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The Genoese in Seville and the Opening of the New World*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Ruth Pike
Ruth Pike
Affiliation:
Hunter College of the City University of New
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Extract

The turning point in the history of the Genoese merchants in Spain was the discovery of America and the subsequent opening of trading relations with the new continent. From then on, their ascent to economic predominance in Spain paralleled that nation's emergence as the dominant power of the sixteenth-century world. Fortune gave Spain two empires simultaneously, one in the Old World, the other in the New. Spain's unpreparedness for imperial responsibilities, particularly in the economic sphere, was the springboard for Genoese advancement. Strengthening and enlarging their colony in Seville —after 1503 the “door and port of the Indies” —the Genoese prepared to move across the Atlantic in the wake of Columbus.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 1962 , pp. 348 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1962

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References

1 The Genoese traded with Seville while it was under Moslem control, but did not have any permanent settlement there until the reconquest in 1248. At that time they received special commercial privileges, including the right to have a “fondaco, houses, church and oven …with their own laws except in cases of homicide….” González, J.Repartimiento de Sevilla (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones cientificas, 1951), p. 377Google Scholar; Carlé, M. del Carmen, “Mercaderes en Castilla (1252–1512),” Cuadernos de historia de España, XXI-XXII (1954), 231.Google Scholar

2 Genoese commercial penetration of Spain began in the twelfth century. In the first quarter of that century, Genoese appeared in the north in Galicia, playing an important part in drawing the whole Spanish littoral of the Bay of Biscay into the orbit of international trade. In the south they had connections with the commercial centers of Lower Andalusia which were still in Moslem hands. After the reconquest of this region by the Christians, Genoese established permanent commercial colonies in various Andalusian towns. Verlinden, Charles, “The Rise of Spanish Trade in the Middle Ages,” Economic History Review, X, No. 1 (Feb. 1940), 49.Google Scholar For a description of Genoese colonial expansion in the Middle Ages see Lopez, R., Storia delle colonie genovesi nel Medilerraneo (Bologna: N. Zanichelli, 1938).Google Scholar

3 The Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega thus described Seville in his El peregrino en su patria, quoted in Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes, Rinconete y Cortadillo, ed. Marín, Francisco Rodríguez (Madrid: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 1920), p. 10.Google Scholar For a description of the city and its trade with the Indies, see my article, “Seville in the Sixteenth Century,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XLI, No. 1 (Feb. 1961), 1–30.Google Scholar

4 The number of Genoese residing in the city during the thirteenth century was indeed small, but with the establishment of Seville as a port of call for Genoese galleys and carracks en route to Southampton and Bruges in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there was a gradual increase in the resident population. Ballesteros, A., Sevilla en el siglo XIII (Madrid: Perez Torres, 1913) p 42Google Scholar; Carande, R., “Sevilla, fortaleza y mercado,” Anuario de historia del derecho español, II (1925), 287,Google Scholar hereafter cited as Carande, “Sevilla.”

5 A more precise estimate of the city's Genoese population during the fifteenth century could be obtained from a thorough investigation of the Sevillian Protocols for that period. See Sopranis, pp. 356–57.

6 In 1528 Andrea Doria, leader of one of the political parties in Genoa, seized power and brought the city, which had been vacillating between the French and Spanish, into the Spanish camp. As a result, many members of the opposition left Genoa. F. Casoni, Annali della repùblica di Genoa del sècolo dècimo sesto (Genoa, 1799–1800), III, 9 ff.; Vitale, Vito, Breviario della storia di Genova (Genoa: Societã ligure di storia patria, 1955), I, 165Google Scholar–79. In 1547, with French aid, Count Gian Luigi, head of the Fieschi family, led a conspiracy to overthrow Andrea Dona's government. Gianettino Doria, adopted son and heir of Andrea, was murdered and the latter forced to flee. The conspirators had secured most of the city when Fieschi was accidentally drowned and the movement collapsed. Manfroni, Camillo, Genova (Rome: Edizioni Tiber, 1929), pp. 169–70; Vitale, pp. 211–19.Google Scholar

7 Over one hundred names of Genoese businessmen appear in the Sevillian Protocols during the course of the century. In contrast, an important Andalusian port city such as Cadiz contained less than half that number. See H. Sancho de Sopranis, “Los genoveses en la regiòn gaditano-xerience de 1460–1800,” Hispania, revista española de historia, VIII, No. XXII (July-Sept. 1948), 374–75.

8 As Fray Tomás de Mercado, author of the most important treatise on Sevillian commercial life said: “…la casa de la contratación de Sevilla y el trato della es uno de los más célebras y ricos que hay el día de hoy, o se sabe en todo el orbe universal …arde la ciudad en todo género de negocios….” Fray Tomás de Mercado, Summa de tratos y contratos (Seville, 1587), p. A2.

