“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Urquiza returned to Entre Ríos to work in the Urquiza family’s growing ranching and
rivertine trading enterprises.
Throughout this period, the Urquiza family supported the federalist caudillo Francisco
Ramírez, an old ally of José Artigas, in his struggles against unitarists in Buenos Aires. His
defeat and death in 1821 brought reprisals, with both Josef Narciso and Justo José being
arrested. After a failed coup by his brother Cipriano and others against the new provincial
governor, Lucio Mansilla, Urquiza fled the province altogether in 1823. Much like Guarch,
Urquiza’s commercial operations grew out his efforts to navigate the shifting political
fortunes of allies like Ramírez. Urquiza first began transporting hides along the Uruguay in
1821. He sailed his ship the “Dolores” between Paysandú, where his brother resided, and
Concepción. 55 Following his exile in 1823, he traveled to Curuzú-Cuatiá, a small outpost in
eastern Corrientes. There, he established a trading enterprise with Vicente Montero that
linked eastern Entre Ríos with the ranchlands in Corrientes to the north. 56 When Urquiza
returned to Concepción in 1824, he used his growing connections upriver to expand his
commercial operations further. Montero and Urquiza, along with a third merchant, Juan
Barañao, formed a partnership to purchase ranchlands around their commercial outpost in
eastern Corrientes. The men would then ship meat, hides and yerba downriver to Urquiza’s
establishment in Concepción as well as to Buenos Aires. 57
By 1829, Urquiza had developed a niche as an important commercial middleman.
Urquiza would receive clothing, household wares and other imported goods from Buenos
Aires at his warehouses in Concepción and then ship them either overland throughout Entre
55 Beatriz Bosch, Urquiza y Su Tiempo, 2a ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de
Buenos Aires, 1980).
56 Ibid., 13-20.
57 Ibid.
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