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INTRODUCTION. 



The trade of the Indies was in reality carried on for 

 the benefit of foreigners; the Spanish merchants lent 

 their names to English^ French^ or Dutch merchants, 

 who safely relied on Spanish honor. The govern- 

 ment had been obliged to relax, and to permit foreign 

 manufactures to form two thirds of the cargo, provided 

 the other third were Spanish. When we consider the 

 manner in which this trade was carried on, it is not 

 surprising that its profits should be enormously high. 



The trade centered, as has been already stated, in 

 Seville, until the year 17^0, when it was changed to 

 Cadiz. Every device was resorted to for the purpose 

 of preventing the contrabavd of gold and silver, Avith- 

 out observing that the treasures of the new world were 

 no longer hers, having been already anticipated as the 

 price of goods purchased from foreigners. As another 

 precaution for the preservation of this shadow after its 

 substance had fled, the commerce was carried on, not 

 according to the wants of the colonies but at stated 

 periods in fleets, so that every thing taken to or 

 brought from the Indies might be perfectly ascertain- 

 ed. These were made exclusively to the gulf of 

 Mexico; and Porto Bello and Vera Cruz were the 

 the two points from whence all the Spanish Indies 

 were supplied; how imperfectly may be easily con- 

 jectured.* Until the contraband came to be perfectly 

 established, the profits of this trade were enormous; 

 seldom less than two or three hundred per cent, par- 

 ticularly as it was one part of the Spanish policy to 

 supply the colonies sparingly, in order to enhance the 



* The trade with the Phillipine islands, was carried on from 

 Acapulco by means of galleons, which sometimes afforded a rich 

 bcotj, See Anson's Voyages, 



