“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

INTRODUCTION
IN EARLY 1828, A FRENCH MERCHANT NAMED JUAN MANUEL FERRER APPEARED
before the courts in Montevideo requesting that the assets of his partner, Pedro Francisco
Berro, be seized. Around the tribunal, war raged over the fate of the Banda Oriental,
roughly the present-day nation of Uruguay. The Banda was a former Spanish frontier
province and at that moment part of the Brazilian empire. When Ferrer brought his case,
however, Brazilian control did not extend beyond Montevideo’s walls. Outside of the
capital, Uruguayan rebels and their allies from the Argentine Confederation held control
over most of the countryside. With them was Pedro Berro. Upon learning that Ferrer
intended to seize two properties located on the other side of the front, Berro drafted a letter
to the court claiming that Ferrer, “a foreigner,” who had “only by chance found himself
under the guarantees of the Imperial Government,” was seeking to force him to “appear
before authorities that do not pertain to me.” 1 Ferrer responded that “regardless of the state
of war between the empire and the Argentine Republic, I would have submitted my claim
before this same tribunal and issued summons to the Justices of said Republic so that they
would compel the appearance of Argentine Citizen Don Pedro Francisco Berro” in
Montevideo. Ferrer further contended that the war made filing the case in Montevideo even
more appropriate. He argued that because of the siege, it was as if Berro had “become a
vassal of the Great Sultan and had established his domicile in Constantinople.” It would be
foolish to require him to chase “the goods that the new Muslim vassal [Berro]” had left
behind in Montevideo throughout the rebellious countryside. Ferrer could only hope to
1 D. Juan Manuel Ferrer c. D. Pedro Francisco Berro, AGN-SJ. Montevideo. Civil: 1º Turno,
F-6 (1828), 28-28bis. For a full list of the archives consulted and the abbreviations used for
them throughout the footnotes in this dissertation, please see the bibliography.
1