Casa de Contratacion

La Casa de Contratación was a government agency under the Spanish Empire of the 16th and 17th centuries, which attempted to control all Spanish exploration and colonization. Unlike the East India Companies, chartered companies established by the Dutch, English, and others, La Casa collected all colonial taxes and duties, approved all voyages of exploration and trade, secretted information on trade routes, licensed captains, and administered commercial law. In theory, no Spaniard could sail anywhere without the approval of La Casa, but in reality corruption and smuggling were common.

However, Spain had no choice but to stick to a mercantilist model, governed (at least in theory) by La Casa in Seville. A free-trade policy, opening Spain's ports to all comers, would cause them to lose nearly all their trade to the more numerous and dynamic French, Dutch, and English traders and explorers; and the lack of a government-controlled monopoly would cause the monarchy to grow even poorer. By the late 17th century, La Casa had fallen into bureaucratic gridlock, and the Empire as a whole was failing, due primarily to Spain's inability to finance both war on the Continent, and a global empire. More often than not, the riches transported from Manila and Acapulco to Spain were officially signed over to Spain's creditors before the galleon even made port.

References

• McDougall, Walter (1993). "Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific." New York: Avon Books.