Trade, smuggling, and demarcation of boundaries in the Iberian Amazon (c.1780-c.1790)

Abstract

During the execution of the boundary demarcation determined by the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777), legal and illegal commercial relations executed by Portuguese, Spanish and indigenous peoples on the Amazonian borders involved different products and actors. This commerce was especially important to supply provisions to the Spanish commissions. Furthermore, protests against Portuguese-Spanish smuggling on the Amazonian borders indicated the role played by the local authorities on this activity. From evidences present in Portuguese and Spanish primary sources, this article examines the presence the legal trade and smuggling networks involving the Andean areas of the Audience of Quito and the State of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro during the last decades of 18th century.