Publisher's Synopsis
This volume recounts the little-known history of Hispano merchants in the Santa Fe trade during the nineteenth century. Contrary to ethnic stereotypes, Hispanos were ambitious, savvy businessmen who practised the most modern methods of international finance. Their complex transactions linked Santa Fe with Chihuahua City, St. Louis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, London, and Paris. New Mexican merchants like millionaire Felipe Chávez were major figures in the Santa Fe trade until the coming of the railroad in 1880. The practices of Chávez and his competitors convincingly demonstrate why they referred to themselves as 'los capitalistas'. In addition to maps illustrating the international network of the Santa Fe trade, five appendices present data of interest to historians and genealogists, including Mexican merchants who received commercial passports from the Santa Fe customs house, and census data from 1860 and 1870 on Hispano and non-Hispano merchants and freighters.
