Between European Enlightenment Influence and the Needs of a Peripheral Space : The Consulate of Commerce of Buenos Aires as a Field of Experimentation and Diffusion of the Political Economy at the end of the 18th Century

Este trabajo parte de la importancia de los consulados de comercio en el mundo hispanoamericano del siglo XVIII. El propósito es evaluar el rol del Consulado de Comercio de Buenos Aires, entre el discurso ilustrado que comenzaba a difundirse en el Río de la Plata y una realidad local que exigía la resolución de problemas cotidianos propios de un espacio en construcción con necesidades puntuales diferentes de las europeas. Para ello, se realiza una comparación entre las reflexiones de Manuel Belgrano que circularon por la institución y temas concretos que el Consulado atendió en los últimos años del siglo XVIII para demostrar su intención de adherir a lineamientos de la Economía Política dieciochesca.This work is based on the importance of the consulates of commerce in the Hispanic-American world of the 18th century. The purpose is to evaluate the role of the Consulate of Commerce of Buenos Aires between the Enlightenment discourse that began to spread in the Río de la Plata and a local reality that demanded the resolution of everyday problems typical of a space under construction with specific needs different from the European. So as to achieve this, a comparison is made between the reflections of Manuel Belgrano that circulated through the institution and the specific issues that the Consulate attended in the last years of the 18th century, to demonstrate its intention to adhere to the guidelines of the eighteenth-century Political Economy