Maracaibo's agro-exporting circuit in the middle of the 19th century

Maracaibo, capital del Estado Zulia en la República de Venezuela, experimentó un significativo crecimiento económico en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX como efecto de la expansión y consolidación en la región occidental del país y nororiente colombiano de un circuito agroexportador de tanta importancia como los conformados en torno a la Guaira y Puerto Cabello. Su privilegiada ubicación -entre la costa caribeña y la desembocadura de la extensa cuenca del Lago de Maracaibo- la convirtió en el principal puerto regional, fundamental para dos países: Venezuela y Colombia.Entre 1830 y 1860, la producción y comercialización del café andino elevó a la Aduana de Maracaibo de un distante cuarto lugar al primero, entre las venezolanas que mayores capitales movilizaron. El análisis del Circuito agroexportador marabino revela la coexistencia histórica en Venezuela de regiones económicamente autónomas con élites comerciales y financieras locales: un país aún no integrado por un mercado nacional y débil en su unidad política.Consideraciones éstas de sumo interés para la discusión y esclarecimiento del proceso de formación del Estado Nacional, surgimiento de una clase dirigente venezolana y consolidación del territorio patrio. Palabras Claves: comercio, comerciantes, contrabando, circuito comercial, producción agropecuaria, café, puertos, transporte, comunicaciones, región histórica, inmigración extranjera. Maracaibo, Zulia, Andes, Venezuela, Santander, Nueva Granada, Colombia, Caribe, Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, Europa.  During the second half of the 19th century Maracaibo, capital city of the State of Zulia in Venezuela, showed a significant economic growth caused by the expansion and consolidation of an agro-exporting circuit in the West of Venezuela and northeastern region of Colombia comparable in importance with those established around La Guaira and Puerto Cabello. Its privileged location -between the Caribean coast and the end of the extensive basin of Lake Maracaibo- made it the principal regional port of the greatest importance for two countries: Venezuela and Colombia. Between 1830 and 1860 the production and marketing of Andian coffee raised Maracaibo's customhouse from a distant fourth place lo the first one among those that mobilised greater sums of money in Venezuela. The analysis of Maracaibo's agroexporting circuit revealed the historical coexistence in Venezuela of economically autonomous regions with local commercialand financial elites: a country not yet integrated by a home market and with a weak political unity. These considerations are of the greatest interest in the discussion and elucidation of the formation process of the national state, the emergence of a venezuelan ruling class, and the consolidation of the home territory. Key words: Commerce, merchants, smuggling, commercial circuit, agricultural production, coffee, ports, transport, communication, historical region, foreign inmigration, Maracaibo, Zulia, Andes, Venezuela, Santander, Nueva Granada, Colombia, Caribe

Maracaibo's agro-exporting circuit in the middle of the 19th century

Maracaibo, capital del Estado Zulia en la República de Venezuela, experimentó un significativo crecimiento económico en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX como efecto de la expansión y consolidación en la región occidental del país y nororiente colombiano de un circuito agroexportador de tanta importancia como los conformados en torno a la Guaira y Puerto Cabello. Su privilegiada ubicación -entre la costa caribeña y la desembocadura de la extensa cuenca del Lago de Maracaibo- la convirtió en el principal puerto regional, fundamental para dos países: Venezuela y Colombia.Entre 1830 y 1860, la producción y comercialización del café andino elevó a la Aduana de Maracaibo de un distante cuarto lugar al primero, entre las venezolanas que mayores capitales movilizaron. El análisis del Circuito agroexportador marabino revela la coexistencia histórica en Venezuela de regiones económicamente autónomas con élites comerciales y financieras locales: un país aún no integrado por un mercado nacional y débil en su unidad política.Consideraciones éstas de sumo interés para la discusión y esclarecimiento del proceso de formación del Estado Nacional, surgimiento de una clase dirigente venezolana y consolidación del territorio patrio. Palabras Claves: comercio, comerciantes, contrabando, circuito comercial, producción agropecuaria, café, puertos, transporte, comunicaciones, región histórica, inmigración extranjera. Maracaibo, Zulia, Andes, Venezuela, Santander, Nueva Granada, Colombia, Caribe, Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, Europa.  During the second half of the 19th century Maracaibo, capital city of the State of Zulia in Venezuela, showed a significant economic growth caused by the expansion and consolidation of an agro-exporting circuit in the West of Venezuela and northeastern region of Colombia comparable in importance with those established around La Guaira and Puerto Cabello. Its privileged location -between the Caribean coast and the end of the extensive basin of Lake Maracaibo- made it the principal regional port of the greatest importance for two countries: Venezuela and Colombia. Between 1830 and 1860 the production and marketing of Andian coffee raised Maracaibo's customhouse from a distant fourth place lo the first one among those that mobilised greater sums of money in Venezuela. The analysis of Maracaibo's agroexporting circuit revealed the historical coexistence in Venezuela of economically autonomous regions with local commercialand financial elites: a country not yet integrated by a home market and with a weak political unity. These considerations are of the greatest interest in the discussion and elucidation of the formation process of the national state, the emergence of a venezuelan ruling class, and the consolidation of the home territory. Key words: Commerce, merchants, smuggling, commercial circuit, agricultural production, coffee, ports, transport, communication, historical region, foreign inmigration, Maracaibo, Zulia, Andes, Venezuela, Santander, Nueva Granada, Colombia, Caribe

