Going Astray in Atacama: Actors and strategies of silver smuggling in the early bolivian republic (1825-1839)

Abstract

We provide elements about silver smuggling through Atacama from the Bolivian independence (1825) to the end of the 1830s. We make use of unpublished administrative sources, bibliography and published sources. We present some data that stands out from the archive readings, which allows us to characterize the phenomenon, understand some of the state and private strategies that were developed around it and explain the reason for its persistence. Studying this practice enables learning about the ways of using the territory which opposed to the legality sustained from the State.