[99] Merchants

There were two parallel currents that operated in Seville during the sixteenth century: one was the commercialization of the nobility, and the other the ennoblement of rich merchants. The desire for nobility was an especially powerful force. Merchants used their accumulated wealth to purchase hidalguías and to create entailed estates. Much of the capital from the trade with the New World was invested in landed estates in Aljarafe and Sierra Morena, out of which the Sevillian merchants established rich mayorazgos for their children. ⁽²⁾This passion for hidalguía was not merely the result of empty vanity on the part of rich commoners, but rather a reflection of economic and social realities. In the aristocratically structured society of sixteenth-century Spain wealth, even though it was the principal instrument of social mobility, did not in itself bring social prestige or honor.⁽³⁾ Only nobility insured the individual of [100] these and other important privileges and benefits such as the all-important exemption from taxation. Furthermore, for men of suspect origin noble status offered security (the final liquidation of a "tainted" background) and the opportunity to attain power and reputation, which otherwise would have been denied them in a society dominated by the doctrine of limpieza de sangre. Under these circumstances the merchant class became an intermediary stage in the social hierarchy to be abandoned as soon as possible.

The boom-town atmosphere of Seville also contributed to the transitional nature of the merchant class. In rank the traders stood between the nobility and the artisans, but lines were not distinctly drawn in a city where chances for enrichment through trade seemed endless and miracles of social mobility were being performed every day. Merchants were constantly moving up to join the nobility, and the very success of commoners in acquiring titles and estates encouraged others to do the same. On the lower levels, the division between merchants and artisans was often blurred since artisans sold their products at retail and frequently invested surplus funds in trade. In the early years of the sixteenth century some of the most active Sevillian traders were either former artisans or men who combined both activities. Two outstanding examples of artisans turned merchants are Antón Bernal and Juan de Córdoba. Bernal was a goldbeater who through hard work and inconspicuous consumption accumulated enough capital to invest in the transatlantic trade. As early as 1506 he granted sea loans and [101] sold merchandise on credit to merchants and shipmasters. He also sent shiploads of goods to the New World and by the second decade of the century was the owner of one-half of the Santa María de la Merced, a vessel engaged in the Afro-American slave trade. At the same time he began to lend money to certain impecunious members of the aristocracy who were in constant need of cash. Diego Columbus received many of these loans. In 1523 the bankrupt son of the discoverer of America was forced to turn over a piece of jewelry worth 6,000 ducats to Bernal as a pledge for a loan. Several years passed before Columbus was able to repay the loan, during which time Bernal served as Don Diego's guarantor, an excellent way to secure his investment. ⁽⁴⁾

Antón Bernal's rise from the artisan class into the nobility was accomplished in less than ten years, an indication of the fluidity of the class structure in Seville during this period. Although the notarial deeds continue to designate him as "goldbeater" throughout the first decade of the century, it is clear that he did not practice his trade and that he had assumed the role of a merchant-capitalist. The culmination of his career came in 1512 when he purchased a seat on the city council and thus joined the ranks of the ennobled commoners who governed the city.⁽⁵⁾ Success stories such as Antón Bernal's were not unusual in Seville during the sixteenth century.

[102] Like Bernal, silversmith Juan de Córdoba granted sea loans and sales credit and shipped goods and slaves to America in the first decades of the sixteenth century. In fact he was one of the first Sevillian businessmen to trade with the New World. As early as 1502 he sent out four caravels to Hispaniola with provisions for the starving colonists.⁽⁶⁾ He also had business dealings with several New World captains. The names of some of the most important participants in the Spanish overseas expansion -- Columbus, Pedrarias, Diego Velázquez, and Cortés -- appear in the Sevillian Protocols as debtors of Juan de Córdoba. His relations with Cortés were especially significant; in 1519 at a critical point in Cortés' career he lent him a large sum of money and in doing so contributed to the completion of the conquest of Mexico.⁽⁷⁾

Besides their artisan beginnings, Juan de Córdoba and Antón Bernal had something else in common: their converso origin. Both men were attached to the party of Medina Sidonia and were supporters and associates of Francisco del Alcázar and other converso members of the Sevillian government. As such they played an active role in the opposition to the Comunero revolt, which in Seville was directed against the conversos. As we have seen, the Comuneros[103] led by Juan de Figueroa wanted to oust the conversos from the city government, but they also planned to stimulate the masses to attack them and to destroy their property as had been done to the Jews in 1391. The situation during the initial stages of the revolt was so turbulent and threatening that a group of frightened converso businessmen met in Juan de Córdoba's house and drew up a pact for mutual protection, pledging themselves to defend, with arms if necessary, their lives and property, and calling upon the Sevillian authorities to aid them. Fortunately the timely intervention of the Duke of Medina Sidonia doomed the Comunero revolt in Seville and prevented it from turning into the wholesale massacre of the conversos that its leaders had projected. ⁽⁸⁾

One of the most important reasons for the failure of the Comunero revolt in Seville was its hostility to the conversos which alienated the influential elements of the population. This situation is not difficult to understand in view of the composition of Sevillian society, that is, the large converso representation among the nobility, merchants, and artisans. The conversos predominated in certain professions and trades; significantly, they were the same ones that the Jews were identified with in the Middle Ages. The chronicler Andrés Bernáldez, of converso descent himself, noted that most of them were "merchants, salesmen, tax gatherers, stewards of the nobility, cloth-searers, tailors, shoemakers, tanners, weavers, grocers, silk mercers, jewellers and other like trades; none were farmers, but all sought after comfortable [104]posts and ways of making profit without much labor."⁽⁹⁾ A glance at the professions mentioned in the Sevillian composition of 1510 confirms Bernáldez' opinion. A variety of occupations are listed, including all those described by Bernáldez, but by far the largest number of Sevillian New Christians were silversmiths, silk mercers, grocers, rag and old-clothes dealers, merchants, taxgatherers, and moneychangers.⁽¹⁰⁾ Furthermore, these same converso businessmen, their descendants, and others like them were among the most important members of the Sevíllian trading community in the sixteenth century. They were the famous Sevillian merchants whose wealth and enterprise amazed contemporaries.

