|
|
1782 |
|||||||||||
| South America & Caribbean:British control Caribbean after defeating French fleet between Guadeloupe and Dominica. Spanish forces crush Incan revolt in Peru. | |||||||||||
| North America:Galvez completes conquest of Florida. British abandon Savannah and Charleston. Bank of North America established. Virginia allows manumission of slaves. Thomas Jefferson publishes Notes on Virginia. | |||||||||||
| Europe: Benjamin Franklin, who is Ambassador to Paris, meets with Thomas Grenville, who travels from London to discuss preliminary peace talks. A new British administration wants end to war with Americans. Gibralter under seige by Spanish forces. Austria abolishes serfdom. Mozart composes. Cowper, Schiller write. James Watt creates double-acting rotary steam engine. | |||||||||||
January 1782
Spanish Officials: Alcaldes Ordinarios Primer -Jacinto Panis Segundo - Guy (Guido) Dufossat. Sindico Procurador General Antonio Joseph Azetier Mayordomo de Proprios Francisco Blanche. Leonardo Mazange is succeeded as Cabildo escribano by Fernando Rodriguez. On January 22, 1782 the crown issues a free trade decree with Spanish and friendly or neutral ports in Spanish or colonial ships. All trade is subject to a 6 percent import-export duty except West Indies trade (2%) Louisiana ships are exempted from some taxes for two years to stimulate growth of the colony’s merchant fleet. |
February 1782
On February 15, 1782 the Cabildo sends a letter directly to Governor Galvez, by-passing Estaban Rodriguez Miro, his acting governor. The letter complains that Charity Hospital administrator Lopez de Armesto has been neglecting the hospital and has not sent them the hospital accounts. They are still trying to assume control of the hospital which had been taken from civilian control by O’Reilly in 1769 and assumed by the planters on the Cabildo in 1778. Galvez refers them to Miro. |
March 1782
March 1, 1782 Esteban Estaban Rodriguez Miro becomes governor of Louisiana. |
April 1782
On April 14, 1782 the Cabildo orders a day of rejoicing to celebrate the royal cedula which liberalized commerce and permitted trade between New Orleans and France. The ceremonies consist of parades, illumination of houses, decoration of ships on the river and cannon salutes. |
May 1782
|
June 1782
In the summer of 1782 Estaban Rodriguez Miro questions the loyalty of the Cabildo when the merchants conspire to exclude new foreign merchants from the local business comunity. Miro is in Natchez where he is fortifying the post. He believes the members of the Cabildo are trying to subvert the loyalty of the merchants and he will not abet this nafarious scheme. Differences between the merchants and planters diminish after 1782 because of new rules on trade. Miro will finally side with the planters after the 1788 fire because of their dominance of the Cabildo. and desire for open competition among all merchants. |
July 1782
|
August 1782
|
September 1782
|
October 1782
|
November 1782
|
December 1782
In December 1782 the Cabildo, led by Alferez Real Francisco Maria de Reggio, objects to Estaban Rodriguez Miro about the clandestine manner in which usages and customs had been disregarded. Again the focus is Charity Hospital and Almonester’s violation of their prerogatives as agents for the public administration of the hospital. Miro waits three months to reply. |
| The target of the Cabildo’s objections at Charity Hospital are actually Andres Almonaster who is a one time government employee and scribe who has enriched himself by acquiring land on the Plaza de Armas, where he built stores, by direct royal grant, as well as other land in the city. Almonester offers to rebuild Charity Hospital. He begins construction early in 1782 with Estaban Rodriguez Miro’s blessing. | With the success of the market structure completed in 1780 the Cabildo decides to build a new, more elaborate structure to replace it. The new structure has a paved brick floor and sidewalks, a gallery, a loft with a staircase and cement-plaster walls. In two years they build another structure and the 1782 building becomes exclusively a meat market. | In 1782 the Cabildo receives new trade regulations that gives Louisiana freedom for the next ten years in the importation of slaves. In the early 1780s record numbers of slaves were brought to Louisiana on English ships. | During 1782 Gilberto St. Maxent, wealthy pro-Spanish merchant, Lt. Governor and father-in-law of two former governors ( Unzaga and Galvez) is accused of smuggling and suspended from office. As Lt. Governor he was allowed to trade with the Indians, a potentially lucrative situation. |
A simple market structure is completed on the corner of Chartres and Dumaine, a site which previously was the home and observatory of Pierre Baron in the rear of the first governors house that faced the Place de Armes in 1730 and the government warehouse that faced Dumaine. The lot had been granted to Don Guido Dufossat but the grant is revoked to place the market there. Dufossat petitions the Cabildo for compensation on July 11, 1783. |
Luis Unzaga Y Amezaga |
||||||
Go to the year 1783 | Go to the year 1783 | ||||||||||