Subsidizing the Costs of Loyalty: Lima, Montevideo, and the Making of the Loyalist Río de la Plata, 1810–1814

Abstract

AbstractThis article rereads the history of loyalist Montevideo through the prism of intraimperial fiscal cooperation and redistribution. On the eve of Buenos Aires’ 1810 revolution, Montevideo received close to one million pesos in external fiscal subsidies; such supplements to its meager tax base help account for its loyalism. As Spain proved unable to directly assist loyal Montevideanos, regency appointees and local corporations turned to loyalist authorities and locals in Lima, Peru. Through original archival research in Peru, Spain, and Uruguay, this article gives the first detailed account of the multiple seaborne missions sent from Montevideo to Lima, which by 1814 secured more than a half-million pesos in monetary assistance. These funds not only sustained military and naval campaigns but also assured big and small imperial stakeholders that the system of fiscal transfers that benefited them had not been brought to a complete halt.