Two of the most active converso traders in the first half of the sixteenth century were the moneychangers Pedro de Jerez and García de Sevilla. Both men participated in the Sevillian composition of 1510; Pedro de Jerez appears as number 224 on the list and García de Sevilla as number 342. Although these two businessmen shipped goods and slaves to the New World and were shipowners in their own right, their investment in the transatlantic trade was primarily capitalistic.⁽¹¹⁾ Like the Genoese, the Sevillian conversos [105] played a vital role in financing the trade between Spain and America during the first decades of the sixteenth century when capital was scarce, the risks were great, and freight rates were high. They granted credit or cash in the form of the sea loan to persons departing for the New World, helping them to arm their ships or to cover the cost of merchandise.⁽¹²⁾

Often these merchant-capitalists delivered goods on credit instead of advancing cash. In this case, the interest was included in the higher valuation of the goods which served to compensate the delay in repayment. The borrower depended on the profits from the sale in America to provide him with the funds to repay the debt. In general, the converso merchants preferred to grant loans rather than sales credit, although some of the wealthiest conversos during the first decades of the sixteenth century, such as Diego de Sevilla el mozo (number 15 of the Sevillian composition of 1510), Gonzalo Fernández (number 3), and Manuel Cisbón (number 1), invested heavily in such credit transactions. Rodrigo de Sevilla (number 5) and Francisco de Jerez (number 278) also divided their investment between loans and credits.

Another important part of the converso participation in the transatlantic trade was the shipment of goods to America. Some idea of the extent of their enterprise can be obtained from a study of the ships' registers for the fleet of [106] Diego Columbus in 1509. The names of some of the most important converso merchants in the first decades of the sixteenth century appear on this list: Alonso de Burgos (number 180 in the Sevillian composition of 1510), Fernán Jiménez (number 21), Diego de Rojas (number 168), Fernando de Sevilla (number 16), Gonzalo de Baena (number 375), Pedro de la Palma (number 364), and the previously mentioned Juan de Córdoba, among others. One vessel alone, the Santa María Magdalena, carried merchandise belonging to seven of these traders. The following shipment sent on the same vessel by Alonso de Burgos and Diego de León ís typical of the kind of goods that these merchants shipped to the New World in the early years of the sixteenth century. It included "220 arrobas of flour, 380 arrobas of white wine, 21 fanegas of chick-peas, 13 jars of olives, 50 arrobas of olive oil, 6 botijas of honey, 18,500 walnuts, 100 wax candles, 225 embroidered shirts, 97 pairs of coarse linen breeches, 57 varas of wool cloth, 24 trimmed hats, 40 pairs of cordovan leather shoes, 220 pairs of alpagates [hempen sandals], 1 ream of paper." ⁽¹³⁾

The family was the basis of business organization in sixteenth-century Seville. One of the most typical converso mercantile families in the first half of the century was the Jorges. The founder of the Jorge firm was Alvaro Jorge, a silk mercer (number 323 on the Sevillian composition) who became wealthy from his investments in the transatlantic trade. His sons Gaspar and Gonzalo were among the most prominent Sevillian traders at mid-century. They were especially active in the Afro-American slave trade in the [107] 1540's and 1550's. Not only did they send large numbers of slaves into the colonies, but they also owned several of the vessels that ran slaves between Africa and Vera Cruz, one of the main ports of entry for slaves on the mainland. During the years 1545 to 1551 five ships owned by the Jorge brothers made regular runs between Africa and America. These vessels also carried merchandise in lots up to one hundred toneladas belonging to the two brothers. ⁽¹⁴⁾

The Jorges, like the rest of the Seville traders, maintained a network of agents in the New World. Whenever possible, younger family members -- sons or nephews -- were sent to represent these firms in America. Two sons of Gaspar Jorge, Gonzalo and Juan Rodríguez Jorge, served as family agents in Mexico in the 1540's. When it was necessary to employ someone from outside the family, every effort was made to obtain persons of confidence, that is, of similar origins. A study of the factors used by these traders reveals the tendency of the conversos to form business associations within their own group. Their partners and associates both in Seville and the New World all had the same background. Most of the Jorge factors, for example, bore well-known converso names like Diego Alemán in Vera Cruz, Andrés de Loya in Mexico City, and Gonzalo Fernández de Loya in Lima. ⁽¹⁵⁾ In addition, many of their business associates were related to them through marriage. Four[108] mercantile families closely allied with the Jorges in both marriage and business were the Segura, Núñez, Jerez, and Baeza. Gonzalo Jorge was married to a member of the Segura family and Gaspar to Isabel de Baeza; their sister's husband was Juan Núñez, an official of the Consulado and farmer of the customs with Alonso de Illescas in the 1540's and 1550's. Núñez' sister Inés was married to Fernando de Jerez who was his partner in many ventures, including the purchase of two ships, the Santiago in 1543 and the Victoria in 1548. ⁽¹⁶⁾

The endogamy practiced by the Jorges and other Sevillian converso families may be interpreted as an expression of insecurity. Despite their assimilation and apparent religious orthodoxy, it seems that they felt threatened by the general hostility of society and the very existence of an institution like the Inquisition. Their psychological state has been appropriately described as a kind of zozobra or permanent tension. One of the best expressions of this psychosis of fear can be found in Mateo Alemán's Guzmán de Alfarache when he relates the tale of the wealthy converso merchant who became just skin and bones because an inquisitor moved next door to him. ⁽¹⁷⁾Nevertheless, regardless of any feelings of insecurity and tension that they may have had, the Sevillian converso merchants cannot be considered[109] marginal men because they were fully incorporated into the life of their city. Having successfully blotted out their "tainted origins" they became part of the power structure that controlled Seville.

