Piracy And Smuggling On The Island Of The Spanish

Piracy and smuggling on the island of the Spanish

Introduction

Everything begins with the decision of Spain to commercially monopolize the market in America and control its commercial activities, creating the Hiring House of Seville, created by the Catholic Monarchs in 1503, which also allows people to navigate and trade, it also carriedThe books of the Royal Treasury, registered merchandise load ships, supervised production, charged taxes and granted migration licenses.

In order to monopolize Spain, he gave way to piracy and the privateers who attacked and docked ships, thus stealing what they contained. These were supported by monarchs from countries such as France, England and Holland.

Developing

Some of these attacks was that in 1522 a ship from Santo Domingo to Seville was attacked by a French corsair named Jean Florín, which appropriated all its sugar cargo. Another was in 1537, where a French privateer attacked the towns of Azua and Ocoa, burning mills and houses and looting everything he could;While in 1540 a ship that had just sailed from the port of Santo Domingo was assaulted by English privateers.

With the fact that Spain wanted to seize commercial exchanges with the colonies, the other powers decided to start an illegal trade or smuggling with the inhabitants of the colonies, playing the merchant role that were French, Portuguese, English and Dutch. Hence the smuggling constituted one of the bases of its economy. Portuguese, French, English and Dutch maintained commercial contact with their Spanish throughout the 16th century, despite the coercive measures that the crown applied.

This trade was growing due to the difficulties Spain had to meet the demands of the colony, the late arrival of the ships and the lack of surveillance of the colonial authorities, since Spain was at war.

Also because those who lived in the northern zone cost them to move to the port of Santos Domingo to trade, and other ports gained more importance such as Havana. Another thing was that the inhabitants needed to trade with other powers to sell their goods and obtain more slaves and manufactured products.

And finally this smuggling was undercover by the colonial authorities, the active participation of the population and the dependence of the island of the smuggling economy.

conclusion

It all started in 1605, when the monarch Felipe III, through the Royal Card of 1603, orders the northwest zone with the purpose of eradicating smuggling. The person in charge of carrying out this order was the governor of the island at that time, Antonio de Osorio. 1605 All the inhabitants of Montecristi, Puerto Plata, Bayaja and La Yaguana, transferring them to the east part of the island, where new cities called Monte Plata were founded, (for the combination of Montecristi and Puerto Plata), and Bayaguana, (by thecombination of Bayaja and the Yaguana).