ABSTRACT
Of all the great discoveries, those of Spain were by far the most fabulous and profitable. By the middle of the sixteenth century the crown of Castile had established and organised a great empire in America, comprising Mexico, Peru, and Chile, and centring upon the islands and the mainland of the Caribbean. Here it preserved a jealous and rigid monopoly. No foreigner was allowed to settle or trade in the Spanish colonies without a royal licence which was rarely granted. All goods shipped to the Indies had to be registered at Seville, the seat of the central authority for the colonies (the Council of the Indies). Local officials, from viceroys downwards, could not act without direct orders from a government 3,000 miles-to anything from two to five months-distant. A notable part of the Spanish crown revenue consisted of the bullion mined in America and transported to Europe by two regular annual fleets: the flota which sailed by way of the Azores to San Juan de Ulua on the Gulf of Mexico to bring back the Mexican treasure, and the galleones which similarly reached Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama to collect that from Peru. These two great convoys and the many ships carrying contributions toward the collecting centres powerfully attracted men interested in a little piratical wealth. On the other hand, the insufficiencies of Spanish merchant shipping deprived the colonists of many badly needed commodities-above all of slaves to work their plantations-and rendered them willing to trade with anyone who could supply their wants in spite of the home government's vigorous and unswerving policy. In the middle of the century, the Spanish empire-immensely wealthy, too vast and
too rapidly grown for efficient administration, and very ill protected-was ripe for exploitation by outsiders.
