The Smugglers’ World. Illicit Trade and Atlantic Communities in Eighteenth-Century Venezuela

Abstract

Old habits : commercial neglect and peripheral innovation in early Venezuela -- Socialized into smuggling : the consumer culture of the black market -- New cures : the Caracas Company, the crown, and commercial control -- Networking statelessness in a bordered world : foreign smugglers -- The societal ties of smuggling : Venezuelan merchants -- "Men of good who will harm no one" : Venezuelan officials -- Contrabandists or cargo? : People of color, smuggling, and the illicit slave trade -- The political power of covert commerce : the rebellion of Juan Francisco de León, 1749-1751 "The Smugglers' World examines a critical part of Atlantic trade for a neglected corner of the Spanish Empire. Testimonies of smugglers, buyers, and royal officials found in Venezuelan prize court records reveal a colony enmeshed in covert commerce. Forsaken by the Spanish fleet system, Venezuelan colonists struggled to obtain European foods and goods. They found a solution in exchanging cacao, a coveted luxury, for the necessities of life provided by contrabandists from the Dutch, English, and French Caribbean"