Ships arriving in Buenos Aires in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries carried people more interested in the riches of Upper Peru than in the meager return that local goods provided for such a long and risky trip. But hides were abundant in Buenos Aires as a consequence of the proliferation of wild cattle on the pampas and the hunting activities of the natives, the vaquerías. So hides were, if not so profitable a return as silver, at least a convenient load for ships sailing back on ballast.

The annual average number of hides exported from Buenos Aires in the second half of the seventeenth century was 26,000 units, but due to the progressive extermination of wild herds, it fell to 16,000 hides between 1721 and 1738. For 1756–1766 the average rose to 87,600 hides per year, and during the following decade, 1767–1776, it only remained at 88,700 hides per year. A sharp contrast is offered by the figures for exports after the 1778 free trade regulations came into force. The annual average for 1777–1786 was 173,400 hides, and 331,500 hides for 1787–1796 (Figure II. I). Those figures are for Buenos Aires only, without taking contraband into account. The remarkable growth rate should be stressed over the absolute figures. There was a 278% increase from the 1756–1766 average to that of 1787–1796, equivalent to a rate of growth of 4.5% per year.

Other sources put total hide exports at 447,000 hides per year (53% supplied by the Banda Oriental and 47% by Buenos Aires) for 1777–1784, and 743,000 hides for 1793–1796.