Casa de Contratación facts for kids
The Casa de Contratación (which means House of Trade) was an important government agency in Spain. It was set up by the Spanish Crown in 1503 in the port city of Seville. Later, in 1717, it moved to Cádiz. This agency managed all trade and travel between Spain and its new lands in the Americas. It worked until 1790, when the government changed things and closed it down.
Before another group called the Council of the Indies was created in 1524, the Casa de Contratación had a lot of power. It handled money matters for trade and solved legal problems that came up from it. It also decided who could move to the new lands, trained ship pilots, made maps, and dealt with the belongings of Spaniards who died overseas. Its full name was La Casa y Audiencia de Indias.
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How the Casa was Started
The Casa de Contratación was different from other trading companies, like the East India Companies set up by the Dutch and English. Those were private companies. The Casa was a government agency. It collected all taxes from the colonies. It also had to approve every trip for exploration and trade. The Casa kept secret information about trade routes and new discoveries. It gave licenses to ship captains and managed trade laws.
In theory, no Spaniard could sail anywhere without the Casa's permission. But, people often smuggled goods in different parts of the huge Spanish Empire.
Queen Isabella I of Castile created the Casa de Contratación in 1503. This was eleven years after Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas in 1492. The Casa was Spain's version of a similar organization in Portugal, called the Casa da Índia in Lisbon. That one was started much earlier, in 1434.
The first treasurer of the Casa was Dr. Sancho de Matienzo. Jimeno de Bribiesca was the first accountant, and Francisco Pinelo was the first manager. These people quickly gained control over the economy of Hispaniola, which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
How the Casa Operated
The Casa collected a 20 percent tax called the quinto real (royal fifth) on all precious metals that came into Spain. This meant one-fifth of all gold and silver went to the king.
Other taxes could be as high as 40 percent. These higher taxes helped pay for naval ships to protect the trading vessels. Sometimes, taxes were lowered to 10 percent during tough financial times. This was done to encourage people to invest and help the economy grow in the colonies. Every ship had to have a clerk on board. This clerk had to keep detailed records of all goods carried and all business deals.
The Casa de Contratación also created and managed the Padrón Real. This was the official and secret Spanish map. Every Spanish ship in the 1500s used this map as a guide.
The Padrón Real was always being improved from its first version in 1508. It was like the Portuguese map, the Padrão Real. The Casa also had a special school for navigation. New pilots, or navigators, were trained there for long ocean voyages.
Spain used a system called mercantilism. This meant the government controlled trade to make the country rich. The Casa in Seville was in charge of this. A group of merchants in Seville, called the Consulado de mercaderes, worked with the Casa. Trade with the overseas lands was done through well-organized trade fleets. These were the famous Flota de Indias and the Manila galleons.
When the Casa's Power Decreased
By the late 1600s, the Casa de Contratación had become very slow and complicated. The Spanish Empire itself was struggling. This was mainly because Spain could not afford to fight wars in Europe and also manage a global empire at the same time.
Often, the riches brought from Manila and Acapulco to Spain were already promised to Spain's lenders before the ships even arrived.
In the 1700s, new kings from the Bourbon family reduced the power of Seville and the Casa de Contratacion. In 1717, they moved the Casa from Seville to Cádiz. This made Seville less important in international trade. King Charles III further limited the Casa's powers. His son, King Charles IV, closed it completely in 1790.
The official end of the Spanish treasure fleets also happened because the Casa was abolished. This brought an end to Spain's very profitable income from its colonies.
Important Mapmakers
Making maps at the Casa de Contratación was a huge job. It was very important for the success of Spain's voyages of discovery. Without good maps, Spain would have struggled to explore and profit from its new lands. The Casa had many mapmakers and navigators (pilots). It also had archivists, record keepers, and administrators. All these people worked on creating and managing the Padrón Real.
The famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci worked as a pilot at the Casa de Contratación until he died in 1512. He made at least two trips to the New World. A special job was created for Vespucci in 1508: the piloto mayor (chief of navigation). He trained new pilots for ocean voyages.
His nephew, Juan Vespucci, received his uncle's maps and tools. Juan was also appointed to Amerigo's old job as the official Spanish government pilot in Seville.
In 1524, Juan Vespucci became the examinador de pilotos (Examiner of Pilots). He took over from Sebastian Cabot, who was leading an expedition in Brazil at the time.
In the 1530s and 1540s, the main mapmakers at the Casa de Contratación were called "cosmographers." They worked on the Padrón Real. These included Alonso de Santa Cruz, Sebastian Cabot, and Pedro de Medina. The mapmaker Diego Gutiérrez became a cosmographer in the Casa in 1554. He also worked on the Padrón Real.
In 1562, Gutierrez published a map called "Americae ... Descriptio" in Antwerp. It was printed there because Spanish engravers did not have the skills to print such a complex map. Other cosmographers included Alonso de Chaves, Jerónimo de Chaves, and Sancho Gutiérrez (Diego's brother).
In the late 1500s, Juan López de Velasco was the first Cosmógrafo-Cronista Mayor (Chief Cosmographer-Chronicler) for the Council of the Indies in Seville.
He created a master map and twelve smaller maps. These maps showed the worldwide Spanish empire.
Even though these maps were not super accurate, his work was the best Spanish mapmaking of that time. It was better than anything done by other European countries.
However, mapmakers in England, the Netherlands, and Germany kept getting better at making maps. By the end of the 1600s, even Spanish thinkers admitted that maps made by foreigners were better than those made in Spain.
See also
In Spanish: Casa de la Contratación de Indias para niños
- The Virgin of the Navigators, the first painting showing the discovery of the Americas, is in a Casa de Contratación chapel.
- Llotja
- Merchant guild