9 Such as Ambrosio Spinola, Pedro de Grimaldo and Martín Pinelo. See José de la Torre y del Cerro, Beatríz Enríquez de Harana y Cristóbal Colón (Madrid: Institute Hispano-Cubano de Historia de América, 1933), Appendix XI.

10 Esteban Centurión, “vecino de Granada,” APS, 7 Nov. 1511, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. tercer tercio del legajo; Agustín Italián, “vecino de Málaga,” ibid., 17 Dec. 1516, Oficio I, Libro II, Mateo de la Cuadra, fol. 959; Francisco Doria, “estante en Cadiz,” ibid., 4 Sept. 1507, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 444.

11 In 1528, Andrea Doria, in an attempt to end the inter-family strife that had brought turmoil to the city throughout its history, decreed that only those families of groups possessing at least six case aperte (open houses) in the city could remain under their own name. All others had to join one of the larger groups. Only twenty-eight families were able to meet the requirement. Manfroni, p. 152; Vitale, pp. 206–11.

12 Members of the De Franchi, Di Negro, and Usodimare had settled in Cadiz in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and their descendants were among the outstanding citizens of that city in the sixteenth century. Sopranis, p. 374.

13 The following statistics are based solely on data from the Sevillian Notarial Archives, and therefore only an approximate value can be given to them.

14 During the thirteenth century the small merchant and artisan groups (the popolari) who had enriched themselves in the Syrian and North African trade formed a political party in opposition to the ruling nobility. By the end of the century, they had gained the support of one of the rival noble factions led by the Doria and Spinola, who saw in the popular party an effective weapon against the Grimaldi and Fieschi. Manfroni, p. 141; Vitale, pp. 81–87.

15 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Genoese moved easily and often between the cities of southern Spain, Portugal and North Africa. For the majority, the aim was to enrich themselves and eventually return to Genoa. Sopranis, p. 371.

16 By Spanish standards, trade carried with it a special social stigma and for centuries had been left to outsiders and foreigners. Respectable activities of the Spanish nobility were warfare, politics, religion, and traditional farming. See Vives, J. Vicens, Manual de historia cconómica de España (Barcelona: Teid, 1959), pp. 308, 310.Google Scholar

17 Torre y del Cerro, Appendix XI, 13 July 1486; 14 May 1486; 19 Oct. 1490.

18 Ballesteros, Antonio, Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América (Barcelona-Buenos Aires: Salvat, 1945), II, 259.Google Scholar The maravedí was a copper coin equal to the ninety-sixth part of a mark of gold (the Spanish mark [marco] equivalent to 23 0.04½ grams). Three hundred and seventy-five maravedís made up one ducat. Morison, S. E., Admiral of the Ocean Sea, a Life of Cristopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1942), I, xiv.Google Scholar

19 Ibid. He guaranteed a loan of 5,000,000 maravedís which the Duke of Medina Sidonia made to the Spanish sovereigns. In 1493 he loaned the crown 1,000,000 maravedís to transport the last Moslem king of Granada to Africa.

20 Schäfer, Ernesto, El consejo real y supremo de las Indias (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 1935), I, 9Google Scholar ff., believes that Pinelo was the author of a memorial to the Catholic sovereigns which contained the plan for the Casa de Contratación.

21 As an official of the Casa, he could not engage directly in the trade with America. Haring, Clarence, Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Habsburgs (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1918), p. 31.Google Scholar Nevertheless, the Sevillian Protocols disclose that he gave credit in the form of merchandise to those trading with the New World. For example, APS, 21 Feb. 1508–27 May 1509, Oficio IV, Libros I, II, III, Bernal González Vallecillo.

22 de Sedas, Santiago Montoto, Sevilla en el imperio, sigh XVI (Seville: Nueva Libraría Vda. de C. García, 1938), p. 195.Google Scholar

23 APS, 27 April 1508, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallecillo, fol. Comienzo del legajo. “Francisco Pinelo …delegates power to Andrés de San Martín, his employee, to take charge of all his business matters in the Indies …”; 27 May 1508, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallecillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo. “Lope Sánchez, master of the ship Santa María obligates himself to pay Francisco Pinelo 1,875 maravedís for 25 arrobas of white wine for the provisioning of his ship on the voyage …to Santo Domingo…. ”

24 de Molina, Gonzalo Argote, Nobleza del Andaluzia (Seville, 1588), p. 245.Google Scholar

25 Ibid. The Pinelo family tomb is in the Chapel of the Virgin of Pilar of the Cathedral of Seville. The memorial plate contains the following epitaph: “Esta capilla es de los muy nobles Señores Francisco Pinelo Ginovés Jurado Fiel executor desta Cibdad; primer factor de la Casa de la Contratación de las Indias, falleció a XXI de Marzo de M.D. IX y de María de la Torre su muger falleció a XXX de Octubre ano de M.D. XIII años y del Reverendo don Gerónimo Pinelo Maestre Escuela y Canónigo desta Santa Iglesia su hijo falleció a X de Setiembre ano de M.D. XX años en la cual están enterrados y es enterramiento para su linaje cuyas ánimas ayan gloria amen.” On top of the vault arc the words:

