“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
international law to guide its decision. 76 In this instance, the court’s verdict was made easier when Francisco Barú suddenly appeared and offered evidence that he had already made full payment to Blanes. With the underlying basis for the litigation repudiated, a panel of merchant vecinos in Concepción found for Vidiella. The court ordered the Concordia embargo lifted. 77 The sharp dispute between Blanes and Vidiella, as well as their mobilization of their respective commercial communities in Concordia and Uruguaiana to support their legal claims, reflected the importance of local alliances in securing legal rights and commercial reputations. These elements sustained the burgeoning river trade route linking Rio Grande do Sul, Entre Ríos and the port-cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo together. They embodied the reciprocal associations each man had developed. These cross-border networks emerged to provide assistance in their litigation to protect not only individual legal rights, but also the broader relationships upon which each merchant’s respective rivertine trading chains depended. In this sense, as both Blanes and Vidiella utilized the courts to lay the foundation for their personal claims, they produced a conflict between two cross-border systems. Their two distinct and locally sourced bodies of evidence manifested this clash. Equally important for understanding how local justice and cross-border trading relationships intertwined is the manner in which Blanes and Vidiella sought to establish their respective legal claims. Specifically, both men depended heavily on their ability to mobilize witnesses to provide testimony in favor of particular legal outcomes. In turn, the evidentiary weight of testimony in a given proceeding hinged on each witness’ personal reputation and political connections. For both Blanes and Vidiella, going to court to litigate their claims 76 Benton, "The Laws of This Country," 507. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay did not enter into a treaty governing international private law rights until 1889. 77 Expediente seguido por D. Gregorio Blanes c. D. Francisco Vidiella, 71bis-72. 102
meant more than establishing a documentary foundation and legal argument to support their rights. It entailed the public pronouncement of the viability of their own trading networks and the importance of their personal connections in a given forum. It was a statement about their own personal standing in being able to summon witnesses willing to appear on their behalf. In short, the case was about explicitly declaring the often-tacit relationships and practices that made up borderlands legalities and sustained each man’s commercial networks along the river. The legal conflict was as much about defining each merchant’s place within their respective trading networks as it was about obtaining the requested damages. In general, we can only glimpse the operation of these practices through the actions of merchants and traders like Blanes and Vidiella as they moved between local courts to secure their legal rights. Yet one prominent Brazilian trader, Antônio José Gonçalves Chaves, did offer a more theoretical discussion of the connections between local judicial institutions and trading relationships at the heart of borderlands legalities in his Memórias ecônomo-políticas sobre a administração pública do Brasil. 78 Chaves was originally born in Portugal in 1797 and migrated to Rio Grande do Sul in 1805. He was one of the founders of the coastal trading city of Pelotas, which quickly emerged as an export hub for salted beef products from the riograndense countryside. By the 1830s, he had established a commercial operation transporting imported goods by steamship from the deep water port in Rio Grande to Pelotas and then overland to his trading partners in the campanha. Through these operations, he developed close commercial and personal ties to prominent borderlands merchants and ranchers like Domingos José de Almeida. When the Farrapos Revolution erupted in 1835, Chaves, like Guarch, took advantage of relationships in both Rio Grande 78 Antônio José Gonçalves Chaves, Memórias Ecônomo-Políticas Sobre a Administração Pública do Brasil (Porto Alegre: Companhia União de Seguros Gerais, 1978). 103
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international law to guide its decision. 76 In this instance, the court’s verdict was made easier<br />
when Francisco Barú suddenly appeared and offered evidence that he had already made full<br />
payment to Blanes. With the underlying basis for the litigation repudiated, a panel of<br />
merchant vecinos in Concepción found for Vidiella. The court ordered the Concordia<br />
embargo lifted. 77<br />
The sharp dispute between Blanes and Vidiella, as well as their mobilization of their<br />
respective commercial communities in Concordia and Uruguaiana to support their legal<br />
claims, reflected the importance of local alliances in securing legal rights and commercial<br />
reputations. These elements sustained the burgeoning river trade route linking Rio Grande<br />
do Sul, Entre Ríos and the port-cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo together. They<br />
embodied the reciprocal associations each man had developed. These cross-border<br />
networks emerged to provide assistance in their litigation to protect not only individual legal<br />
rights, but also the broader relationships upon which each merchant’s respective rivertine<br />
trading chains depended. In this sense, as both Blanes and Vidiella utilized the courts to lay<br />
the foundation for their personal claims, they produced a conflict between two cross-border<br />
systems. Their two distinct and locally sourced bodies of evidence manifested this clash.<br />
Equally important for understanding how local justice and cross-border trading<br />
relationships intertwined is the manner in which Blanes and Vidiella sought to establish their<br />
respective legal claims. Specifically, both men depended heavily on their ability to mobilize<br />
witnesses to provide testimony in favor of particular legal outcomes. In turn, the evidentiary<br />
weight of testimony in a given proceeding hinged on each witness’ personal reputation and<br />
political connections. For both Blanes and Vidiella, going to court to litigate their claims<br />
<br />
76 Benton, "The Laws of This Country," 507. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay<br />
did not enter into a treaty governing international private law rights until 1889.<br />
77 Expediente seguido por D. Gregorio Blanes c. D. Francisco Vidiella, 71bis-72.<br />
102 <br />
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