ABSTRACT
The Spanish government introduced an important innovation into their colonial trade, by permitting register ships, or separate equipments, destined for the supply of the American settlements, to be undertaken by individuals not concerned in the periodical fleets, with permission to communicate with various ports of the colonies, formerly debarred from all direct intercourse with the mother country* These register ships were only allowed to sail from and return to the port of Cadiz, until 1748, when equipments of this sort were permitted in some of the other ports.