O mors quam
terribilis et potens
es: vitam claudis
sepulcrum aperis

26 Justino Matute y Gaviría, Hijos de Sevilla señalados en santidad, letras, armas, artes o dignidad (Seville, 1886), I, 335.Google Scholar

27 The best sources for a sketch of the lives of Carlos de Negrón and his family are Argote de Molina, Nobleza del Andaluzia, pp. 245 ff., and Francisco Pacheco, Libro de descriptión de verdaderos retratos, de ilustres y memorables varoncs (Seville, 1599), pp. 27–29V, 41–45.

28 Argote de Molina, p. 245.

29 APS, 10 Jan. 1551, Oficio XV, Libro I, Juan Franco, fol. 840; Santa María de Gracia; ibid., 22 Sept. 1540, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 751; San Salvador, ibid., 23 June 1551, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso dc Cazalla, fol. 729V.

30 Schäfer, I, 367.

31 Argote de Molina, p. 245.

32 In the sixteenth century, Sevillian nobles who did not engage in trade were forced by necessity and at times cupidity to intermarry with the merchants. As the dramatist Alarcón states in his El Semejante a si mismo:

Es segunda maravilla
Un caballcro en Sevilla
Sin ramo de mercader.

de Alarcón, Juan Ruíz, Obras completas, ed. Carlo, Agustín Millares (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economíca, 1957), I, 298.Google Scholar

33 The stigma of trade was eliminated by ennoblement and intermarriage with the nobility. According to Fray Mercado “die ennobled and hispanized merchants are persons of honor and reputation in Seville and the rest of the country.” Mercado, cap. I.

34 He was “señor de la villa del Casar i de la Torres i Daganca en Extremadura….” Pacheco, p. 44.

35 Francisco Zapata, Count of Barajas, was one of the best known Chief Justices of Seville. He was responsible for the draining of a notorious swamp called La Laguna, and the construction in its place of a beautiful park, the Alameda. de Guevara, Luis Vélez, El diablo cojuclo, ed. Marín, Francisco Rodríguez (Madrid: Clasicos Castellanos, 1951), p. 153.Google Scholar

36 In his geneological poem, Historia y sucesión de la Cueva, stanza LXIV, the Sevillian poet Juan de la Cueva describes his Negrón cousins as follows:

Cinco hijo varones, cinco sines celestres …
contra Arrianos y Calvinos
Se opondrin con divino y santo zelo
De ellos serán en las legales leyes
Defensa de los Reynos y los Reyes…

de Icaza, Francisco A., Tragedias y comedias de Juan de la Cueva (Madrid: Sociedad de bibliófilos españoles, 1917), xxi.Google Scholar

37 The Colegio mayor e Santo Tomás was founded in 1517 by Archbishop Diego de Deza. By 1575 its graduates enjoyed the same privileges and exemptions as those of Salamanca. Montoto de Sedas, p.110.

38 In stanza XLV Juan de la Cueva speaks of Luciino:

Contra el rebelde Apóstata, que huye
La verdadera Ley, que el verdadero
Legislador dió al Mundo que destruye
La cisma y pertinancia de Lutero
Calificando al ciego error, arguye
Luciano de Negrón…

Icaza, p. xxi. As a humanist, according to Pacheco “…fué famosissimo Astrólogo, Mathemático i filósofo: gran Retórico, estremado latino Griego i Hebreo i mui general en las demás lenguas vulgares. …” Pacheco, p. 27.

39 Argote de Molina, p. 145; Pacheco, p. 27 “…una famosa librería hecha a gran costa (donde fueron muchos los libros que en ella junto de todas Facultades i Lenguas) tan conocida i alabada en España….”

40 Particularly the “escuela sevillana,” a group of Sevillian poets led by Fernando de Herrera. Their poetry was characterized by grandiloquence, verbosity, and neologism. Other meetings were held in the palace of Columbus's descendant, the Count of Gelves, Don Álvaro Colón y Portugal. Sainz y Robles, p. 87.

41 For both portrait and sonnet see Pacheco, p. 27 and 28v.

42 After a short period of competition with the Jews—traditional moneylenders of the region— they succeeded in breaking the monopoly of the former by the first decades of the fourteenth century. One of the prime factors in their success was the ability to mobilize large sums of money drawn from their widespread commercial network. By the mid-fourteenth century they were the principal creditors of the city. Carande, “Sevilla,” p. 293 ff.

