Prices and exchange rates

Prices and rates of exchange should be known when dealing with products and currencies from different countries. Although paper money appeared in many countries during the nineteenth century, specie was the ultimate means of payment. Whether used permanently (as in Buenos Aires) or temporarily (as in Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, or in the United States during the Civil War), paper money was an aberration. The barbaric habit of using specie (the Buenos Aires government denounced it a whole century before Keynes) faded away only after 1930. Comparisons are easier, therefore, for the nineteenth century. Since the silver or gold content of the coins used as means of payment in Buenos Aires, Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the United States is known, there remains to be known the rate of exchange of the Buenos Aires paper money after January 1826. This section deals with the sources and problems of tables and figures using currencies from different countries.

The information on hide prices in three European countries from 1790 to 1820 (Figure 11.2) has been taken from Cuenca Esteban. The average for 1800–1806 has been used here as the base for estimating the index.

The current price of Buenos Aires produce and exchange rate in 1821– 1823 (Figure 11.3) has been taken from a report submitted in 1824 by the local British merchants to Woodbine Parish, the British minister in Buenos Aires. “Dry” means dry hides, and prices are given for the 35-lb pesada used for them; “salted” means salted hides, and prices are given for the 60-lb pesada used for them; “horse” means horse hides, and prices are given per hide.