Neither their practice of endogamic marriages nor their tight-knit organization could prevent these family firms from dissipating after one or two generations. Economic conditions in Seville were not favorable to the creation of merchant dynasties. The year 1567 saw the failure of the Jorges along with a large group of traders whose combined assets were worth half a million ducats.⁽¹⁸⁾ Risk and speculation governed the Sevillian market, dependent as it was on American bullion. Any delay in the arrival of the silver fleets caused such tightness on the money market that the solvency of the traders was threatened. Moreover, the fiscal policies of the government, such as the confiscation of private capital for royal needs and the repayment of debts in annuities rather than ready cash, deprived the merchants of the fluid capital needed to transact their business. ⁽¹⁹⁾ Under these circumstances prolonged commercial enterprise was difficult if not impossible. Even temporary success, on the other hand, brought enormous profits, which explains the willingness of all to keep investing.

Social factors also operated against the continued existence [110]of family firms. In the beginning of the sixteenth century sons traditionally followed their father's calling, including those belonging to the most prosperous business families. Two good examples are Juan de Herver and Juan Pérez Cisbón, offspring of two of the most outstanding converso merchants in the first decades of the century, Juan de Córdoba and Manuel Cisbón. Both men entered trade early, served as their fathers' agents in the New World, and eventually took over the family business. ⁽²⁰⁾ But as the century advanced and the social prejudice against trade and toward nobility grew stronger, fewer merchants' sons went into business, and more began to enter the professions, church, and government. Nevertheless, the mercantile tradition of these families was not lost, for although their descendants ceased to be merchants by profession, they did not disengage themselves from trade. They successfully combined their chosen professions with commercial investment. The third generation of the Jorge family amply illustrates this point. Of the six male children of the brothers Gonzalo and Gaspar Jorge, Diego went into the church, Gonzalo and Juan Rodríguez Jorge were landowners in Mexico, Salvador Jorge de Segura lived off his property in Seville, and Alvaro and Rodrigo were in the armed forces.⁽²¹⁾ None of these men were professional traders yet all traded, that is, they invested funds in the transatlantic trade as the documents[111] preserved in the Sevillian Protocols clearly show. Thus it was that the mercantile vocation of the Jorges continued even though the family firm no longer existed.

In addition to the transatlantic trade, Sevillian businessmen found a profitable outlet for their capital in real estate. The increase of rents under the stimulus of the price revolution and the rise of land values due to the growth in population stimulated a building boom in Seville There was a frantic scramble among wealthy speculators to buy up available city lots and to erect new buildings. Some like Martín López de Aguilar built entire blocks of houses for speculation, and in their enthusiasm these builders often appropriated public streets and plazas, a practice that was condemned by city authorities in 1556. Some idea of the extent of the Sevillian building boom can be obtained from the figures drawn from the censuses of 1561 and 1588 (Table 4). Between 1561 and 1588 approximately 2,456 new houses were constructed in the city.⁽²²⁾ The largest increases were registered in the parishes of Santa Ana (Triana) and San Vicente (900 and 742 new buildings respectively) and it is likely that a good proportion of them were multiple dwellings, that is, tenement-like buildings known as casas de vecindad.

Besides building for speculative purposes, businessmen erected new homes for themselves. In the first half of the sixteenth century they transformed the appearance of the [112]city by constructing impressive town houses that stood as visible signs of their good fortune. Pedro Mexía, in his Coloquios y Diálogos published in 1547, noted that Seville was a veritable beehive of construction activity, its streets and public thoroughfares covered with building materials.⁽²³⁾[113] Moreover, these new dwellings with their ornate facades and elaborate gratings reflect a revolution in architectural design. For centuries after the reconquest of their city from the Moslems, Sevillians had continied to follow Moslem building concepts -- concentration on the interior parts to the neglect of the exterior -- but in the sixteenth century the new opulence of the age called for a conspicuous display of worldly wealth in the outward decoration of homes.

Source: AGS, Expedientes de hacienda, leg. 170; González, Censo de población, p. 334.

Finally, and most important, Sevillian merchants spent large sums of money on the maintenance and education of their children. In general, these businessmen did not display their wealth on their own persons and were extremely modest in what they spent on themselves. According to Cervantes in his Coloquio de los perros, their impulse for ostentation found an outlet in their sons, "whose fathers spent as much upon them as if these youths were the heirs of some prince -- and indeed, they do sometimes procure titles for them and place upon their bosoms the mark that so distinguishes people of importance from the common herd." Since education was looked upon as the first step to an eventual rise in status, every effort was made to send children to the best schools. The merchant's sons in the Coloquio de los perros attended the prestigious Jesuit Academy of San Hermenegildo. They went off to school each day with great pomp and circumstance, while their father "went to the Exchange to transact his business attended by no other servant [115] than a Negro and sometimes mounted on a poorly caparisoned mule."⁽²⁵⁾