Comerciantes alemanes en el occidente de Venezuela a finales del siglo XIX

Venezuela, in 1920, was offered for consideration by foreign investors as a mosaic of economic regions that are mainly dedicated to the agro-export. Consummate independence, and created the Republic of 1830, regional economies remained in the 19th century.Thanks to the growing global demand for coffee, three of the circuits agro, linked to the ports of La Guaira, Maracaibo and Puerto Cabello, initiated a stage of free trade expansion and consolidation. From the early 1840s the Germans gradually assumed control of the wearer agro-export circuit and basically monopolized the trade of coffee

Las sociedades regionales en la construcción de la nación venezolana

Since the 1980's, the critical review of the preceding national historiography and the advances in the research of the Venezuelan historical process has aimed their analysis tonew methodological proposals. Firstly, the current studies are separated from the traditional approach of our history based on the prominence of urban high layers of the north-central region of the country. It is argued how such optics has led to examine and interpret by analogy the evolution of the processes of socio-economic, political and cultural Venezuelans depending on what happened in Caracas and its socio-political environment, without taking into account local and regional specificities of the territorial Assembly. They are more "nationalist" to national stories. With regard to the studies until the middle 20th century on local and regional history, valuable and undeniable effort to know the particularities of the various cities, provinces and States of the Republic. How in those States proceeded with a methodology similar to historiography centralism that is observed in the General histories of Venezuela. The historical reconstruction of such regional spaces has been done traditionally with a treatment which limited the analysis to the administrative capitals of provinces or States, and, in the best of cases includes the precise boundary limits of different jurisdictions. They contextualize not shared with neighboring regions and even less with national socio-economic, political and cultural relations. In this sense have been more "regionalists" to strictly regional such storie

La ciudad imaginada y la ciudad real. Maracaibo en el siglo XIX

Several keys open the doors to XIX centuryMaracaibo: its condition as a port city, the role it assumes early as a trade centre and primate city of the Venezuelan western region and the Colombian northeast, the cultivation of the intellect, the European migrations, the defence of the autonomy inherited with its Hispanic roots and the forced insertion in the process of construction of the Venezuelan nation and state. Such combination ofvariables produced in the long run, initiatives, achievements and frustrations defined by the tensions generated between the real city, the lived in one and the desired and required city. In this paper, the Maracaibo cultural universe and the social practices that led to the conciliation of these meanings with the social, economic and cultural contradictions are analyse

Alianzas juntistas y lealtades a la Regencia en la Capitanía General de Venezuela a inicios de la independencia

The social groups of the localities and regions of the Captaincy General of Venezuela adopted an autonomous attitude towards the call for Independence made by Caracas. The abdication of the king of Spain led to an unusual movementin the government’s boardsin several cities of the Captaincy with the aim of reassuming the sovereign authority based on the people’s natural right, while at the same time, there were manifestations of loyalty towards the Regency. The particular case of Maracaibo is studied in this paper, as well as the consequences of the Venezuelan process of independence as regards the construction of the Republic

MARACAIBO Y SU CIRCUITO AGROEXPORTADOR EN EL SIGLO XIX.

La producción y comercialización del café andino venezolano y del norte de Santander, entre otros frutos, hacia el Caribe y el Atlántico hizo del puerto de Maracaibo, a finales del siglo XIX, la primera aduana de Venezuela en cuanto a la importación yexportación de capitales. Esta consolidación del circuito agroexportador marabino fue impulsada y concretada, fundamentalmente, por el establecimiento de varias firmas alemanas desde mediados de siglo. Dada la trascendencia que tuvo este proceso para la vida económica y relaciones socioculturales de la región histórica de la extensa cuenca del Lago de Maracaibo con el nororiente colombiano y el Caribe, en este artículo se reconstruyen las características de la actividad productiva, redes comerciales, desarrollo de la vialidad, medios de transporte y establecimiento de capitales y firmas comerciales regionales, nacionales, caribeñas y europeas en el circuito agroexportador marabino.Palabras claves: café, comercio, circuito económico, Maracaibo, Colombia, Carib

Dossier Una puerta de los Andes al Caribe. Comercio, política, cotidianidad e industrialización en la región del lago de Maracaibo.

Dossier Una puerta de los Andes al Caribe. Comercio, política, cotidianidad e industrialización en la región del lago de Maracaibo