ABSTRACT
Castilian men and women of all classes entered freely and voluntarily into the Enterprises, the only exceptions being some felons serving terms for exporting or falsifying coin, who were given a pardon on condition that they join the Enterprise of Tenerife. Many participants were men whose means and social position would seem to have guaranteed them easier ways of making money, if that was their primary object. The duke of Medina-Sidonia, or for that matter Lugo and Vera, need hardly have entered into enterprises as unpredictable as these, nor yet the shipowning Garrido brothers, or the merchant Jeronimo de Herrera. Even low-wage earners were willing to take the risks, and not because they had no alternatives, for until 1492 the war of Granada offered favourable returns at lower risk both for labour and investment, and after that the American enterprises took up much of the slack. Besides, all during that time one cabalgada after another was being carried out in the Islands and along the African coast, and increasing numbers of slaves were being sold in both Castilian and Valencian markets without any sign of diminishing prices,17 which indicates a continuing shortage of manpower throughout the Castilian economy.
