Marine and Commercial Reform, 1713–1720

Since the last quarter of the seventeenth century Spain’s ministers, mariners and merchants had regularly agreed that policies were required to revive the country’s trade with the colonies and protect it from the increasing threat from foreign interlopers. Never had the need of reforms been more pressing than now. As early as 1679 the Junta de comercio had been set up to consider these problems, and it was further strengthened in 1683 as part of a continuing effort to achieve reforms. Many hours of discussion were devoted to a multitude of ideas, and copious reports were written about them. Some of the schemes proposed the legal participation of foreigners in aspects of the trade, while others suggested abandoning the system of trade fleets altogether and establishing in their place monopolistic trading companies on the lines of the English, Dutch and French. Some recommended a combination of both. Yet it seems that all the theories contained elements which in one way or another went against some basic Crown concept of the government of the Indies, and no progress whatsoever was made in practice. The Cadiz trades continued to decline until they reached the unprecedented depths of the last decade of the century.1