“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

goods as far north as the cities of Salto and Concordia on opposite banks of the river.
There, a series of rocky shoals – notably the Salto Grande and the lesser Salto Chico –
required cargos to be unloaded and carried above the rapids. Once above Salto Grande,
however, ships could again navigate the upper Uruguay to Missiones and Rio Grande do Sul.
The portage altered the character of the river’s trading activities. Although trade also
continued to expand along the upper Uruguay, it did so more slowly than the dramatic
growth of the vast saladero or beef salting operations dedicated to beef exports to the south. 12
The traffic above the falls also focused more on regional products from both Paraguay and
Brazil, including tobacco, yerba mate and sugar. These goods augmented the growing
overseas commercial operations dominated by the Argentine and Uruguayan littoral regions
further downriver. 13
Perhaps no cities captured the importance of the growing trade on the upper
Uruguay better than Alegrete and the nearby port of Uruguaiana, Brazil. Strategically
situated along the overland route connecting eastern Rio Grande do Sul and its network of
navigable rivers with the vast ranchlands to the west, Alegrete was a focal point for
commercial activity in the emerging borderlands economy. Traveling across the open plains
of Rio Grande do Sul’s western campanhas towards Alegrete in 1858, Robert Avé-Lallement
described the town rising out of the gently undulating grasslands. Avé-Lallement particularly
noted the “active commercial spirit” in Alegrete. He commented on the “large number of
shops, some very substantial” dotting the plaza around the town’s main square and church. 14
At the end of the decade, the population of the city and its surrounding districts exceeded
12 Whigham, The Politics of River Trade, 79.
13 Roberto Schmit, Ruina y Resurrección en Tiempos de Guerra: Sociedad, Economía y Poder en el
Oriente Entrerriano Posrevolucionario, 1810-1852 (Buenos Aires: Prometeo Libros, 2004), 136.
14 Robert Avé-Lallemant, Viagem Pela Província do Rio Grande do Sul (São Paulo:
Itatiaia/USP, 1980), 316.
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