Spanish treasure fleet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A treasure fleet is being loaded with riches.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Beginning in the 16th century, the Spanish treasure fleets (or West Indies Fleet from Spanish Flota de Indias) transported various metal resources and agricultural goods, including silver, gold, gems, spices, tobacco, silk, and other exotic goods, from the Spanish colonies to Spain. The Crown of Spain taxed the wares and precious metals of private merchants at a rate of 20%, a tax known as the quinto real (royal fifth).

The treasure fleets consisted of two convoys: the Spanish Caribbean fleet or Flota de Indias, which sailed from a network of ports including Havana, Veracruz, Portobelo and Cartagena to Spain, and the Manila Galleons or Galeón de Manila which linked the Philippines to Acapulco in Mexico. From Acapulco, the Asian goods were transhipped to Veracruz to be loaded on to the Caribbean treasure fleet for shipment to Spain.

[edit] History

Spanish ships had brought treasure from the New World since Christopher Columbus' first expedition of 1492. The government started a system of convoys in the 1520s in response to attacks by privateers. Under this system, two fleets sailed each year from Seville (Cádiz, consisting of galleons, heavily armed with cannons, and merchant carracks, carrying trade goods (and later occasionally 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 trading, the fleets rendezvoused at Havana, Cuba for the return trip.

Spain strictly controlled the trade through the Casa de Contratación based in Seville. By law, the colonies could trade only with the one designated port in the mother country. Maritime archaeology has shown that the quantity of goods transported was usually much higher than that recorded at the Archivo General de Indias. Spanish merchants and Spaniards acting as fronts (cargadores) for foreign merchants resorted to contraband to transport their cargoes untaxed.

View of Seville in the 16th century

This monopsony lasted for over two centuries, in which Spain became the richest country in Europe. It used the wealth to fight numerous wars in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries against the Ottoman Empire and most of the major European powers (except the Holy Roman Empire). Due to inflation in the 17th century, the flow of precious metals from the Indies gradually damaged and depressed the Spanish economy.

The exports' economic importance also declined with the drop of production of the American precious metals mines, such as Potosí. Numbering just 17 ships in 1550, the fleets had expanded to more than 50 much larger vessels by the end of the century. By the middle of the 17th century, that number had dwindled to around half of its peak and continued to shrink. As trade gradually recovered during the last decades of the 17th century, the fleet was expanded again.

The Spanish trade of goods and precious metals was continually threatened until the mid-18th century, as Spain's colonial rivals seized bases or established their own along the Spanish Main and the Spanish West Indies. The English acquired St Kitts in 1624, the French Saint-Domingue in 1625 and the Dutch Curaçao in 1634. In 1739, Admiral Edward Vernon raided Porto Bello; and in 1762, the British occupied Havana and Manila, forcing changes to the usual pattern of Spanish fleet operations.

Charles III began loosening the system in 1765. In the 1780s Spain opened its colonies to free trade. In 1790, the Casa de Contratación was abolished. The last regular treasure fleet sailed that year. Thereafter small groups of naval frigates were assigned to the transfer of bullion as required.

Despite the general perception that many Spanish galleons were captured by English or Dutch privateers, few fleets were actually lost to enemies in the course of the flota's long career. Only Piet Hein managed to capture the fleet in 1628 and bring the cargo safely to the Dutch Republic. In 1656 and 1657 Robert Blake destroyed the fleet. The 1702 treasure fleet was destroyed in the Battle of Vigo Bay when surprised at port, but had already unloaded most of its silver. In the case of the Manila galleons, only four were ever captured. These losses and those due to hurricanes were heavy economic blows when they occurred. Overall, the treasure fleets must be counted as among the most successful naval operations in history.

Wrecks of Spanish treasure ships, whether sunk in naval combat or by storms (those of 1622, 1715 and 1733 being among the worst), are a prime target for modern treasure hunters. Many, such as the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, have been salvaged.

[edit] See also

The Urca de Lima and ten other treasure ships were sunk by a hurricane off the coast of Florida in 1715. Contemporary oil painting.

• Spanish West Indies
• Manila galleon
• Álvaro de Bazán
• Spanish Empire
• The Asiento, a monopoly on the trade of African slaves to Spanish America, held by the English after the War of the Spanish Succession
• Convoy
• Piracy in the Caribbean
• 1715 Treasure Fleet, which sank off Cuba/Florida and partly salvaged in the 1960s.

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (July 2009)

• Cynthia Zarin, "Green Dreams", The New Yorker, November 21, 2005, pp. 76-83 www.newyorker.com

[edit] External links

• Spanish Mariners, 1492-1805
• History Hunters