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Counter-Contraband in Spanish America Handicaps of the Governors in the Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

G. Earl Sanders
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Extract

Royal officials of the Indies found the contraband trade one of the most critical and debilitating problems in their administration of Spanish America. Contraband existed throughout the colonial period, despite occasional strenuous efforts to stamp it out. Various ideas have been advanced to explain the failure of Spanish counter-contraband in America, and these largely reflect on the quality of Spanish administration of the Indies. The implication is that governors and royal officials were generally guilty of corruption, of passive or active connivance in the contraband trade, or, at the very least, of incompetence or inefficiency in preventing it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , July 1977 , pp. 59 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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References

1 Hussey, Roland D., The Caracas Company, 1728–1784 (Cambridge, 1934), p. 52,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Haring, C.H., The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947), p. 333, are typical examples.Google Scholar

2 Members of cabildos and other local cabos are not included in this group, although the crown commonly expected them to defend its interests; instead, they are considered part of the creole populace because of their own local interests.

3 The Captaincy-General of Cartagena de Indias included the provinces of Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Maracaibo. The name Cartagena, as used in the text, will include these areas unless otherwise specified.

4 Haring, , The Spanish Empire in America, Chapter 16.Google Scholar

5 Newton, A.P., The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493–1688 (New York, 1933)Google Scholar, is an apt description of Spain’s decline in the Indies.

6 Proyecto para Galeones, y Flotas del Peru, y Nueva España, y para Navíos de Registro y Avisos, que navegaren a ambos Reynos, April 5, 1720.

7 These are described in Dionisio de Alsedo y Herrera, Piraterías y Agresiones de los Ingleses. … en la América Española (Madrid, 1883), p. 204.

8 Royal Order to Jorge Villalonga, August 9, 1719; Archivo General de Indias (hereafter cited as AGI), Audiencia de Santa Fe, Legajo 953.

9 Instructions to Domingo Justiniani, December 1, 1729; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

10 Fernández Duro, Cesareo, Armada Española Desde la Unión de los Reinos de Castilla y de Aragón, VI (Madrid, 1900), p. 209.Google Scholar

11 Bartolomé Tienda de Cuerbo to Prudencio de Palacios, April 2, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

l2 Joseph Cornejo y Abarra to Joseph Patiño, June 14, 1735; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1094.

13 Tienda de Cuerbo to Patiño, July 15, 1731; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1094.

l4 Cornejo to Patiño, June 14, 1735.

15 Blas de Lezo to the Marqués de Torrenueva, May 4, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

16 Crown to Lezo, January 21, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

17 Pedro Fidalgo to the Crown, October 17, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

18 Fidalgo to Crown, June 4, 1739; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

19 Melchor de Navarrete to Sebastián de Eslava, May 11, 1740; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

20 Fidalgo to Crown, May 8, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

21 Ibid.

22 Lezo to Torrenueva, August 26, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

23 Tienda de Cuerbo to Palacios, April 2, 1738.

24 Ibid.

25 Juan de Vera to the Crown, July 22, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

26 James, Preston, Latin America (London, 1959), p. 127.Google Scholar

27 Vera to Crown, July 22, 1737.

28 Ibid.

29 Lezo to Torrenueva, May 4, 1738.

30 Fernando de Triviño to the Marqués de la Ensenada, August 1, 1747; AGI, Aud. de Guatemala, Leg. 873.

31 Alonso Fernández de Heredia to Ensenada, March 6, 1748; AGI, Aud. de Guatemala, Leg. 873.

32 This is the Spanish rendering of the name, which makes it difficult to properly identify the man.

33 Alonso de Arcos y Moreno to Julián de Arriaga, October 12,1759; AGI, Aud. de Guatemala, Leg. 876.

34 Melchor Vidal de Lorca y Villena to Arriaga, December 31,1760; AGI, Aud. de Guatemala, Leg. 875.

35 Declaration of Benito Rodríguez, April 15, 1678; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 456.

36 Fidalgo to Crown, June 4, 1739; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

37 The escuadrilla was usually composed of two small vessels, either galeras or carabelones, of eighty to one hundred tons.

38 Consulta of the Council of the Indies, October 3, 1697, and Crown approval; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 456.

39 Situados were funds primarily intended to pay the troops; when these annual remittances did not arrive from the specified source, the governors frequently had to raid other funds in their treasuries or face mutiny.

40 Juan Pimienta to the Crown, April 18, 1703; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 457.

41 Royal Order to Villalonga, August 9, 1719.

42 Ibid.

43 Gerónimo Badillo to Joseph de Grimaldo, September 22, 1713; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 457. This letter especially criticizes the lack of situados.

44 The situados needed to support the Armada de Barlovento in 1695 were 360,000 pesos per year for four vessels. This included construction costs for new ships (of 80,000 pesos), which can be discounted in our estimate for the navíos of the Armada.

45 Instructions to Domingo Justiniani, December 1, 1729.

46 Lezo to Torrenueva, May 4, 1738.

47 Note by Tienda de Cuerbo, April 2, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

48 Lezo to Torrenueva, March 28, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 384.

49 Fidalgo to Crown, May 8, 1737.

50 Ibid.

51 Against the Dutch, for example, the Spanish cited Article 6 of the Treaty of Münster and Article 31 of the Peace of Utrecht. Both articles prohibit the signers from commerce in the ports and territories held by the other in the Indies.

52 Diplomatic correspondence at the Archivo General de Simancas, especially between England and Spain, is filled with mutual recriminations on contraband. The tone makes it apparent that reconciliation was impossible.

53 The London Gazette, July 7–10, 1739.

54 Domingo Ortíz de Rosas to Ensenada, April 24, 1752; AGI, Aud. de Chile, Leg. 433.

55 Lezo to Juan Francisco Guemes y Horcasitas, June 28, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

56 Consulta of the Council of the Indies, October 15, 1729; AGI, Indiferente, Nueva España, Leg. 28.

57 Ibid.

58 Hussey, , The Caracas Company, p. 74.Google Scholar

59 Consulta of the Council of the Indies, December 12, 1737; AGI, Indiferente, Nueva España, Leg. 28.

60 Lezo to Torrenueva, March 28, 1737.

6l Fidalgo to Torrenueva, May 8, 1737; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 938.

62 Fidalgo to Torrenueva, August 15, 1738; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 939.

63 Lezo to Torrenueva, January 7, 1739; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1093.

64 Fidalgo to Torrenueva, May 8, 1737, Leg. 938.

65 Lezo to Torrenueva, March 28, 1737.

66 Pèdro de Hordeñena to Ensenada, November 23, 1752; AGI, Aud. de Santa Fe, Leg. 1094.

67 Tienda de Cuerbo to Patiño, July 15, 1731.

68 Cenon de Somodevilla to Joseph Pizarro, April 19, 1738; AGI, Indiferente General, Leg. 2556.

69 Vera to Crown, July 22, 1737.

70 Hordeñena to Ensenada, November 23, 1752.