Shipping movements in the Port of Buenos Aires (1826-1835)
In The National Archives in the series F.O. 6, Foreign Office: Political and Other Departments: General Correspondence before 1906, Buenos Aires (Later Argentine Republic), there are reports sent back to London listing merchant vessels entering and leaving the Port of Buenos Aires. At first, all the vessels are listed, but with very sparse details. Then from 1828, the British Consul General sent back detailed reports of the movements in and out of the port of only the British shipping.

These give full details of each ship and captain, the port of origin, the goods each carried and their value. Then, the same vessels, loaded with local produce, are listed on their departure with similar details, date of clearance, port of destination, nature of cargo and its value.

In transcribing and publishing these tables as far as 1835, a very interesting story is revealed of the earliest years of British commercial activity in the River Plate region, of the kinds of goods imported and exported in those days.

This transcription keeps very close to the original documents, though tiny editorial alterations have been made to maintain consistency of style. In addition, most of the ships' tonnage details was listed to the nearest 1/94 part of a ton. Here, these fractions have been rounded up or down to the nearest ton as the case may be.

Source: The National Archives, FO 6/20, ff. 276-7
© The form of presentation of this information is the copyright of Jeremy Howat, January 2010