The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

This immense commerce : the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain, 1844-1898

This immense commerce : the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain, 1844-1898
This immense commerce : the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain, 1844-1898

It has generally been assumed that the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain during the nineteenth century was not greatly significant for either country. The importance of Spain, and especially the United States, as trading partners for Puerto Rico has been over-emphasised while British historians have shown little interest in examining any possible commercial relationship between the two countries.

This essay demonstrates that Great Britain was one of Puerto Rico's most important trade partners during the nineteenth century. It became an avid customer for the island's sugar between 1846 and the mid 1860's, during which time it not only prevented the island's exterior trade and economy from being dominated by one nation (the United States) but also helped avert two serious economic crises, that of the 1840's and that which would have been caused by the contraction of trade during the U.S. Civil War. It was also consistently the island's most important supplier of such important articles as rice, fish, textiles, coal, machinery and metals.

Similarly, for Britain, Puerto Rico became an important customer. It possessed a wide range of features (economical, geographical, political, and social) which compared favourably with most of the other Latin American countries. Commercial ties between both countries remained strong until the United States occupation in 1898.

University of Southampton
Cox, Emma Aurora Dávila
5c109cca-7461-48b9-88a4-da0cb1d3dd76
Cox, Emma Aurora Dávila
5c109cca-7461-48b9-88a4-da0cb1d3dd76

Cox, Emma Aurora Dávila (1993) This immense commerce : the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain, 1844-1898. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

It has generally been assumed that the trade between Puerto Rico and Great Britain during the nineteenth century was not greatly significant for either country. The importance of Spain, and especially the United States, as trading partners for Puerto Rico has been over-emphasised while British historians have shown little interest in examining any possible commercial relationship between the two countries.

This essay demonstrates that Great Britain was one of Puerto Rico's most important trade partners during the nineteenth century. It became an avid customer for the island's sugar between 1846 and the mid 1860's, during which time it not only prevented the island's exterior trade and economy from being dominated by one nation (the United States) but also helped avert two serious economic crises, that of the 1840's and that which would have been caused by the contraction of trade during the U.S. Civil War. It was also consistently the island's most important supplier of such important articles as rice, fish, textiles, coal, machinery and metals.

Similarly, for Britain, Puerto Rico became an important customer. It possessed a wide range of features (economical, geographical, political, and social) which compared favourably with most of the other Latin American countries. Commercial ties between both countries remained strong until the United States occupation in 1898.

Text
387687.pdf - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
Download (21MB)

More information

Published date: 1993

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 462197
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/462197
PURE UUID: c74ac95a-920e-4027-a599-67951c2da17c

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 19:03
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 18:54

Export record

Contributors

Author: Emma Aurora Dávila Cox

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×