ABSTRACT
Students of history will find that in the 15th and 16th centuries, when Spain and Portugal made their great extension of influence, the Church at the same time started a vast movement, sometimes as a pioneer of foreign trade and sometimes as its backer. Sometimes priests were given assistance by commercial houses, and sometimes the opposite was the case. There were even cases in which some church acquired the monopoly rights of foreign trade and invested the vast profits thereby obtained in the expansion of foreign commerce. Opinions may differ as to the right and wrongs of such priestly activities, but the existence of close relations between the priests and churches and the foreign trade of Portugal and Spain must be recognized, and one cannot separate one from the other.
