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Contraband in Spanish Colonial Ships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Eugene Lyon and
Barbara A. Purdy
Eugene Lyon
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Florida, Vero Beach, Florida.
Barbara A. Purdy
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
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Extract

The investigation of a shipwreck must extend beyond the uniqueness of the single event in order to have interpretative value for social scientists. One or even several shipwrecks will not necessarily represent a universe. Since statistically significant numbers of shipwrecks may never be studied, methods of inquiry must be devised where quantity is not a prime concern. When we noted the discrepancy between cargoes listed on ships manifests and cargoes actually recovered from shipwrecks of the Spanish Colonial period, the challenge was to determine where and under what circumstances contraband behavior occurred and might be predicted.

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Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1982, pp. 91 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1982

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References

Notes

1. Permission for various ports in Spain to participate in the Indies commerce was granted by a royal order given at Toledo, January 15, 1529; see Encinas, Diego de, Ce-dulario Indiano (1596, Facsimile Edition, 5 vol., Madrid; Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1945–1946) vol. IV; 133. The best description of the ascendancy of Seville in the Indies trade is found inGoogle Scholar, Pierre and Chaunu, Huguette, Seville et 1'At1antique: 1504–1650, 10 vol. (Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1955–1959)Google Scholar.

2. A contemporary work summarizing Spanish navigation laws is by Linaje, Joseph de Veitia, Norte de la Contratacion de las Indias occidentales. (1672, 2 vol. Buenos Aires: Comisió Argentina de Fomento Interamericana, 1945). A fine recent work on the events which, through the corsair menace, helped lead to the development of these laws is found in the introduction toGoogle ScholarHoffman, Paul E., The Spanish Crown and the Defense of the Caribbean, 1535–85, (Louisiana State University Press, 1980) pp. 1–19Google Scholar.

3. The list of Spanish vessels which sailed from 1503 until just before the advent of free commerce at the end of the eighteenth century is from ArchivoGeneralde Indias (hereinafter A.G.I.) Contratación (hereinafter CT) 2898–2902 A, the “Libro de Registros”.

4. In addition to the subsidies which supported the fleet, paid from the treasuries of Vera Cruz and Panama, merchants1 duties paid part of the expense; Hoffman, , The Spanish Crown and the Defense of the Caribbean, 1535–85, 127; personal conversation withGoogle ScholarHoffman, Paul E., September 5, 1981Google Scholar.

5. The best description of the avería is found in Castillo, Guillermo Céspedes del, La Avería en el comercio de In-dias, Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1945.Google Scholar

6. See Bolaños, Juan de Hebia, Curia Filipica (Madrid, Mel-chor Sanchez, 1652), p. 204, no. 6–12.Google Scholar

7. Curia Filípica, p. 212, no. 3; Ordenanzas reales para la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla, y para otras cosas de los Indias. Y de la navegacion y contratacion dellas, Seville, 1552 (later editions; Madrid, 1585, Valladolid, 1604; Seville, 1647) no. 157. (hereinafter called Orde-nanzas reales).

8. Curia Filípica, p. 189; Encinas, Cedulario Indiano; 1576, Vol. 4.

9. Ordenanzas reales, no. 103, 157, 204.

10. Curia Filipíca, p. 213, no. 10, 11; Ordenanzas reales, no. 159.

11. See Law 18, Title 17, Book 9, Recopilación (probably the Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de los Indias. 4 vol. Madrid, 1681).Google Scholar

12. Cartas Cuentas from the 1580s through the seventeenth century are found in A.G.I. CT 4725–37. Some of the manifests for earlier years are found in the A.G.I. In-diferente General (hereinafter. IG); most of the manifests are found in A.G.I. Contratación.

13 For an excellent description of the Indies, financial controls and the use of the three local treasury.offi-cials in such control, see Sánchez-Bella, Ismael, La or-ganización financiera de las Indias, Siglo XVI. (Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1968).Google Scholar

14. Boxer, C.R., “A Question of Contraband: the Old Colonial Trade,” History Today, (March, 1972).Google Scholar

15. A.G.I. CT 135 B, no. 14.

16. A.G.I. Justicia (hereinafter JU), 842 no. 9. Menendez denies the charges in A.G.I. Patronato, 257, no. 3, Ramo 2.

17. A.G.I. JU 855.

18. See “Book of Accounts of the Adelantado, My Lord,” A.G.I. JU 817.

19. See Francisco Duarte, To the Crown, Zahara 28 January 1555, from Depositó Hidrográfico, (Madrid); the salvage of the Santa Cruz is described in A.G.I. CT 58.

20. A.G.I. Contaduría 1112; see also A.G.I. Escribanía de Cámara 76 A.

21. A.G.I. IG 2574.

22. Declaration of Captain Francisco de Equivel, A.G.I. CT 5178.

23. The Viceroy's remarks are found in a letter to the King from Lima dated 25 December 1707, from A.G.I. Lima 408; Haring, C.H.describes the Cádiz operations in The Spanish Empire in America (New York: Harbinger Books, 1976) p. 307.Google Scholar

24. See Eugene Lyon, “Puerto Real: Research on a Spanish Town on Hispaniola's North Coast,” unpublished paper (Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 1981). Irene A. Wright, “Rescates, with Special Reference to Cuba, 1599–1610,” Hispanic American Historical Review III (1920), 333–61; Paul E. Hoffman, The Spanish Crown and the Defense of the Caribbean, op cit. 118–122; Concepción Tapia, Hernández, “Des-población de la isla de Santo Domingo en el siglo XVII,” Annuario de Estudios Americanos 27 (1970), Seville, Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos; Francisco Moya Pons, La Española en el siglo XVI (1493–1520), 2nd edition, Santiago, 1973.Google Scholar

25. Vilar, Enriqueta Vila, “Los Asientos Portugueses y el Contrabando de Negros,” Anuario de Estudios Americanos XXX (1958), 557–599.Google Scholar

26. Letter of Antonia Cotrina to the King, San Juan de Ulua, 7 January 1599; cited in Vila Vilar p. 21, note 46.

27. Vila Vilar, op cit., pp. 27–28.

28. See Brown, Vera Lee, “The South Sea Company and Contraband Trade.” American Historical Review XXI, 162–78.Google Scholar

29. See Camacho to Crown, Manila, 18 December 1705, A.G.I. Filípinas 290. See also Curia Filípica 205, no. 21, in which no Chinese or Philippine merchandise was allowed above the limits set.

30. C.R. Boxer, Op cit.

31. This event was described in A.G.I. Panama 17.

32. The Balbas contraband affaire is also found in A.G.I. Panama 17. Balbas1 death in 1629 in Zacatecas is described in A.G.I. Guadalajara 9.

33. See Muckelroy, Keith, Maritime Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).Google Scholar

34. See Axelrod, Robert and Hamilton, William D., “The Evolution of Cooperation,” Science, no. 211, pp. 1390–1396.Google Scholar