This work aims to reconstruct the Atlantic and global networks of a British political and commercial agent, who was active during the Independence Wars period in Latin America. Robert Ponsonby Staples (1784-1852) was initially the unofficial British consul in Buenos Aires and later became the British consul at Acapulco and Guadalajara. His biography can be defined as “imperial” because Staples operated within the spaces open to Great Britain’s imperial interests, particularly those areas that became accessible to Britain during and after the crisis of the Spanish American empire. Staples was in fact based at first on the banks of the River Plate and later on the Pacific coasts of America, where he arrived via London and Calcutta, and finally in Mexico. As a chiefly informal agent Staples took part in political missions and commercial initiatives of political and strategic consequence; such as loans to newly formed governments, mining investments and trade of military supplies. The reconstruction of all those activities is pieced together from documents preserved in some public and private archives of Belfast, London, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Mexico City. These sources have been used to analyze the networks, methods and purposes by which the British policy of “influence” operated at the level of politics commerce and finance in Latin America. It is also meant to show how the present case-study could contribute to strengthen with new elements Robinson and Gallagher’s thesis on the long-term process of construction of a British “informal empire”, whose “invisible flag” would have been a driving element for British trade in regions susceptible to a reconfiguration of the balance of power in the 19th century, but which were not a part of the British Empire. Staples manoeuvred within a peculiar area of British policy; the area between the broad range of initiatives British political agents could put in practice and what the Foreign Office would have disavowed of them, because conflicting with the official statements and/or with the general goals (also the unofficial goals) of the British foreign policy. It is possible to recognize within this area actions, behaviors, practices, initiatives, whose nature and outcomes help giving substance and describing concrete forms of “informal imperialism”, that is, the British influence exerted to create and to help stabilize economic and political frameworks suited to British trade and investments.

Il lavoro consiste nella ricostruzione delle reti atlantiche e globali di un agente politico e commerciale britannico, attivo nel periodo delle guerre di indipendenza in America latina. Robert Ponsonby Staples (1784-1852) fu prima console ufficioso a Buenos Aires e poi console in Messico, ad Acapulco e Guadalajara. Possiamo definire la sua una biografia “imperiale”, in quanto Staples si mosse, prima sul Río de la Plata, poi sulla costa americana del Pacifico (dove giunse dopo essersi spinto fino Calcutta) e infine in Messico, negli spazi dove si dispiegarono gli interessi imperiali della Gran Bretagna, in particolare quelli resi accessibili dalla crisi dell’impero ispano-americano. La ricostruzione delle vicende di un agente prevalentemente informale, tra missioni politiche e iniziative commerciali di rilevanza politico-strategica (i prestiti ai nuovi governi indipendenti, gli investimenti minerari e il commercio di forniture militari), è effettuata sulla base di documenti conservati in archivi pubblici e privati di Londra, Belfast, Buenos Aires, Santiago del Cile, Città del Messico. È stato possibile, attraverso tali fonti, analizzare con quali metodi, mediante quali reti di relazioni e con quali obbiettivi, la politica britannica di “influenza” funzionò nella pratica corrente degli affari politici, commerciali e finanziari in America latina. E in che misura questo caso di studio possa contribuire a sostanziare di nuovi elementi la tesi di Robinson e Gallagher circa l’esistenza di un processo di lungo periodo di formazione di un “impero informale” britannico la cui “bandiera invisibile” avrebbe fatto da elemento trainante per il commercio in aree che sarebbero rimaste indipendenti dal dominio coloniale britannico, ma che nel XIX secolo erano suscettibili di una riconfigurazione dei rapporti di forza tra le potenze. Staples agì all’interno di un particolare ambito della politica britannica, ovvero nello spazio tra la vasta gamma di iniziative che gli agenti politici britannici potevano porre in atto nell’America spagnola, e ciò che il Foreign Office non avrebbe accettato, ritenendolo incompatibile con le enunciazioni ufficiali e/o con gli interessi e gli obbiettivi generali della sua politica estera, compresi quelli inconfessabili. Studiando questo ambito di azione, vi si scoprono all’interno comportamenti, pratiche, iniziative, il cui carattere e il cui esito servono a dare sostanza e a descrivere forme concrete dell’“imperialismo informale”, come un’influenza esercitata allo scopo di favorire la nascita e orientare il consolidamento di strutture politiche e economiche adatte ad accogliere i commerci e gli investimenti britannici.

COMMERCIO BRITANNICO E IMPERIALISMO INFORMALE IN AMERICA LATINA. ROBERT P. STAPLES TRA RÍO DE LA PLATA, PERÙ E MESSICO (1808-1824) / Besseghini, Deborah. - (2016 Apr 28).

COMMERCIO BRITANNICO E IMPERIALISMO INFORMALE IN AMERICA LATINA. ROBERT P. STAPLES TRA RÍO DE LA PLATA, PERÙ E MESSICO (1808-1824)

BESSEGHINI, DEBORAH
2016-04-28

Abstract

This work aims to reconstruct the Atlantic and global networks of a British political and commercial agent, who was active during the Independence Wars period in Latin America. Robert Ponsonby Staples (1784-1852) was initially the unofficial British consul in Buenos Aires and later became the British consul at Acapulco and Guadalajara. His biography can be defined as “imperial” because Staples operated within the spaces open to Great Britain’s imperial interests, particularly those areas that became accessible to Britain during and after the crisis of the Spanish American empire. Staples was in fact based at first on the banks of the River Plate and later on the Pacific coasts of America, where he arrived via London and Calcutta, and finally in Mexico. As a chiefly informal agent Staples took part in political missions and commercial initiatives of political and strategic consequence; such as loans to newly formed governments, mining investments and trade of military supplies. The reconstruction of all those activities is pieced together from documents preserved in some public and private archives of Belfast, London, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Mexico City. These sources have been used to analyze the networks, methods and purposes by which the British policy of “influence” operated at the level of politics commerce and finance in Latin America. It is also meant to show how the present case-study could contribute to strengthen with new elements Robinson and Gallagher’s thesis on the long-term process of construction of a British “informal empire”, whose “invisible flag” would have been a driving element for British trade in regions susceptible to a reconfiguration of the balance of power in the 19th century, but which were not a part of the British Empire. Staples manoeuvred within a peculiar area of British policy; the area between the broad range of initiatives British political agents could put in practice and what the Foreign Office would have disavowed of them, because conflicting with the official statements and/or with the general goals (also the unofficial goals) of the British foreign policy. It is possible to recognize within this area actions, behaviors, practices, initiatives, whose nature and outcomes help giving substance and describing concrete forms of “informal imperialism”, that is, the British influence exerted to create and to help stabilize economic and political frameworks suited to British trade and investments.
28-apr-2016
ABBATTISTA, GUIDO
27
2013/2014
Settore M-STO/02 - Storia Moderna
Università degli Studi di Trieste
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