43 Dante called them “uomini diversi” and Machiavelli added the harsh comment “inonorati vivevano.” Sayous, A., “Aristocracie et noblesse a Gênes,” Annalcs d'histoire économique et sociale, IX, No. 46 (July 1937), 367. For a discussion of the characteristics of the Genoese merchants see R. Lopez, “Le marchand génois,” Annulet; économies, sociétés, civilisation, No. 3 (July-Sept. 1958), 501–15.Google Scholar

44 A member of the Spinola family, Micer Gabriel, had several dealings with Ferdinand VI of Castile and in 1309 the same monarch received an advance of 6,911 doblas from “Juan de Vivaldo, Consul of the Genoese and from others of his nation.” In the fifteenth century the Salvago family was particularly well-known as moneylenders of the Sevillian aristocracy, and the Castilian monarchs. Sopranis, p. 383; Carande, “Sevilla,” pp. 316, 317.

45 The role of the Genoese in sixteenth-century international finance has been described by Ehrenberg, R., Das Zeitaher der Fugger (Jena, 1896)Google Scholar 2 vols., and Braudel, F., Le méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen a I'époque de Philippe II (Paris: Colin, 1949).Google Scholar Additional information can be found in Lopez, R., “II predominio economico dei Genovesi nella monarchia spanola,” Giornale stòrico e letterario della Liguria, XII (1936), 65–74,Google Scholar and Carande, R., La hacienda real de Castilia (Madrid: Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1949),Google Scholar hereafter cited as La hacienda.

46 In 1573 the Venetian ambassador to Spain proclaimed that “the best merchants in the court are the Genoese. But they dedicate themselves litde to real commerce that consists of sending merchandise from one country to another. On the contrary, the Genoese of the Spanish court, among whom we can find at least 100 principal great houses, devote themselves primarily to monetary transactions. They consider bills of exchange and monetary transactions as an honorable art of commerce and the trade of merchandise as an affair of shopkeepers.” Albèri, Eugenio, Relazione degli ambasciatori vèneti al Senato, XIV (Florence, 1839–1863), 361.Google Scholar

47 In Dec. 1526, A. Vivaldo was in Seville engaged in commercial transactions. APS, 20 Dec. 1526, Oficio I, Libra I, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 943V. In autumn of the same year he was at court. Ibid., 28 Nov. 1526, Oficio I, Libra II, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 808. A year later he was back again in Seville. Ibid., 10 Feb. 1527, Oficio I, Libra I, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 133.

48 Ibid., 17 Oct. 1551, Oficio XV, Libra II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 1710.

49 Pedro Batista Spínola took charge of the business affairs of both Andrea Spínola and Hector Doria. Ibid., 16 Sept 1551, Oficio XV, Libra II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 1412.

50 They were much more important than partnership contracts, as indicated by their frequent appearance in the Sevillian Protocols for the early years of the century in contrast to the scarcity of the latter.

51 Mercado gave the following satirical description of these loans: “Quiso hazer para sí mención de un cambio que se usa en esta ciudad para Indias, porque es tan singular que no entra en la regla y canones communes de los otros y aún es tan disforme y tan feo, que parece un monstruo de cambios sin figura y apparencia entera dellos, una chimera con una parte de cambio otro de seguro, otro de usura, una mistura risible y horrible.” Mercado, p. 220. These sixteenth-century sea loans resembled their medieval predecessors. For examples of medieval sea loans and other business contracts, see Lopez, R. and Raymond, I., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955).Google Scholar

52 Sayous, A., “Le rôle des Génois lors de premiers mouvements réguliers d'affaires entre l'Espagne et le Nouveau Monde (1505–1520),” Comptes rendues des séances de l'Académic des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres (July-Sept. 1932), p. 296, hereafter cited as Sayous, “Le rôle.”Google Scholar

53 Mercado, p. 220.

54 In 1508 Rodrigo Bermejo, master of the ship Santa Catalina, obligated himself to pay Lucas Pinelo 12,000 maravedís for fifteen pieces of armor which he bought from Pinelo to sell in Santo Domingo. APS, 22 Sept. 1508, Oficio XV, Libra II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. segundo tercio del legajo.

55 Sayous, “Le rôle,” p. 294.

56 Shipmasters who borrowed from Genoese capitalists depended on the payment of the freight charges in order to repay the loan. Ibid.

57 See Table 5. Lucas Pinelo and Batista Cataño also divided their investments between loans and credits.

58 APS, 3 April 1506, Oficio IV, Libro I, Francisco Segura, fol. mitad del legajo; Sayous, , “débuts de commerce de l'Espagne avec l'Amérique,” Revue histonque, CLXXIV, 2e Fasc. (July-Dec. 1934), 212, hereafter cited as “Les débuts.”Google Scholar

59 APS, 3 Nov. 1512, Oficio VIII, Libro II, Bernal González Vallecillo, fol. tercer tercio del legajo; Sayous, “Les débuts,” p. 212.

