Spanish treasure fleet

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Beginning in the 16th century, the Spanish treasure fleets brought the wealth of the Spanish colonies in Mexico, Central and South America, and Asia to Spain, in the form of silver, gold, gems, spices, cocoa, silk, and other exotic goods (Zarin, 2005). Included in the treasure fleets were the Caribbean treasure fleet (sailing from the Caribbean to Spain), and the Manila Galleons which brought Asian wares from the Philippines to Mexico, in exchange for Mexican silver from Acapulco (in modern Mexico). From Acapulco, the Asian goods were transhipped to Veracruz to join the Caribbean treasure fleet, for shipment to Spain.

Spanish ships had brought treasure from the New World since Christopher Columbus' first expedition of 1492, but a system of convoys started to be developed in the 1520s in response to attacks by French and English privateers. Under this system, two fleets sailed each year from Seville (later Cádiz), consisting of galleons, heavily armed with cannons, and merchant carracks, carrying manufactured goods (and later slaves). One fleet sailed to the Caribbean, the other to the South American ports of Cartagena, Nombre de Dios (and later Porto Bello); after completing their trade the fleets rendezvoused at Havana in Cuba for the return trip. This trade was controlled by the Casa de Contratación.

Spain strictly controlled trade with its colonies: by law, the colonies could only trade with the one designated port in the mother country. The English and Dutch tried to break this monopsony, and foreigners established associations with Spaniards acting as fronts (cargadores). However, this monopsony lasted for over two centuries, in which Spain first became the richest country in Europe and used the wealth from its colonies to fight wars against France, the Ottoman Empire, England the Dutch Republic, and the Protestant leagues of the Holy Roman Empire. However, the flow of precious metals from the Indies engendered the inflation of the 17th century which gradually but irreversibly destroyed the Spanish economy, making Spain bankrupt and dangerously reliant on the treasure fleets.

The fleet carried the quinto (royal fifth, a 20 percent tax) of precious metals and wares of private merchants. Archaeology has found that the quantity of metals really transported was usually much higher than that recorded at the Archivo General de Indias as merchants resorted to contraband and corruption to transport their riches untaxed.

This economic system began to decline in the 17th century. The Caribbean treasure fleets were menaced by storms (the fleets of 1622, including the Atocha, 1715 and 1733 were destroyed by hurricanes in the Caribbean) and by pirates, privateers and foreign navies. Centuries later, artifacts from these wrecks have been found by treasure salvagers.

This economic importance also declined with the drop of production of the American precious metals mines. The fleets which numbered just 17 ships in 1550 had reached just over 50 much larger vessels by the end of the century. In the middle of the next century that number had dwindled to around half of its peak and continued to shrink. The threat of attack became greater as Spain's colonial rivals seized Spanish bases in the Caribbean, or established their own bases: the English acquired St Kitts in 1624, and the Dutch Curaçao in 1634. Treasure fleets were captured by Piet Hein in 1628 and in 1656 and 1657 by Robert Blake. In the 1660s Henry Morgan attacked Spanish possessions. The 1702 treasure fleet was destroyed in the Battle of Vigo Bay. However, the fleet began to expand again as trade gradually recovered from the last decades of the 17th century.

The losses due to attacks and storms were tremendous economic blows to Spain. Weakened by continuous wars (particularly the Thirty Years' War) and suffering perpetual economic depression, its economy ravaged by bouts of inflation and deflation, Spain had great difficulty in protecting its colonies from the mid-Seventeenth Century on. In 1739, Admiral Edward Vernon raided Porto Bello (War of Jenkins' Ear) (though this proved a mere irritant), and in 1762 (Seven Years' War) the British occupied Havana and Manila, disrupting the treasure fleets at the end of the war. Yet it should be noted that the successful attacks upon these convoys over two-and-half centuries, and many years of hostilities, were few in number. In the case of the Manila galleons, only four were ever captured. The Spanish treasure fleets must be counted as among the most successful naval operations in history.

In the 1780s, Spain opened its colonies to free trade. In 1790, the Casa de Contratación was abolished. The last treasure fleet sailed that year.

[edit] Citations

Zarin, Cynthia 2005 Green dreams A mystery of rare, shipwrecked emeralds. The New Yorker, November 21, 2005 pp. 76-83 www.newyorker.com

[edit] See also

• Convoy
• History of European colonization of the Americas
• The Asiento was a monopoly on the trade of African slaves to Spanish America, held by the English after the War of the Spanish Succession
• Spanish Empire
• Spanish Navy

[edit] External links

• Spanish Mariners, 1492-1805
• History Hunters