Limits of Mercantilism

Spain, despite Philip V’s attempts to introduce competition, still adhered to a mercantilist philosophy that posited the monarchy was self-sufficient. It should produce everything it needed, import as little as possible, and contradictorily, export as much as possible. Currency was meant to be concentrated in the hands of the state.

The economic policy postulated colonies existed to provide raw materials and consume exports from their homelands. They weren’t allowed to become incipient rivals by manufacturing their own goods.

France and England were more successful at developing their own industries. Spain did not, perhaps because it, ultimately, was subservient to the Hapsburgs in Austria until 1714. England and Spain were more successful in controlling activities in their colonies, perhaps because theirs fit the model as consumers or producers of raw materials.

Nouvelle-France lacked the mineral wealth found in the Spanish colonies. Whatever it exported to its parent country came from trade with Natives for furs. Its governors understood the needs to make allies of as many western bands as they could, even promoting peace between enemies in the hopes of trading with both sides.

Disequilibriums proliferated. Nueva España, but especially the far north, never received enough manufactured goods or currency. Frenchmen were constantly searching for new trade opportunities. However, the only times traders were reported on the frontiers of Nuevo México were the brief periods of peace between continental conflicts.

The War of Polish Succession officially ended 18 November 1738, although fighting had stopped earlier. In February of the next year, Pierre Antoine Mallet left Kaskaskia with eight men, hoping to open trade relations. They arrived at Picurís on July 21 and were taken down through Santa Cruz, La Cañada, and Santa María. They arrived in Santa Fé the next day where they were received by the alcalde, Juan Páez Hurtado.

The governor, Gaspar de Mendoza, saw no reason to be hostile. After eight months waiting for a decision from the viceroy, the men were allowed to return through Pecos to French territory.

They took with them a letter from Santiago de Roybal. One of sisters had married Jean l’Archevêque and another had married his son Miguel. In it Roybal said, the provinces were "completely devoid of money," but that some might be obtained from Chihuahua "where the inhabitants of this country go to trade."

He went on, the traders had led him to believe "I could ask you for merchandise that I need for business and to provide for the needs of my family." He attached a list of what was desired, with the necessary language to establish credit.

The men had come along the Platte and left by the Arkansas. Part way back, the group split with some taking their knowledge of the way to Santa Fé north to Illinois country. Mallet, his brother Paul, and the others went south to New Orleans.

Before they returned war had erupted again in Europe, this time the War of Austrian Succession. Even so, the governor of Louisiana, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sent Mallet "back to the said province with considerable merchandise, along with my four companions and ten soldiers" led by André Fabry de la Bruyère in 1741. They squabbled, then broke into smaller groups. After 18 months, Mallet wrote "we suffered the disgrace of losing all the merchandise in the Red River" and returned to New Orleans.

He and Roybal both said there were nine men in Santa Fé, but only named eight: Joseph Bellecourt, Petit Jean David, Manuel Gallien, Pierre Mallet, Paul Mallet (Pierre’s brother), Louis Morín (or Moreau), Phillippe Robitaille, and Michael Beslot, who may be the one they called La Rose.

Herbert Bancroft said two stayed in Santa Fé. One was Moreau who had married Juana Muñiz in 1740 as Luis María Mora.

Mendoza condemned him to death for trying to "incite the Indians of this kingdom to revolt." It took eight months for him to hear of activities that began "when he saw the new converts" in October. Before he could have "his heart taken out through his back," the Inquisition pressed its own claim to try him. He finally was "shot in the public square in this capital town of Santa Fé" on orders of the next governor, Joaquín Codallos.

Moreau so soured Codallos that when another Frenchman appeared in Pecos in 1744 with no papers, he immediately dispatched him to the governor of Nueva Vizcaya. All that’s known now of Jacques Velo is he came from Illinois

The unnamed man with Mallet may have been Juan Bautista Alarí. He married a widow, María Francisca Fernández de la Pedrerea, in March of 1741. Her father, Juan Fernández de la Pedrerea had lived with Roybal’s father’s family and married a girl they raised, María Pelález. According to Angélico Chávez, Alarí became a solider.

Notes: The Páez mentioned in post for 16 August 2015 died in 1724. He had a son Juan Domingo, who died in 1742. He might me the one whose name was translated as Jean Paëz Hurtado. The viceroy was Juan Vizarrón. Le Moyne also was known as Sieur de Bienville.

Mallet’s journal indicated they "arrived at noon at another mission called Sainte Croix, and after dinner they passed another called La Cañada, and they spent the night at a town called Sainte Marie" before going to Santa Fé the next day.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.

Blakeslee, Donald J. Along Ancient Trails, 1995.

Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.

Clark, John Garretson. New Orleans, 1718-1812, 1970.

Codallos y Rabal, Joaquín. Letter to Antonio Durán de Armijo, 4 March 1748; translation in Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 1, 1914; quotation on shooting Moreau and comments on Velo.

Mallet, Pierre. Journal of the expedition, 29 May 1739 to 24 June 1740, summarized by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne and translated by Henri Folmer; included in Blakeslee.

_____. Letter dictated to Tomás Vélez Cachupín, governor and captain-general; translation in Blakeslee.

Mendoza, Gaspar Domingo de. Letter to Pedro Navarette, 30 June 1743 in Adolph F. A. Bandelier and Fanny R. Bandelier. Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, volume 3, 1937, translated and edited by Charles Wilson Hackett.

Roybal, Santiago de. Letter to Nicholas Ignatius de Beaubois, 1740, translation in Blakeslee. Beaubois was the Jesuit superior in New Orleans. According to Clark, the Jesuits located in New Orleans were active traders in Illinois country.