Casa de Contratación (1503): Spain's House of Trade in Seville

The Casa de Contratación, or House of Trade, was the royal agency founded in Seville in 1503 to govern all trade and travel between Spain and its new territories in the Americas. For more than two centuries it registered every legal ship, cargo and passenger bound for the “Indies”, collected the crown’s share of the profits and trained the pilots who navigated the Atlantic. It turned Seville into the gateway of the Spanish empire.

Background

After Columbus’s first voyage in 1492, the Crown of Castile claimed the lands across the Atlantic, a claim divided with Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. In the first decade, voyages were organised by a small group of royal officials and private contractors, and the crown worried that gold and goods were escaping its control.

Portugal already had a model. Its Casa da Índia in Lisbon handled the royal trade with Africa and Asia. Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II decided to create something similar for the Americas, with a fixed home, permanent officials and clear rules.

Foundation in 1503

The Casa was established by a royal ordinance issued at Alcalá de Henares on 20 January 1503. Its first three officers were a factor, a treasurer and an accountant: Francisco Pinelo, Sancho de Matienzo and Jimeno de Briviesca. The agency was first planned for the shipyards of Seville but was soon installed in the royal palace, the Alcázar, where part of its building still survives beside the Patio de la Montería.

Seville was an inland port, about 80 kilometres up the Guadalquivir River. That protected ships from pirates and gave the city a large merchant community, banks and warehouses. In practice it also gave Seville a monopoly: legal trade with the Americas had to begin and end there, a rule that lasted, with some exceptions, until the eighteenth century.

What the Casa did

The Casa combined the roles of a customs house, a trade ministry, a court and a navigation school. Its main tasks were:

• Registering trade: every ship, its cargo and its crew had to be inspected and recorded before departure and on return.
• Collecting revenue: officials received gold, silver and other goods owed to the crown, including the royal fifth (quinto) on precious metals.
• Controlling emigration: passengers needed licences, and the Casa enforced rules that excluded groups the crown did not want in the colonies, such as converted Jews and Muslims and people condemned by the Inquisition.
• Judging disputes: the Casa had its own court for cases arising from the Indies trade.

From 1524 it answered to the newly created Council of the Indies, the main governing body for Spain’s American possessions. In 1543 Seville’s merchants formed their own guild, the Consulado, which took over much of the commercial justice and became a powerful partner of the Casa.

Pilots, cosmographers and the secret chart

The Casa’s most famous department dealt with navigation. In 1508 the crown created the post of piloto mayor, or chief pilot, and appointed Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine navigator whose name had just been given to the New World. Later holders included Juan Díaz de Solís and Sebastian Cabot. The chief pilot examined and licensed every pilot who sailed to the Indies.

The Casa also kept the Padrón Real, the royal master chart of the known world. Returning pilots had to report new coasts, islands and dangers, and the cosmographers revised the chart accordingly. Pilots were required to use copies taken from it, and its contents were treated as a state secret. The Casa later added lectures in cosmography and navigation, making it one of the first state institutions in Europe to train professional navigators.

The Casa also supervised the fitting out of royal expeditions. Magellan’s fleet was supplied in Seville under its oversight before leaving in August 1519.

Timeline

• 1503, 20 January: A royal ordinance at Alcalá de Henares creates the Casa de Contratación in Seville.
• 1508: Amerigo Vespucci is appointed the first piloto mayor.
• 1519, August: Magellan’s expedition leaves Seville after being equipped under Casa supervision.
• 1524: The Council of the Indies is created and becomes the Casa’s superior authority.
• 1543: Seville’s merchants form the Consulado, their trading guild.
• 1717: The Casa is transferred from Seville to Cádiz.
• 1790: The Casa de Contratación is abolished.

Decline and abolition

As the Spanish empire grew, regulated convoys (the flota system) carried silver from Mexico and Peru back to Seville. But the monopoly encouraged smuggling, and foreign merchants increasingly supplied the goods that left Spain. The Guadalquivir also silted up, making it hard for larger ships to reach the city.

In 1717 the Casa moved to Cádiz, on the Atlantic coast. Reforms under King Charles III opened colonial trade to many Spanish ports from 1778, removing the reason for a single controlling office, and the Casa was abolished in 1790. Many of its records are now held in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville.

Why it matters

The Casa de Contratación was one of the first government agencies built to manage a transoceanic empire. It shaped how silver, goods and people moved between Europe and the Americas, and its pilot training and master chart made Seville a leading centre of navigation and mapmaking in the sixteenth century.