Spain settled America for the benefit of Spain, the welfare of the colonies was never considered, and one of the fundamental manifestations of this erroneous policy was the creation of arbitrary trade routes in opposition to natural laws. Buenos Aires was located at the junction of a system of rivers and was readily accessible from Transatlantic ports, yet all legitimate commerce had to come via Panamá and Perú, pay heavy sea and land freight charges, multiplied internal customs dues and much unnecessary handling, to the extent that by the time merchandise reached Buenos Aires, its cost had been increased 500 to 600 percent. Contraband flourished, ably and actively assisted by the British and Portuguese from the headquarters at Colonia, just across the river. The trade-route policy of Spain provoked in the Argentine a spirit of steadily growing hostility which smouldered for many years before the outbreak came. As an item of passing interest, Buenos Aires because of geographical position became a port of relative importance in spite of the restrictions. During the five years from 1748 to 1753, some 150,000 native hides, and gold, silver, copper, tin, cacoa, vicuña wool and quinine from Perú and Chile to the value of 6,000,000 "pesos fuertes" were exported, while in the following ten years from 1754 to 1763 these same countries sent out through Buenos Aires 36,000,000 "pesos" worth of gold and silver. The establishment of the Viceroyship in 1776 and the consequent formation in Buenos Aires of a locally semi-autonomous Government, facilitated and stimulated commercial activity. Wine came from Mendoza, rum and dried fruits from San Juan, textiles and laces from Tucumán and Salta where the Inca arts and industries persisted and flourished, hides and skins from the plains, "yerba", tobacco and fine woods from Paraguay. This internal commerce varied in value from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 "pesos" annually. Paraguay sold 60,000 mules to Perú every year, and sent 2000 tons of "yerba" to Chile. Argentine exportation to Spain included crude and tanned bull and horse-hides; sheep-wool, jerked beef, wax, feathers and skins. Freedom of trade with Africa was obtained and other fields of activity were developed. Mexico and Lima were Colonial Courts, but Buenos Aires had become a market-place. A Spanish traveller who visited Buenos Aires during the Viceroyship said:--"The Argentine creoles have a great idea of their equality with the Europeans"; adding, "There exists a sort of aversion of the creoles or sons of Spaniards born in America, towards the Europeans and especially toward the Spanish Government". Incoherent and crude though they were, handicapped by ignorance and superstition, especially in the rural regions, democratic tendencies accompanied the Argentine as it emerged from its two hundred years of isolation and prepared it for its mission of self-emancipation and for the salvation of South American independence.