Adventures and Speculations in South America

JCB Fellow Fabrício Prado (The College of William & Mary, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow) presents "Adventures and Speculations in South America: Providence Merchants, Smuggling, and Global Trade in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions." By the end of the eighteenth century, the lure of silver and the vast Spanish American consumer markets attracted the attention of merchants in the main port cities of the United States. By sending their ships and captains on voyages of "adventures" and "speculations" in South America, Providence merchants were able to strengthen their position in global trade circuits (China and India trade), to avoid the risks of warfare in Europe, and to syphon specie and trade goods that allowed for the creation of banks and factories in New England. The emergence of these intertwined North-South American commercial circuits proved crucial for state building in the United States and for the emergence of the independent South American countries (especially Argentina).