Such exaggerated attention and indulgent treatment had disastrous results for some of these children. The prodigal son is a frequent theme in the plays and novels set in Seville during this period. Several Golden Age writers mention the so-called gente de barrio -- idle, good-for-nothing wastrels, young men about town, the sons of the wealthiest residents of the various parishes. They were "worthless, presumptuous, and well-spoken" and like Feliciano in Castillo Solórzano's Garduña de Sevilla y anzuelo de las bolsas dissipated their families' newly found fortunes on wine, women, and gambling. ⁽²⁶⁾One of the best examples of these prodigal sons was the ruffian-poet Alonso Alvarez de Soria, whose father was the rich converso merchant and councilman, Luis Alvarez de Soria. Not only was Alonso dissipated and licentious, he was also rebellious, for he openly rejected the values of his class and the society of his day. All of his poems were violent diatribes against the existing establishment, both persons and institutions. So great was his alienation that he sought out the friendship and company of the lowest elements in the city -- ruffians and prostitutes -- whom he treated with sympathy and understanding in his poetic compositions. A combination of his bitter pen (slanderous insults against the then Asistente of Seville, [116] Count of Avellaneda) and his association with criminals and undesirables brought him to an early death on the gallows in 1603. ⁽²⁷⁾

Elegant homes, splendid tombs, quality education for their offspring were all part of a life style cultivated by the Sevillian traders. Although this conspicuous display required large amounts of money, the Sevillian merchants did not seem to find it difficult to maintain themselves on a level that came close to equaling that of the nobility. No wonder contemporaries believed that their wealth was extraordinary. Merchants could be found, according to Morgado, who "could afford to purchase three good villas outside of Seville, provide a dowry of 240,000 ducats for their daughters while at the same time keep their arms free for greater concerns."⁽²⁸⁾ Morgado may have had in mind the famous Juan Antonio Vicentelo de Leca, whose daughter received a dowry of this size when she married the Count of Gelves and who in 1597 declared in his testament that he was worth 1,600,000 ducats. ⁽²⁹⁾ Nevertheless, a study of testaments and property inventories belonging to the Seville merchants suggests that there was wide variation in wealth and that only a few of them left estates equaling 200,000 to 400,000 ducats. Among those in the upper bracket were Alonso de Espinosa and Juan de la Barrera, both of whom were worth 400,000 ducats at time of death. Lesser businessmen left anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 [117] ducats. In general, cash represented only an insignificant part of their estates; most of their money was invested in their business, real estate (both urban property and rural land), juros and personal possessions. The merchant and councilman Luis Alvarez de Soria, for example, left an estate in 1595 of some 23,679 ducats (in juros and real estate) in addition to three houses, including the one he lived in, and a "portion of jewels, furniture and clothing." ⁽³⁰⁾

Merchants' wills and testaments always included substantial donations to religious and charitable institutions. These included the different religious orders, especially the Mercedarians, who devoted themselves to the task of obtaining the redemption of Christian captives held by the Turks and North African pirates, and the various hospitals and asylums that abounded in Seville for the care of orphans, the aged, and the sick poor. Gifts varied in size; one of the largest single contributions came from the estate of Juan de la Barrera -- sorne 200,000 ducats that was divided among several charitable foundations. Other unusually large donations included 50,000 ducats left by Diego de Yaguas for pious works, and 6,000 ducats to the foundling hospital from the estate of Hernando de Luna. The numerous foundations that provided dowries for "poor but honorable" girls were also very popular. Juan de la Barrera alone left funds to provide annual dowries for twenty such needy women. He also established a fund to provide yearly scholarships for seven poor boys to study at the University of Salamanca. ⁽³¹⁾

[118] A good proportion of the converso merchants of Seville during the sixteenth century were indianos, men who had gone to the New World early in the century, made their fortunes, and returned home to Seville where they continued to invest in the transatlantic trade. In contrast to the rank-and-file Sevillian merchants, the indianos had extensive real estate holdings in America and large investments in such New World industries as sugar production, mining, herding, and pearl fishing. Two of the most notable indianos during the first half of the sixteenth century were Juan Fernández de las Varas and the previously mentioned Juan de la Barrera. Fernández de las Varas resided on the island of Hispaniola as early as 1510 where, according to the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, he was among the first settlers to construct a permanent home made of stone in the city of Santo Domingo.⁽³²⁾ With his son Alonso he farmed the almojarifazgo of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico during the years 1513 to 1518. He was also one of the most active Indian slave traders, both in the Lucayas and the coast of Paria, but despite his wealth and influence Fernández de las Varas found himself surrounded by powerful enemies, specifically the treasurer of Hispaniola, Miguel de Pasamonte, who was determined to ruin him at all cost. Failing everything else, Pasamonte finally accused his enemy of adultery and denounced him to the Inquisition. He charged that Fernández de las Varas had refused to bring his wife from Spain (as he was required to do in accordance with royal decrees) so that he could [119] continue to "live in concubinage" on the island. Regardless of this denunciation and a subsequent embargo of his property, Fernández de las Varas, through his friendship with the Inquisitor General, Bishop Alonso Manso of San Juan, was able to return to Seville in 1522 and eventually to obtain a rescinding of the embargo order. ⁽³³⁾

Like Juan Fernández de las Varas, Juan de la Barrera also went to America in the first decade of the sixteenth century; after having enriched himself there, he returned to Seville in the late 1530's and assumed the role of a merchant-capitalist in his native city. During the following years he invested in sea loans and extended credit to needy shopowners and merchants. In the 1540's he was especially active in the shipment of merchandise and slaves to Mexico. By mid-century he was concentrating on the Afro-American slave trade and was part owner of a slaver, the Santa Catalina, that made regular trips between Seville, Africa, and Vera Cruz. A freighting contract for the Santa Catalina, dated October 29, 1549, mentions 120 slaves, 70 males and 50 females, to be taken on in Africa and sold in the Indies. ⁽³⁴⁾

