British Shipping and Latin America, 1806–1914

From the days when John Hawkins peddled slaves at the cannon's mouth along the Spanish Main, the economic potentialities of Latin America have been a perennial lure to the mariners and merchants of northern Europe in general and to the English in particular. To them it seemed almost immoral that opportunities were being wasted there that could have been exploited to the advantage of both sides of the Atlantic. As long as those monopolistic colonial systems of Spain and Portugal lasted, contacts with the British had to remain spasmodic and often outside the law. The crop of revolutions that freed Latin America shortly after 1800 at last created a maritime and commercial vacuum. The English had done much to bring this about, and they were to do even more to exploit it. The economic development of Latin America during its first century of independence was thus greatly accelerated by the efforts of the British to secure new markets for their manufactures and new cargoes for the merchantmen flying their red ensign.