| dc.description.abstract | American merchants in nineteenth-century South America acted
as universal mediators in the world of commodities. Their specific
function provided the navigational, commercial, and financial links
that connected South America to the expanding Atlantic economy. As
travelers or residents, they occupied an enviable position from
which to observe and reflect upon the young republics' social,
political, and economic order. Conceivably, they could discuss
with local administrators, military officers, merchants, and
teachers the problems of casting these societies into molds of
"progress and civilization." Their own experiences in questions of
reform --free trade, prison discipline, management of asylums, poor
relief, missionary societies, etc.-- might have helped to organize
the chaotic social milieu of post-independence South America.
Besides aiding the circulation of commodities, American merchants
might have facilitated the dissemination of notions of discipline,
order, and morality in the host societies. | |