60 Sayous, “Les débuts,” p. 212.

61 On Genoese individualism see Renouard, Yves, Les hommes d'affaires italiens du moyen âge (Paris: Colin, 1949), pp. 237 ff., and Sayous, “Les débuts,” p. 214.Google Scholar

62 While the Sevillian Protocols of 1513 refer to Centurión and Grimaldo as “mercaderes” (merchants), those from 1515 on call them “banqueros” (bankers). Sayous believed that the use of the latter term merely indicated that dieir operations had “taken on the character of an employment of money,” and that there was no change in activity. “Les débuts,” p. 249. This was mere speculation on his part, since he did not have access to the documents. Actually, the two Genoese businessmen had extended their activities so as to include deposit banking, and they are called in a large number of documents “banqueros públicos” or “mercaderes genoveses, banqueros públicos de Sevilla.” Deposit banking was another aspect of the trade in money practiced by the Genoese in Seville during the sixteenth century. Lack of information about Sevillian banks in general, and the specific participation of the Genoese in them, prevents any extended discussion of this subject. Some material on this topic may be obtained from Carande, R., Carlos V y sus banqueros (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1943), ch. x.Google Scholar

63 APS, 5 Oct. 1508, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallecillo, fol. segundo tercio del legajo.

64 “Porque de la tienda, o casa de un mercero se surte casi un cargazón al menos tómanse juntos todos los géneros que suelen venir de las partes do trata como del que en Flandres paños anascotes, tapicería, olandes, cobre, mercería o bujerías Del que en Francia, ruanes, coletas….” Mercado, p. 95.

65 APS, 12 Oct. 1513, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallecillo, fol. tercer tercio del legajo.

66 Ibid., 3 Jan. 1527, Oficio I, Libro I, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 75.

67 Wright, I., “Documents—The Commencement of the Cane Sugar Industry in America, 1519–1538,” American Historical Review, XXI, No. 4 (July 1916), 770. The King to the Audiencia, November 8, 1538 “…e agora hernán vázquez e agostín de bibaldo e domingo de forne me han hecho relación que a ellos y a sus factores en su nombre se les deben en esa ysla muchos contias de mrs. de diez y doze y quinze años a esta parte, de lo procedido de ciertos esclabos que en dicha ysla se vendieron….”Google Scholar

68 Nicolás Cataño, owner of La Trinidad (APS, 5 Nov. 1544, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 817V), and Carlos de Negrón of Santa Maria de Gracia (ibid., 22 Sept. 1546, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 751), and San Salvador (ibid., 23 June 1551, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 729V).

69 The Sevillian Protocols contain countless numbers of these grants of power.

70 Gregorio Martín “mercader estante en la isla de San Juan,” general powers (APS, 5 April, Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo); Rodrígo de Narváez, “maestre,” specific powers (ibid., 5 April, Oficio XV, Único Libro, fol. primer tercio del lagajo); Juan Rodríguez, “maestre,” general powers (ibid., 6 July, Oficio XV, Único Libro, fol. segundo tercio del legajo); Miguel Diaz, “residente en la isla de San Juan” (ibid., 12 April, Oficio IV, Libro I, Manuel Segura, folio falta, Indias 12).

71 The commercial companies (compañías) used in the sixteenth-century trade between Spain and the New World have been described by Padre Mercado. In its simplest form the compañia was an association between two individuals in which one party furnished die capital and remained at home while the other carried the investment to its destination. Since the traveling associate contributed only his services, he received a percentage of the profits, usually one fourth. When “all invested both money and labor,” the profits were divided. Mercado, ch. ix. The volumes of Sevillian Protocols for the sixteenth century contain innumerable contracts of compañia formed between Genoese residents of Seville, and between Genoese and Spaniards.

72 “He who goes to the Indies …earns a great deal,” remarked Mercado. (Fol. 91). The New World offered endless opportunities for enrichment, legitimate or otherwise. As early as 1514 there was a flood of complaints against abuses by the agents of European houses across the Atlantic, such as refusals to send in accounts and malversations of funds collected Colección de documentos inéditos …de ultramar (Madrid, 1897), X, 445. To further complicate the situation, those who left for America entered into several advantageous contracts with different Sevillian capitalists. It was thus difficult to determine the gains and losses of each investor, particularly in a case of fraud.Google Scholar

73 APS, 26 Feb., Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 157; ibid., 21 May, Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 554.

74 Ibid., 20 Feb., Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 161; ibid., 23 May, Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 552.

75 Ibid., 21 Oct., Oficio XV, Único Libro, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 667.

76 A royal decree of March 1503 ordered Rafael Cataño to leave the island as soon as he completed his business. In February 1504, he was given permission to stay until he had completed his business with Columbus, but his brother Juan Cataño was ordered to leave at once. Coleción de documentos inéditos, V, 146, 167.

