interest primarily assured revenues rather than state control. A description of the organization of the yerba mate industry and an analysis of government policies supports revisionist studies that the governments of José Gaspar de Francia, 1811-1840, Carlos Antonio López, 1844-1862, and Francisco Solano López, 1862-1870 were pragmatic and rational rather than dictatorial and monopolistic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1985

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank the Tinker Foundation, which made possible research in Brasília, Corrientes, and Asunción, Shirley Mellinger for typing and aid in statistical analysis and Daniel Papiernik and the Media Service of Shippensburg University for preparation of the map.

References

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17 AMB, Aguirre Papers 031-6-9 no. 1, Cuenta, 18 Sept. 1813. The Robertson Brothers in partnership with an Argentine merchant report a profit of 3,000 percent on one speculation in 1818. This profit was far higher than those indicated for the colonial era. This was extremely unusual, most likely exaggerated as the Robertson Brothers tended to figure their profits without clearly indicating their expenses and at best a one time occurrence. See Robertson, , Francia’s Reign of Terror, 2, 5791.Google Scholar

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43 AHI, 238.3.2, Asunción 12 Jan. 1860, Amaro José Santos Barbaro to José Luis Viera Cassnasancas de Liminbu.

44 AMAE, ccc, Asunción 10 June 1855, Lucien de Brayer to Drouyn de Lhuys, p. 32.

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59 BN, CRB, 1–30,3,70, Berlin 5 October 1864 Alfred Du Graty to José Berges; Ibid., Brussels 31 October 1864.

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65 The best discussion on the problems of forming a government after the Great War and Argentine and Brazilian efforts to control Paraguay can be found in H. G. Warren, Paraguay and the Triple Alliance.