Another aspect of the entrepreneurial activity of Juan de la Barrera was his investment in such New World enterprises as cattle raising. The latter was a profitable industry on Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Oviedo noted that herds of [120] 42,000 head could be found on Hispaniola and that 20,000 head was the average. Hides and sugar made up the chief exports from the Caribbean area during the whole colonial period. As early as 1538, Juan de la Barrera found it necessary to send two herdsmen from Spain to assist his New World employees in watching over his herds in Puerto Rico. ⁽³⁵⁾

Pearl fishing off the island of Cubagua along the Venezuelan coast also interested Barrera. In 1536 he directed his factors, Francisco de la Reina and Diego Almonte, to purchase one-quarter of a pearl-fishing business in Cubagua from Luis Sánchez, a resident of the island. The investment was indeed profitable, for in 1548 Barrera sold 400,057 maravedís' worth of pearls to a single individual, the treasurer Francisco de Castellanos, councilman of the city of Los Remedios (Río de la Hacha).⁽³⁶⁾

Another converso family of indianos were the Gibraleóns, who were close associates of Juan de la Barrera and large investors in the Cubaguan pearl-fishing industry. Rodrigo de Gibraleón, a prosperous Sevillian merchant and shipowner, and his son Antonio arrived in Cubagua in the early 1530's. The pearl fisheries were at the height of their production, which meant that capital for investment was eagerly sought and profits were high. Indian slaves, vital to the operation of the enterprise, were scarce and a valuable commodity for trade, whereas the terrain of Cubagua was so dry that it could not be cultivated without intense irrigation, forcing the islanders to depend on imports of [121] food and other necessities. The Gibraleóns, father and son, were deeply involved in the slave and commodities trade, in addition to their other investments in the pearl-fishing industry.⁽³⁷⁾

The boom on the island of Cubagua did not last long, however, for careless and unscientific methods of exploitation soon exhausted the oyster beds. Thus began a gradual depopulation of the island that gained momentum with the discovery of new banks at Cabo de la Vela along the mainland to the west of Cubagua in 1538. Significantly, Rodrigo de Gibraleón was one of the first residents of Cubagua to receive a royal license permitting him to send a ship to Cabo de la Vela to engage in pearl-fishing activities there, but by this time it was quite clear that the period of initial enthusiasm and gain was over. About this time Rodrigo returned to Seville, while his son Antonio took up residence in Nombre de Dios (Panama) as the family agent. The younger Gibraleón remained in Panama until the death of his father in 1550 after which he returned home to assume direction of the business. In 1555 he sent his mestizo son Rodrigo (the product of an illicit union with an Indian woman) to take his place in Panama, an unusual example of the incorporation of a mestizo offspring in a Spanish firm during this period. ⁽³⁸⁾
 

Two other active members of the Gibraleón family were [122]Juan and Ruy Díaz de Gibraleón. Both men resided in the Indies for many years -- Juan in Mexico and Ruy Díaz in Peru. The latter was a partner of Francisco Núñez de Illescas (another member of that famous Illescas family), who had first operated in Panama and then enriched himself in Peru. Núñez de Illescas returned home in 1535 leaving Ruy Díaz de Gibraleón to represent him in Peru. In the mid1540's Ruy Díaz returned to Seville where in association with his partner and other members of the Gibraleón and Illescas families he purchased and operated ships engaged in the carrera de Indias and sent merchandise and slaves to Mexico and Peru.⁽³⁹⁾

Another close business associate of the Gibraleóns and the Illescas was Fernán Pérez Jarada, who as early as 1525 received royal permission to ship goods directly from Seville to Cubagua without making the customary stop at Hispaniola and to participate in the slave trade along the Venezuelan coast. ⁽⁴⁰⁾ Jarada was originally from Toledo and was among that group of northern merchants -- Castilians and Basques -- who migrated to Seville in the last decade of the fifteenth and first years of the sixteenth centuries to take advantage of the opening of trading relations with the New World. Many of the Castilian families were of converso origin, Fernán Pérez Jarada, for example, whose family name was among those specifically mentioned by Sebastián Horozco as commonly found among the conversos of Toledo. The famous mercantile family of Espinosa (originally [123] from Medina de Ríoseco), who operated one of the most successful banks in Seville and whose members engaged in all aspects of the transatlantic trade, are another example. There was also the Burgos family, who bore the name of their native city; outstanding members included Alonso de Burgos and the brothers Jerónimo and Francisco de Burgos. Alonso participated in the Sevillian composition of 1510 (number 180) and all three men were wealthy and important traders in the first half of the century.⁽⁴¹⁾

Three other prominent families of Burgos merchants resident in Seville were the Islas, Astudillos, and Medinas, all of whom were probably of converso origin. Such a conclusion seems reasonable in view of their tendency to form mercantile and matrimonial alliances with well-known Sevillian converso families. The Medinas and Astudilos were business associates of the Jorge family and intermarried with them; Juan Alonso de Medina was the husband of María Jorge de Segura, daughter of Gonzalo Jorge, and Gaspar de Astudillo married one of Gaspar Jorge's daughters. The Islas were closely associated with a whole group of converso traders -- men like Juan Pérez Cisbón and Pedro de Jerez -- and were related through marriage to the Vergaras descendants of Luis de Vergara, old-clothes dealer and overseas trader. ⁽⁴²⁾

[124] The head of the Isla family in the first half of the sixteenth century was Bernardino de Isla, who held a seat on the Seville city council and was particularly active in the shipment of goods to America. He sent several cargoes of twenty to forty toneladas each year, often in association with his brother García. He also invested in real estate in the city of Santo Domingo and in the carrying business on the island. At his death in 1520, an inventory of his property lists "houses in the city of Santo Domingo that were built by the said councilman and his factors and several mule teams." ⁽⁴³⁾

