[vii] Spain in the sixteenth century lacked the racial and spiritual homogeneity that the Spanish monarchs beginning with Ferdinand and Isabella had sought to attain. That uniformity was the common aspiration of Spanish society during this period cannot be denied, but the ideal bore little relation to reality. No better example of the complexity off sixteenth-century society can be found than Seville, which, as a result of its monopoly of the Indies trade, became the most famous and important city in the country. Not a "city but a world" -- as it was described by its native son Fernando de Herrera -- Seville, because of its size, cosmopolitanism, and economic-boom atmosphere, naturally attracted all kinds of diverse elements. It provided a haven for the unassimilated and the social outcasts and a favorable environment for the enrichment and rise of conversos (Jewish converts and their descendants) and commoners.

This book represents an attempt to understand the colorful world of sixteenth-century Seville through a study of its social classes -- their characteristics and functions -- and to trace the impact on Sevillian society of the new ideas and values resulting from the opening of the New World. Special attention is given to the lower strata of society, with information drawn from both historical and literary sources, [viii] but the main focus is on the privileged classes. The principal theme challenges two of the most frequent assumptions about Spanish history in the sixteenth century: the Spaniards' lack of aptitude for trade and the total abandonment of commercial endeavors by ennobled merchant in favor of an aristocratic life based on land and rents. This study establishes the existence of a group of aristocratic trading families of converso and common descent who came to dominate the transatlantic trade as well as the political, religious, and cultural life of Seville during this period.

For a work such as this the available documentation is as ample as it is scattered and fragmentary. I have relied heavily on archival sources, primarily documents drawn from the Municipal and Protocols Archives of Seville. In addition I found a number of valuable sources (administrative correspondence and materials relating to the church and to the Moriscos) in the manuscript section of the Biblioteca Nacional, the Archivo Histórico Nacional, and the Real Academia de Historia in Madrid. I was also able to use the important collection of documents in the manuscript section of the British Museum, which to my knowledge have never been utilized in any study of Seville during this period.

I am grateful to the American Philosophical Society and the Reasearch Foundation of the City University of New York for funds to complete research on this study. I also thank the archivists and librarians who gave so freely of their time both in Spain and England: in Seville, especially Señorita Hermencina Mejía, of the Municipal Archives, and Don Alberto Palao, of the Laboratorio de Arte of the University of Seville.

[ix] Parts of Chapter II which appeared in the Business History Review, XXXIX (1965), 439-465, and the Kentucky Romance Quarterly, XIV (1967), 349-365, are reprinted by permission. Parts of Chapter IV were published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, II (1971), 368-377, and are reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press; and in the Hispanic American Historical Review, XLVII (1967), 344-359, and are reprinted by permission of the publisher, copyright 1967, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina. Parts of Chapter III which appeared in Hispania, LI (December 1968), 877-882, are reprinted by permission.

R.P.

New York, New York