British Merchants, Private Interests and the Fostering of Free Trade in Chile, 1811–1831
The final case study to be discussed is the role of the other British ‘non–state’ actors involved in Chile’s independence–era: merchants. The presence of merchants and traders of different nationalities had been very extensive along the Chilean coasts prior to the crisis of 1808, but their presence was illegal since Spain adopted a trade monopoly policy after the conquest of America. This situation changed after 1811 thanks to the policies adopted by the new Chilean authorities, who gradually ‘legalised’ the status of these ‘smugglers’. As a result, the activities of British merchants in Chile were no longer forbidden and their former status as illegal traders or smugglers shifted to a new one, in which they became legal merchants operating in Chile. British merchants who travelled to Chile were fundamental in fostering and consolidating, although as with the cases studied in chapters two and three, this was done according to local conditions.