Councilman Isla's investments in the New World were cared for by two younger family members, his nephew Fernando and his cousin Pedro de Isla. The lives of these two men contrast sharply, but both are indicative of the problems that the Seville traders faced in dealing with their agents in America even when they were members of the same family. When sons and relatives were sent to the New World under partnership agreements (compañías) the situation did not change. The distance and the opportunities available in the colonies proved to be, in many instances, overpowering.⁽⁴⁴⁾

This was particularly true in the case of Fernando de Isla, who after 1509 received large shipments from Seville to be sold in the islands. By 1510, however, his relatives and other Sevillian merchants he represented began to suspect [125] that Fernando was not faithfully carrying out his duties and that he was using the funds he collected for his own benefit. To cover his fraudulent activities, he simply stopped sending the records of his transactions back to Seville. For several years members of the Isla family tried to force Fernando to pay his debts and, when this was not forthcoming, to show his books to representatives sent from Spain. During the course of this struggle, Fernando suddenly died. Finally, in 1527, the Isla family sought the aid of the crown. The king directed the governor of Puerto Rico (Fernando's last place of residence) "to investigate the accounts of the deceased Fernando de Isla and order his executors to pay his debts." ⁽⁴⁵⁾

Pedro de Isla's name first appears in the Sevillian Protocols in 1509 when he was serving, along with his relative Fernando, as a family representative on Hispaniola. In fact, in 1510 García de Isla (brother of the councilman Bernardino de Isla) ordered Pedro to collect 602,000 maravedís that Fernando owed him "for merchandise that he sent him to sell in the Indies."⁽⁴⁶⁾ Pedro's activities up to this point were those of a regular commission agent. Nevertheless, during the period 1510-1514, his life changed radically. He apparently underwent a religious conversion, abandoned his commercial obligations, and began actively to champion the cause of the mistreated Indians of the Caribbean. His efforts on behalf of the natives became so pronounced that he attracted [126] the attention of the future defender of the Indians, Bartolomé de las Casas. According to Las Casas, Isla tried to save the remaining Indians of the Lucaya Islands from extinction by bringing them to Hispaniola and settling them there in a colony. To accomplish this plan, he financed an "expedition of from eight to ten men who spent three years in the Islands," peacefully persuading the Indians to join the colony. The experiment failed not because of the method -- peaceful persuasion -- but because they could not find enough Indians left to form the projected settlement. Pedro de Isla eventually entered the Franciscan Order, living out the rest of his life in humility, asceticism, and devotion. ⁽⁴⁷⁾

One of the most active members of the Medina family during the second and third quarters of the century was Alonso de Medina. Councilman Medina owned the vessel San Salvador and was a slave trader in the 1530's and 1540's. Like the rest of the Sevillian business community he made large investments in marine insurance during the years around mid-century. Sea loans had by this time become less frequent as there was no longer an urgent need for cash among the enriched shipowners and merchants. Insurance contracts could be had on easier terms and served to cover the risk. A document of 1551 mentions an insurance policy of 30,000 ducats which Medina and twenty other Sevillian traders placed over a cargo of slaves on the Santa María de Guadalupe, lost off the Mexican coast. ⁽⁴⁸⁾1

[127] In contrast to the Castilians, the Basque merchants were fewer and less assimilated. Whereas the Castilians generally intermarried with the Sevillian trading families, and in so doing eventually became indistinguishable from them, the Basques in general continued to marry within their own group. ⁽⁴⁹⁾ Yet among the Basques were some of the most active merchant-capitalists in the city, any one of whom could have easily served as the inspiration for one of the characters in Lope de Vega's Premio del bien hablar -- a Basque trader who became wealthy selling iron in America. The Jáureguis (the father and grandfather of the poet Juan de Jáuregui), for example, reputedly made their fortunes in the iron trade.⁽⁵⁰⁾ But Basque enterprise went beyond the importation and exportation of iron; most were involved in a broad and diversified range of economic activities. Two examples of prominent Basque businessmen in sixteenth century Seville were Domingo de Lizarrazas and Pedro de Morga. Both men operated successful banks in the city, shipped merchandise and slaves to the New World, and owned vessels in the carrera de Indias. In addition Morga farmed the almojarifazgo for several years with Rodrigo de Illescas, who was a partner in his bank along with other members of the Illescas and Sánchez Dalvo families. Lizarrazas, on the other hand, was closely associated with the Genoese merchants of Seville -- they guaranteed his bank and were his secret partners. ⁽⁵¹⁾

[128] While the importance of the Basque, Castilian, and Genoese merchant-capitalists in providing the initial capital and entrepreneurship for the creation of the Spanish Empire in the New World cannot be denied, it must be remembered that these three groups always represented a minority within the Sevillian business community and one that became smaller as the century advanced. In the case of the Genoese, who were by far the most outstanding among them, I have pointed out elsewhere that by mid-century they had already begun to move toward a greater involvement in royal finance, which lessened their participation in the transatlantic trade. On the other hand, the Sevillian Protocols inform us that from the beginning of the century a group of native merchant-capitalists of converso origin existed, whose operations in the early period, although more numerous than those of the foreigners and non-Sevillian Spanish merchants, were on a much smaller scale. By the 1540's, however, the situation had been reversed. As the role of the Genoese, Basques, and Castilians declined, that of the Sevillians grew until their investments far exceeded those of the others. By mid-century the great shippers of Seville were natives who belonged to powerful merchant dynasties like the Jorges, Illescas, and Sánchez Dalvos, among others. Moreover, the enterprise and continued mercantile vocation of these families seriously challenges the oft-repeated assumptions about the Spanish lack of aptitude for business and the total abandonment of trade by the descendants of wealthy and ennobled merchants for the aristocratic way of life. No wonder that contemporary writers frequently rebuked the Sevillians for their desire to serve Mercury more than Mars. In any event, they can [129] hardly be blamed, for was not the transatlantic trade, in the words of Mercado, "one of the richest that the world had ever seen"?⁽⁵²⁾

1. Parts of this chapter appeared in the Business History Review, XXXIX (1965), 439-465, and the Kentucky Romance Quarterly, XIV (1967), 349-365, and are reprinted by permission of the publishers.