77 APS, 13 Aug. 1511, Oficio VI, 16 del cuaderno 2, 3V, Juan Núñez. In 1510 the crown granted Bernaldo de Grimaldo the special privilege of allowing his factor to reside permanently in the Indies while this permission was denied to all other foreigners. The Grimaldo were particularly favored by King Ferdinand because of their large loans to him on the occasion of his daughter Catherine's marriage to the Prince of Wales. Carande, Carlos V, p. 318.

78 Ambrosio Spínola, Benito Doria, Alejandro Cataño, Batista Centurión, Juan Tomás de Monte, Esteban Centurión, and Domenegro de Castellón.

79 APS, 24 April 1509, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. segundo tercio del legajo. “Tomás de Castellón, mercader genovés, otorga haber recibido de Batista Cataño mer cader genovés 45 varas de paño de Londres para venderlas en la isla española….” He received powers of attorney from Cosme and Francisco Riberol. APS, 9 March, Oficio I, Libro I, Mateo de la Caudra, fol. 296; ibid., 10 March, Oficio I, Libro I, Mateo de la Cuadra, fol. 415V.

80 Ibid., 11 May 1509, Oficio IV, Libro II, Manuel Segura, fol. 146V.

81 See Table 5.

82 In January 1550 Tolomeo Spinola entered into a compañía with a group of Genoese merchants, including Costantín Spinola, Lucas Pínelo, Luis Spinola, Antonio Fiesco Panolín, and Octaviano de Negrón for the trade of merchandise and slaves between Seville and the New World. The total investment equalled 12,000 ducats, of which Tolomeo invested one third, the remaining two thirds being contributed by the others. Under the provisions of the contract, Tolomeo was “to carry the investment to New Spain and to sell it there,” and to share equally with the others in the division of the profits. APS, 29 Jan. 1550, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 233.

83 Valián de Forne was the New World representative of the company of Fernando Vázquez, Tomás and Domingo de Forne. APS, 16 Sept. 1549, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 703.

84 APS, 10 Feb. 1508, Oficio XV, Libra I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo; ibid., 17 Feb., Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo; ibid., 10 March, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. mitad del legajo. Antonio Italián died in 1515, leaving a minor daughter in Seville under the guardianship of Valián Salvago. Ibid., 22 Feb. 1515, Oficio VII, Libro I, Gómez Álvarez de Aguilera, fol. 21v, cuaderno 2.

85 Ibid., 13 Aug. 1511, Oficio VI, Juan Núñez, fol. 16 del cuaderno 2 y 18 v del 3.

86 Ibid., 21 Feb. 1508, Oficio I, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo; ibid., 10 March, Oficio I, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo; ibid., 5 June 1512, Oficio IV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. segundo tercio del legajo.

87 Ibid., 13 Aug. 1511.

88 According to Casas, Las, “El piloto Roldán edificó una reglera de casas para su morada y para alquilar en las cuatros calles. Luego, un Hiéronimo Grimaldo, mercader y otros y cada día, fueron creciendo los edificios [en Santo Domingo]….” Bartolomé de las Casas, Historia de las Indias (Mexico: Iondo de Culture Económica, 1951), II, 235.Google Scholar

89 APS, 13 Aug. 1511.

90 Ibid., fol. 17 del cuaderno 2 y 20 del 3. In 1515 Jerónimo's financial manipulations caused a lawsuit between his uncle and Diego Columbus, governor of the island of Hispaniola. The elder Grimaldo began proceedings against the governor, believing that the latter had not repaid a debt of 400,000 maravedís. When Diego Columbus's account books were presented in Seville, however, they showed an acknowledgement of repayment of the debt signed by Jerónimo. The money had been appropriated by Jerónimo. APS, 10 July, Oficio II, Libro III, Francisco Castellanos, fol. 50V; ibid., 26 July, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 591, 608; ibid., 11 Sept., Oficio II, Libro III, Francisco Castellanos, fol. 251.

91 Ibid., 7 May 1516, Oficio I, Libra I, Mateo de la Cuadra, fol. 491V.

92 In 1508 the royal favor that his uncle enjoyed enabled him to receive an encomienda of forty or fifty Indians. “Por parte de Bernaldo de Grimaldo vezino de la Ciudad de Seville me es fecha relación quel tiene en esas Yndias por hasedor a Jerónimo de Grimaldo su sobrino; e me suplico le mandase darle XL o L Yndios en administración como se den a los otros vezinos destas dichas Yndias….” Eduardo Ibarra y Rodríguez, ed. Documcntos de asunto económico correspondientes al reinado de los Reyes Católicos, 1475–1516 (Madrid: Academia Universitaria Católica, 1917), p. 58, February 1508.Google Scholar

93 APS, 19 Feb. 1517, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 129.

94 Ibid., 1517, Oficio XVIII, Pedro Díaz de Alfaro, fol. missing, registro 6. Part of the document is also missing.

95 APS, 30 Oct. 1490, Oficio XVIII, tomo III, fol. 1040.

96 APS, 3 March, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo.

97 A notary deed of 19 Nov. 1510 mentions the “bricks, biscuit and other merchandise” that Ambrosio sent to the Indies to be sold there by Jerónimo de Grimaldo. Ibid., Oficio I, Libra I, Mateo de la Cuadra, fol. 189; Nicolás, ibid., 13 March 1509, Oficio XV, Libro I, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. primer tercio del legajo.

