1570.] SPANISH GOVERNMENT OF AMERICA. 69 



was deemed expedient not only to exclude the subjects of other Euro- 

 pean states from the territories claimed by Spain, — that is, from the 

 whole of the New World except. Brazil, — but also to prevent the 

 rapid development of the resources of the Spanish provinces them- 

 selves.* In these views the Spaniards have not been singular ; but 

 no other power, in modern times, has employed measures so extreme 

 in fulfilling them. Thus no Spaniard could emigrate to America, 

 no new settlement could be formed there, and no new country or 

 sea could be explored, without the express permission of the sov- 

 ereign ; and, when expeditions for discovery were made, the results 

 were often concealed, or tardily and imperfectly promulgated. No 

 article could be cultivated or manufactured for commerce in Amer- 

 ica, which could be imported from Spain ; and no intercourse could 

 be carried on between the different great divisions of those posses- 

 sions, or between either of them and the mother country, except in 

 vessels belonging to or specially licensed by the government, or 

 otherwise under its immediate supervision. With the rest of the 

 world, the Spanish Americans could have no correspondence ; and 

 all foreigners were prohibited, under pain of death, from touching 

 the territories claimed by Spain, and even from navigating the seas 

 in their vicinity. " Whoever," says Hakluyt, at the end of the 

 sixteenth century, " is conversant with the Portugal and Spanish 

 writers, shall find that they account all other nations for pirates, 



* The Spanish dominions in America, together with the Canary and the Philippine 

 Islands, formed one empire, called the Indies, of which the king of Spain was, ex 

 officio, the sovereign. The territories were divided into great sections, or kingdoms, 

 each entirely independent of the others, except in certain prescribed contingencies , 

 the general direction of the whole being committed to the Supreme Council of the 

 Indies, a special ministry, residing in the palace of the king, in whose, name all its 

 orders were issued. The larger kingdoms of the Indies were under the immediate 

 government of viceroys, representing the authority and person of the sovereign ; the 

 others were governed by captains-general, or by presidents, whose powers were 

 more limited. All these high officers were, however, kept in check by the courts 

 called Audiencias, resembling the Supreme Council in their organization and 

 attributes, one or two of which were established in each kingdom. The commerce 

 of those countries was under the superintendence of a board, called the House of 

 Contracts of the Indies, sitting at Seville, to and from which port all expeditions, from 

 and to America, were, for a long time, obliged to pass. 



The laws and regulations of the Supreme Council were, from time to time, revised ; 

 and those which were to remain in force were published in a collection entitled the 

 Recopilacion de Leyes de Indias, (Compilation of Laws of the Indies,) containing 

 the rules for the conduct of all the officers of the government. The provisions of 

 this celebrated code are, in general, remarkable for their justice and humanity ; the 

 enforcement of them, being, however, left to those who had no direct interest in the 

 prosperity and advancement of the country, was most shamefully neglected. 