2. Pike, Enterprise and Adventure, pp. 6-7.

3. For a perceptive analysis of honor in Spanish society of the sixteenth century, see Julio Caro Baroja, "Honor y vergüenza, examen histórico de varios conflictos," in J.G. Peristiany, El concepto del honor en la sociedad mediterránea (Barcelona, 1968), pp. 77-126.

4. APS, Ruiz (XII), 14 Feb. 1506, Libro I, fol. Principio del legajo; ibid., Cuadra (I), 3 Dec. 1516, Libro II, fol. 792; Barrera (XV), 3 Dec. 1523, Libro I, fol. 1173l; Castellanos (V), 23 Jan. 1526, Libro I, fol. 283v.

5. Ibid., Cuadra (I), 11 Feb. 1512, Libro I, fol. 232.

6. Ibid., F. Segura (IV), 8 Jan. 1502, Libro I, fol. Principio del legajo; freighting contract, Vallesillo (XV), 12 Nov. 1515, Libro II, fol. 924; slaves, 12 May, fol. 379.

7. M. Giménez Fernández, "El alzamiento de Fernando Cortés según las cuentas de la Casa de la Contratación,"Revista de historia de América, XXXI (1951), 1-58; APS, M. Segura (IV), 15 Sept. 1520; Libro III, fol. 2986; for Pedrarias, ibid., Vallecillo (XV), 13 Jan. 1513, Libro único, fol. Primer tercio del legajo; Columbus and Velázquez, Giménez Fernández, Bartolomé de las Casas, II, 963.

8. For more on the Comunero revolt, see Chapter II. The meeting at Juan de Córdoba's house is described by Giménez Fernández, Bartolomé de las Casas, II, 963-964.

9. Andrés Bernáldez, Historia de los Reyes Católicos (Seville, 1869), I, 341.

10. The Padrón of 1510 contains 390 names, and although it includes individuals of both Jewish and Moslem descent, the overwhelming majority are Jewish. See Guillén, "Padrón de conversos," pp. 89-98.

11. Pedro de Jerez, freighting contract, APS, F. Segura (IV), 5 Oct. 1504, Libro II, fol. Mitad del legajo; sea loan, ibid., Quijada (I), 22 Sept. 1505, Libro 1, fol. 768, Cuaderno 27; owner of the Santa María de la Antigua, Valledillo (XV), 24 Jan. 1508, Libro I, fol. Principio del legajo; slave trade, M. Segura (IV), 13 June 1513, Libro II, fol. Carece "Indias," 7; García de Sevilla, sea loan, Aguilar (VII), 11 March 1504, Libro único, fol. Tercer tercio del legajo; owner of the Santa Cruz, Vallecillo (XV), 11 Sept. 1508, Libro II, fol. Segundo tercio del legajo.

12. For a discussion of these loans, see Pike, Enterprises and Adventure, pp. 48-83

13. Enrique Otte, "La Flota de Diego Colón -- Españoles y Genoveses en el comercio transatlántico de 1509," Revista de indias, 97-98(1964), 484.

14. The five ships were: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Santiago, San Gonzalo, Santa María de Begoñia,and Santa María de la Luz. The number of contracts in the Sevilhian Protocols involving the Jorges is too large to be listed.

15. Diego Alemán, APS, Cazalla (XV), 16 Nov. 1549, Libro II, fol. 1166; Gonzalo Hernández de Loya, ibid.,13 Jan. 1550, Libro I, fol. 92; Andrés de Loya, Franco (XV), 21, Nov. 1550,Libro II, fol. 612.

16. Santiago, ibid., Cazalla (XV), 5 Feb. 1543, Libro I, fol. 359; La Victoria, 8 Sept. 1548, Libro II, fol. 565; Núñez as almojarife, Franco (XV), 30 June 1550, Libro II, fol. 54; and Consul, Cazalla (XV), 15 Nov. 1549, Libro II, fol. 1157V. In 1545 Jerez also owned the Santa Barbola, 2 Dec. 1545, Libro II, fol. 1319.

17. Claudio Guillén, "La disposición temporal del Lazarillo de Tormes," Hispanic Review,XXV (1957), 276; Alemán, Guzmán de AIfarache, p. 567.

18. Henri Lapeyre, Une Famille de marchands, Les Ruiz: Contribution a l'étude du commerce entre la France et l'Espagne au temps de Philippe II (Paris, 1955), p 483.

19. For a discussion of the disastrous effects of government fiscal policies, see R. Carande, Carlos V y sus banqueros (Madrid, 1943), pp.156, 208; and C. Haring, Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), p. 173.

20. Juan Pérez Cisbón (no. 1 with his father on the Sevillian composition of 1510); in the New World, APS, M. Segura (IV), 4 April 1514, Libro II, fol. 14IV; Juan de Herver, ibid.,Valledillo (XV), 26 Feb. 1516, Libro único, fol. 157; Cazalla (XV), 15 Dec. 1526, Libro II, fol. 919.

21. Ibid., León (XIX), 25 Nov. 1580, Libro VII, fol. 205.

22. Domínguez Ortiz, Orto y Ocaso, pp. 44 - 45. Figures are lacking for San Telmo and the Compás de San Juan de Arce in 1588, and it is not clear whether or not they were included in any other parish.

