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Vicente Basadre and his Memorial of 1807 on the Influence of Imperial Free Trade in Spanish America

Vicente Basadre's name is not well known to historians of Spain and Spanish America. Yet he wrote some important economic tracts on Spanish America at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The report in this review is but one of these tracts written by Basadre. This report is part of a much larger work which deserves historical scrutiny. Economic development was a major concern among policymakers both in Madrid and Spanish America. Basadre's report is an important glimpse into how the Spanish American economies responded to comercio Ubre (imperial free trade)'. Basadre was probably born sometime after the middle of the eighteenth century in La Coruña. Although little is known about his early life, Basadre most likely came from a prosperous mercantile family because of his eventual rise in the mercantile profession. According to Brian R. Hamnett, Basadre spent some twenty years in travels to Spanish America and Asia; ultimately even traveling to China. In 1786 he was sent to Mexico to draft a plan for the exchange of California otter furs in return for Chinese quicksilver which was cheaper than that bought from Germany. Whether he succeeded in this venture requires further research. Basadre, however, probably failed because the Spanish crown continued to purchase large quantities of quicksilver from Germany.