Reprinted from THB HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 

 Vol. V, No. 4, November, 1922 



SPANISH SEAMEN IN THE NEW WORLD DURING 

 THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF SPANISH SEAMEN 



The Spanish mariners of the New World were governed by the 

 laws of the Indies. Their conditions of service were perhaps 

 more vitally affected by the manner in which masters of ships 

 saw fit to exercise (or exceed) their authority. But beneath 

 both enactments and arbitrary authority lay the Consulado del 

 Mare, the maritime law at the basis of all legal relationships of 

 the sea, just as the Common Law is at the basis of all our legal 

 relationships on land. For this reason, an analysis of the cus- 

 toms of the sea, as contained in the Consulado del Mare, is 

 especially valuable as furnishing a background for a sketch of 

 the conditions of life among seamen of the colonial period. 



The Consulado del Mare furnished the laws used by practically 

 all the Consulados of Spain, which for three or four centuries 

 were accepted as authority throughout the Mediterranean area. 

 It also furnished the basis of the laws of Oleron of about the same 

 period. The Consulado del Mare was compiled at Barcelona, in 

 all probability, according to an eminent authority, "by the scribe 

 of the Consular Court for the use of the Consuls of the Sea." 1 

 The exact date of its origin is a subject of some disagreement. 

 Perhaps the more general opinion is that the laws were compiled 

 during the thirteenth century. This is the view of such men as 

 Capmany, Vinino, and Meyer. 2 Twiss, writing at a later date 



1 Sir Travers Twiss, ed., Monumenta juridica . . . . The Black Book 

 of the Admiralty, 4 vols. (London, 1871-1876. III. Ixxxix. Hereafter cited as, 

 Black book. 



2 Antonio de Capmany y de Montpalou, Memorias historicas sobre la marina, 

 comer do y artes de la antigua cuidad de Barcelona, 4 vols. (Madrid, 1779-1792.) 

 I. part II. 175. Also see Charles Solomon Mitrani, "The Rise of the Spanish 

 Consulados . . . Berkeley, 1917" (unpublished manuscript in the University 

 of California Library). 



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