23. Pedro Mexia, Diálogos o Coloquios de Pedro Mexia, ed. M. Mulroney (Iowa City, Iowa, 1930), pp. 21 -- 22.

24. Argote de Molina, "Aparato de historia," p. 288; Gestoso, 111, 276-277.

25. Cervantes Saavedra, El coloquio de los perros, p. 239.

26. Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, La Garduña de Sevilla y anzuelo de lar bolsas (Madrid, 1942), p. 125; Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El celoso extremeño, in Novelas ejemplares, ed. F. Rodríguez Marín, II (Madrid, 1957), 104-107.

27. The life and deeds of Alonso Alvarez de Soria have been studied by F. Rodríguez Marín, El Loaysa de El celoso extremeño: Estudio histórico-literario (Seville, 1901).

28. Morgado, Historia, p. 172. This same example is repeated by Rodrigo Caro, Antigüedades, p. 67.

29. Montoto de Sedas, Sevilla, p. 218.

30. Rodríguez Marín, El Loaysa,p. 330. For Alonso de Espinosa, see Lohmann Villena, Les Espinosa, p. 38.

31. Caro, Antigüedades, p. 69; Morgado,Historia, pp. 319 -- 321.

32. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias, ed. Juan Pérez de Tudela Bueso, CXVII (Madrid, 1959), 78; CPI, I, nos. 523, 2292.

33. Giménez Fernández, Bartolomé de las Casas, II, 1168; J. Toribio Medina, La Primitiva Inquisición americana (1493-1569) (Santiago de Chile, 1914), pp. 10-12; testament of daughter Juana married to councilman Ruy Pérez de Esquivel, APS, Fernández (IX), 20 June 1523, Libro I, fol. 888v, 894 (inventory of property).

34. APS, Cazalla (XV), 29 Oct. 1549, Libro II, fol. 1012; ibid., 19 Sept. 1537, fol. 970; 21 Feb. 1548, Libro I, fol. 413.

35. Ibid., 14 Oct. 1538, Libro II, fol. 1129; Oviedo, Historia, 1, 79.

36. APS, Portes (X), 28 April 1548, Libro II, fol. 360, cuaderno suelto; ibid., Barrera (I), 30 May 1536, Libro 1, Sin folio, Registro núm. I.

37. Ibid., Castellanos (V), 7 Nov. 1524, Libro II, fol. 390; ibid., 16 March 1526, fol. 9IV; 26 April 1526, fol. 172; 3 Jan. 1528, Libro I, fol. 8; Barrera (I), 29 April 1536, Libro I, fol. Sin foliar, cuad. suelto; E. Otte, ed., Cedularios de la Monarquía española relativos a la isla de Cubagua, 1523-1550 (Caracas, 1961), II, 49-51, 145, 148, 155.

38. CPI, III, no. 2824; Otte, Cedularios, II, 142; APS, Cazalla (IV), 12 May 1539, Libro I, fol. 882; ibid., Franco (XV), 25 Sept. 1550, Libro II, fol. 277.

39. San Nicolás, APS, Cazalla (XV), 23 Oct. 1549, Libro II, fol. 962V; La Trinidad, ibid., Franco (XV), 6 March 1551, Libro I, fol. 1126; Cazalla (XV), 20 March 1540, Libro único, fol. 655v. See also Lockhart, Spanish Peru, p. 87.

40. One, Cedularios, I, 4; APS, Castellanos (V), 4 July 1525, Libro II, fol. 524v.

41. The list of converso names mentioned by Licenciado Sebastián Horozco has been published by F. Fita, "La Inquisición Toledana: Relación contemporánea de los autos y autillos que celebródesde el año 1485 hasta el de 1501," Boletín de la Real Academia de Historia, XI (1887), 309-310. For the origin of the Burgos family, see Carmen Carlé, "Mercaderes en Castilla (1252-1512)," Cuadernos de historia de España, XXI-XXII (1954), p. 288; Otte, "La Flota de Diego Colón," pp. 479-480.

42. APS, Cívico (VIII), 16 Jan. 1580, Libro I, fol. 978; ibid., Toledo (II), 29 Feb. 1580, Libro I, fol. 292; ibid., Barrera (I), 5 Oct.1523, Libro I, fol. 978; Segura (IV), 39 Aug. 1533, Libro III, fol. 481; ibid., 7 April 1514, Libro II, fol. 141.

43. Ibid., 13 Nov. 1520, Libro IV, fol. Registro de Indias; freighting contract, Vallecillo (XV), 7 Nov. 1510, Libro II, fol. Segundo tercio del legajo.

44. Pike, Enterprise and Adventure, pp. 68-69.

45. APS, Tristán (XVII), 22 Feb. 1527, Libro I, fol. 359; Vallecillo (XV), 29 Jan. 1509, Libro I, fol. Primer tercio del legajo; ibid., 10 Oct. 1512, fol. Tercer tercio del legajo.

46. Ibid., Vallecillo (XV), 7 May 1510, Libro I, fol. Segundo tercio del legajo.

47. Bartolomé de las Casas, Historia de las Indias, ed. Agustín Millares Carlo (Mexico City, 1951), II, 353-354. In the years following the discovery of America all of the Lesser Antilles in addition to the Bahamas and Bermuda were called the "islas de los lucayas."

48. APS, Franco (XV), 19 Feb. 1551, Libro I, fol. 1059v; Cazalla (XV), 16 Sept. 1546, Libro II, fol. 700V.

49. Exceptions such as those mentioned in Chapter II, and the Júureguis existed, but were not frequent.

50. Félix Lope de Vega Carpio, El premio del bien hablar, Act I, in Obras de Lope de Vega Carpio, ed. Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, XIII (Madrid, 7930), 375.

51. For information about the Lizarrazas and Morga banks, see Pike, Enterprise and Adventure,pp. 92 -- 94.

52. Mercado, Tratos y contratos, p. A2.