98 de Icaza, Francisco A., Conquistadores y pobladores de Nueva España (Madrid: Impr. de El Adelantado de Segovia, 1923), no. 1342 “Xcriptóbal Despíndola …dize quest vezino del Sevilla hidalgo notorio, casado con Doña Francisca Cataño …que a deziocho años que se casó….”Google Scholar

99 Ibid., “…a diez años pasó a la Florida con el adelantado Soto …donde pasó grandes trabajos….”

100 Ibid., “…y par venyr a seruir a su magestad vendió su hacienda …y vino desundo a esta tierra.” According to Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca in La Florida del Inca, Historia del adelantado Hernando de Soto, gobernador y capitán general del reino de la Florida. (Madrid, ‘723). Pp. 9, 22, Cristóbal Spínola was a captain of the guard who had sixty halberdiers under him. Garcilaso calls him “Micer Espínola.” This is just one of the variations of the Spínola name. Another spelling often found in the documents is Espíndola.

101 Icaza, no. 1342. The encomienda was a grant of authority over Indians which carried the obligation to christianize them and to protect them, as well as the right to collect tribute. Worcester, D. and Schaeffer, W., The Growth and Culture of Latin America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. xvi.Google Scholar

102 Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias durante Los siglos XVI y XVII, III (Seville: Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, 1940–1946), no. 3031.Google Scholar

103 APS, 29 July 1525, Oficio I, Libro I, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 3V.

104 Ibid., 15 June 1525, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. 502. “… Melchor Centurión, mercader genovés, residente de la ciudad de Sevilla en el nombre y boz de Estaban Centurión, su hermano, vecino de la ciudad de Granada. …”

105 Ibid., 20 Aug. 1525, Oficio I, Libro I, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 259V.

106 Ibid., 5 June 1512, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. segundo, tercio del legajo.

107 Ibid., 7 Nov. 1511, Oficio XV, Libro II, Bernal González Vallesillo, fol. tercer tercio del legajo.

108 Ibid., 20 Nov. 1527, Oficio V, Libro I, Francisco de Castellanos, fol. 440.

109 Ibid., 25 July 1525, Oficio I, Libro II, Alonso de la Barrera, fol. 3V.

110 More than anything else, what transformed Seville from a provincial Andalusian port city into a thriving international metropolis—a “new Babylonia” as she was called by contemporaries—was the discovery of the New World. “Was not Seville and all of Andalusia before this event the utmost point and the end of all land, and now it is the middle to which come the best and most esteemed of the Old World … to be carried to the New.” Mercado, p. A2.

111 Spanish medieval concepts completely separated riches from nobility. A rich man was ingenious [capaz], powerful and above all virtuous. The highest grade of medieval nobility was formed by the “ricos homes” and “ricas hembras” and money did not allow one to belong to this class. Alfonso García Valdecasas, El hidalgo y el honor (2d ed., Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1958), p. 71.Google Scholar

112 This change of ideas, reflected first in Seville, was soon felt in the rest of the country. Lope de Vega expressed the new feeling in his La Prueba de los Amigos:

No dudes que el dinero es
todo en todo:
Es príncipe, es hidalgo, es caballero
Es alta sangre, es descendente godo.

In Félix Lope de Vega Carpio, Obras escogidas, ed. de Robles, Federico Carlos Saínz (Madrid: Aguilar, 1952), II, i, 1429.Google Scholar

113 Mercado, p. A2.

114 Ibid., the conversion of the nobility to commerce opened what had heretofore been a closed society, and brought about the entrance of the merchant group into their ranks. Marriages between the scions of the oldest noble families of Seville and the children of wealthy merchants became common phenomena in the city in the course of the sixteenth century.

115 Sayous, A, “La génese du systeme capitaliste. La pratique des affaires et leur mentalité dans l'Espagne du XVlème siècle,” Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, VIII, No. 40 (July 1936), 346.Google Scholar

116 After 1550 the Sevillian Protocols register scarcely any sea loans involving the Genoese.

117 During the sixteenth century insurance premiums oscillated between 5 and 7 per cent. At times, due to war or the increased activity of pirates, they reached 30 per cent. Carande, Carlos V, p. 280.

