Illicit Trade Networks in Spanish Texas

Summary

This poster presents the results of an investigation of the contraband market and frontier trade networks that existed in Spanish Colonial and Mexican Texas. The archaeological record dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries in San Antonio is defined by the appearance of English-made goods, predominately refined English earthenwares, illegally imported from New Orleans. This investigation compared artifact collections and documents from the Bexar Archives spanning the Colonial Period through Mexican Independence to examine the origins of contraband trade in Spanish Texas and to document the changes in the illicit goods market during this period. The results suggest that although the French/Spanish illicit trade networks in the mid-1700s are widely considered to constitute the "golden age of Spanish smuggling on the Texas-Louisiana frontier," (Galan 2008: 203), significantly more evidence of contraband trade exists in both the archaeological and archival records following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.The evidence recovered through this study highlights the complex social relations and trade networks involving Tejanos, Anglo-Americans, indigenous groups, and a wide range of other players who had a significant role in the development of the region’s identity in the 19th century.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage