Earle, Rebecca

English

University of New Mexico

Colonial Latin American Historical Review
Volume 7
Issue 3 Volume 7, Issue 3 (Summer 1998) Article 5
6-1-1998
Lance Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling:
Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon
New Granada
Rebecca Earle
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/clahr
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colonial Latin American
Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact disc@unm.edu.
Recommended Citation
Earle, Rebecca. "Lance Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling: Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon New Granada."
Colonial Latin American Historical Review 7, 3 (1998): 337. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/clahr/vol7/iss3/5
BOOK REVIEWS 337 
The Political Economy of Smuggling: Regional lnf ormal Economies in Early 
Bourbon New Granada. By Lance Grahn. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 
1997. xvii + 262 pp. Maps, charts, tables, appendixes, notes, bibliography, 
index. $55.00 cloth.) 
Lance Grahn' s study of Spain's largely unsuccessful war on 
smuggling in colonial New Granada abounds with fascinating scenes of 
smuggling: in 1720, Sergeant Juan Romero was arrested in Barranquilla for 
possessing contraband material (four French shirts and twelve table napkins); 
in 17 4 7, officials in Cartagena seized a contraband cargo, which contained 
wax, cloth, and pocket-handkerchiefs. Yet contraband goods themselves are 
not the principal focus of this volume. We never learn why Romero pos­
sessed twelve contraband napkins, nor do illegal handkerchiefs receive much 
attention as such. Certainly the smuggled objects themselves are intriguing. 
Textiles and foodstuffs seem to have constituted the bulk of most contraband 
shipments, but the contraband trade also dealt in playing cards, hats, 
scissors, children's toys, medicines, and quill pens. Who purchased these 
illegal dolls? What might this tell us about patterns of consumption in 
eighteenth-century Latin America? Grahn describes the contraband trade as 
an illustration of eighteenth century consumerism and an indication of New 
Granada's distinctive American identity (p. 4), but these issues are not 
developed in the course of the book. This is not, nor does it claim to be, a 
social history of smuggling. 
What this book does do, and does very well, is map the economic 
dimensions of the contraband trade on New Granada's Caribbean coast. 
Grahn' s study is based on archival material from nearly a dozen repositories 
in Spain, Colombia, and the United States. He has examined not only data on 
coast-guard expenditures and income from comisos (the seizure of contraband 
vessels) but also interrogations with individual smugglers and other personal 
accounts. He presents convincing evidence that smuggling constituted a "key 
element of the political economy of northern New Granada" (p. xv). While 

BOOK REVIEWS 339 
under review. Grahn's book is an extremely useful and well-documented 
study of illegal commerce in colonial New Granada. 
Rebecca Earle 
Department of History 
University of Warwick 


Lance Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling:  Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon New Granada

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1288&amp;context=clahr

Lance Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling: Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon New Granada

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of New Mexico