A KINGDOM OF FLOATING MARKETS RELATIVE PRICES, RIVER TRADE FLOWS, AND PORT LINKAGES IN NEW GRANADA (1770-1810)

The article studies the importance of river trade flows and inland port services in the Viceroyalty
of the New Kingdom of Granada (present-day Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama)
during the late colonial period. By measuring the market size and structure of Mompox, one
of the region’s largest inland ports, the study provides materials to examine the extent of
market widening and deepening in Caribbean New Granada. Based upon a broad set of tax
records, the paper contends, first, that Mompox’s population and the provisioning of the
vessels that docked in the port promoted consumption linkages that intertwined a far-flung
set of supply nodes along the waterways of the viceroyalty. Second, the paper argues that
river traffic propelled the clusterization of a wide array of economic activities that had further
multiplier effects on the region’s economy. Finally, the article uses unexplored price
data to provide some tentative hypotheses on the mechanisms through which export-led
growth encouraged interregional river trade on the eve of colonial collapse.