118 In the first part of the century the outstanding crown bankers from the Sevillian colony were Agustín de Vivaldo, Jácome and Juan Francisco de Grimaldo, and Agustín Italián.

119 R. Ehrenberg, I, 346.

120 These receipts are preserved among the Protocols of the city.

121 de Laiglesia, Francisco, Estudios históricos, 1515–1555 (Madrid: Imprenta clásica española, 1918), II, Appendices IV, VI. The following statistics are drawn from these two reports.Google Scholar

122 Ibid., Appendix VI.

123 Braudel, p. 785.

124 Ehrenberg, p. 347.

125 APS, 14 Nov. 1550, Oficio XV, Libro I, Juan Franco, fol. 562.

126 Carande, La hacienda, p. 172. The term “asiento” (French, sixteenth-century “parti”) means contract or agreement. In the financial language of the time, money transactions between the crown and businessmen were called asientos, which could involve the farm of a tax, the provision of the army or the advance of money. Lapeyre, Henri, Simón Ruiz et les asientos de Philippe II (Paris: École Practique des Hautes Études, 1953), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

127 APS, 5 Nov. 1544, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 815V; ibid., 7 Oct. 1545, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 921.

128 Carande, La hacienda, p. 173. The escudo was equal to 400 maravedís. Davies, R. Trevor, The Golden Century of Spain 1501–1621 (London: Macmillan Co., 1954), p. 297.Google Scholar

129 APS, 26 Nov. 1545, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 1359. Both were affiliated with the Sevillian bank of Domingo de Lizarrazas. Carande, Carlos V, p. 202.

130 APS, 20 Dec. 1528, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 1614V.

131 Ibid., 6 Nov. 1549, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 1076V; ibid., 14 Jan. 1551, Oficio XV, Libro I, Juan Franco, fol. 875.

132 In particular to the Gelves family, descendants of Columbus. For example, in May 1551, the Countess of Gelves declared that, in the name of her son, Don Álvaro, she “had borrowed 259,615 maravedís that with interest amounted to 271,946 maravedís from Jerónimo Cataño.” APS, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 349.

133 Moreover, the crown developed the policy of regularly confiscating all treasure destined for private individuals as a way of meeting its deficit. The dispossessed persons were recompensed with annuities (juros), either perpetual or redeemable, paying 3 to 6 per cent on the capital seized. The repayment of debts by annuities instead of ready money deprived the merchants of fluid capital. See Carande, Carlos V, p. 155 and Haring, p. 109.

134 Heaton, Herbert, Economic History of Europe (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948), p. 165.Google Scholar

135 In the sixteenth century the nonfamily partnership of unlimited liability began to rank alongside the commenda form of partnership. Thompson, James W., Economic and Social History of Europe in the Latter Middle Ages (New York: The Century Co., 1931), p. 442.Google Scholar

136 Most often the shares were equal. Clough, S. and Cole, C., Economic History of Europe (3d ed., New York: D. C. Heath and Co., 1952), p. 75.Google Scholar

137 In France this type of partnership came to be known as the “société en nom collectif” in contrast to the “socié;té en commandite” used in the American trade in which the partners were liable to lose only their investments. Heaton, p. 359; Burns, Arthur Robert, “Partnerships,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. Seligman, E. R. A., XIII (1934), 3–6.Google Scholar

138 Goris, A.Les Colonies marchands méridionales à Anvers de 1488 a 1567 (Louvain: Université de Louvain, Belgium, 1925), p. 105.Google Scholar

139 Polo Centurión, Constantín Spínola and Lucas Pinelo for example. APS, 14 Dec. 1551, Oficio XV, Libro II, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 201.

140 With the crown, Galeazo de Negrón, Jacome Calvo, and Cristóbal Lercaro; with the regional nobility, Juan Antonio Spínola, Jerónimo and Pascual Cataño.

141 APS, 16 Aug. 1549, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 416. His father was also a wealthy merchant and a denizen of the city.

142 Ibid., 19 March 1549, Oficio XV, Libro I, Alonso de Cazalla, fol. 587.

143 Ibid., 21 June 1580, Oficio XVII, Libro II, Francisco de Vera, fol. falta (fin de legajo).

144 The reference here is to las Gradas, the business center of the city, described in 1526 by the Venetian ambassador, Navajero:, Andrea “Around the whole building [the Cathedral] there is a long marble terrace, enclosed by chains, from which one descends by steps to the street below. Throughout the day merchants and hidalgos congregate in this place … which is called Las Gradas. In the neighboring street and plaza, which is a type of public market, there are always great numbers of people and it is here that frauds of all kinds are committed.” Fabié, Antonio María, ed. and trans., Viajes por España de Eighen, del Barón de Rosmithal de Blatna, de Francisco Guicciardini, y de Andrés Navajero (Madrid, 1878), p. 382.Google Scholar