The Bourbons allow Chile to trade more freely with other colonies, as well as with independent states.

Exchange increases with Argentina after it becomes the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1776.

Ships from the United States and Europe are engaging in direct commerce with Chile by the end of the eighteenth century.

However, the total volume of Chilean trade remains small because the colony produces few items of high unit value to outsiders.

Freer trade brings with it greater knowledge of politics abroad, especially the spread of liberalism in Europe and the creation of the United States.

Although a few members of the Chilean elite flirt with ideals of the Enlightenment, most of them hold fast to the traditional ideology of the Spanish crown and its partner, the Roman Catholic Church.

Notions of democracy and independence, let alone Protestantism, never reach the vast majority of mestizos and native Americans, who remain illiterate and subordinate.