THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN COLONIES
Having now definitely obtained possession of the enormous territories of
South America, it was equally the policy of both Spain and Portugal to
retain the enjoyment of the new lands and of their produce for
themselves alone. In order to effect this, stringent laws were laid down
from the very inception of the colonization of the Continent. In a
nutshell, they amounted to this: none but Spaniards might trade with the
Spanish possessions of South America, and none but Portuguese with the
Colony of Brazil. In the case of the latter country the regulations were
by no means so strictly carried out as in the former. One of the chief
reasons for this, no doubt, was the old-standing and traditional
friendship existing between Portugal and England. With so many interests
in common, and such strong sentimental bonds uniting the pair in Europe,
it was difficult to shut out the English commerce altogether from
Brazil.
In the Spanish colonies the enactments of the Court of Spain were far
more rigorously carried out. Here, since the laws were so strict, the
rewards for their breaking were naturally all the greater. Tempted by
the magnitude of these latter, a great number of the officials made a
lucrative profession of giving clandestine assistance to foreign
commerce in direct contravention of the regulations laid down.
It is rather curious to remark that at the very height of her colonial
commerce, when the riches of South America were pouring at the greatest
rate into her coffers, how little actual wealth was accumulated by the
Mother Country. Indeed, a monumental proof of the inefficiency of her
organization is that, although she bled the filial nations with an
almost incredible enthusiasm, Spain remained in debt. The influx of gold
from her colonies demoralized and ruined such industries as she had
possessed, and such goods as she sent out to South America and elsewhere
were now almost devoid of any proportion of her own manufactures. The
merchandise which she sent to the New World she purchased from other
countries, principally from Great Britain, and the English merchants saw
to it that their profit was no small one. Thus Spain at this period,
from a mercantile point of view, was very reluctantly serving as a
general benefactor to Europe.
All this, of course, was in spite of most extraordinary efforts to
effect the contrary. As early as 1503 the Casa de Contratacion de las
Indias had been established in Spain. This institution was practically
the governing body of the colonies. It possessed numerous commercial
privileges, since it held the monopoly of the colonial trade. These
privileges were continued until as late as 1790.
The Casa de Contratacion, although in many respects a purely mercantile
body, was endowed with special powers. So wide was its authority that to
be associated with this body was wont to prove of enormous financial
benefit. Thus, it was entitled to make its own laws, and it was
specially enacted by Royal Decree that these were to be obeyed by all
Spanish subjects as implicitly as any others of the nation.
So far as the commercial world was concerned, the powers of the Casa de
Contratacion were sheerly autocratic. The institution, in fact, held the
fortunes of all the colonials in its hand. It possessed, in the first
place, the privilege of naming the price which the inhabitants of the
New World should pay for the manufactured goods of the Old. In addition
to this, it lay within its domain to arrange the rates at which the
produce sent from the colonies was to be sold in the Spanish markets.
From this it will be evident that, commercially speaking, its powers
were feudal.
It was inevitable that frequent evils should have sprung from the
inauguration of a system such as this. It became almost a religion to
every Spanish official and trader to batten upon the unfortunate
colonial, quite regardless of the fact that the pioneer settler was
being strangled during the process. Since the hapless dweller in South
America was not allowed to bargain or haggle, and was forced to take
whatever was graciously sent out to him at a rate condescendingly fixed,
it frequently happened that this latter was five or ten times the
legitimate price.
The disadvantages endured by the humble oversea strugglers, however, did
not end here, for their own produce received the coldest of financial
greetings in Europe, and the prices realized from these frequently left
the agriculturalists in despairing wonder as to whether it was worth
while to continue with their various industries. Added to all these were
further regulations which proved both irksome and costly to the men of
the south. Twice a year the Casa de Contratacion sent out a formidable
fleet from Cadiz, escorted by men-of-war. It was this fleet which
carried the articles of which the colonials were in urgent need. Now,
the main settlements of the Spanish merchants and officials, as
distinguished from the colonial, were in Panama and the north, and it
was largely in order to benefit these privileged beings that the
ridiculous regulations were brought into force which made the fleet of
galleons touch at the Isthmus of Panama alone. By this means it was
insured that these goods should pass through the commercial
head-quarters, and leave a purely artificial profit to the Spaniards
concerned, instead of being sent direct to the various ports with which
the coasts of the Continent were now provided.
[Illustration: BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS.
"The Apostle of the Indies," who took up the cause of the much afflicted
natives of South America.
_From the portrait in the Bibliotheque Nationale._
_A. Rischgitz._]
In these circumstances it was necessary for colonial merchants and
traders from all parts of South America to journey to this far northern
corner in order to carry out their negotiations, and to attend to the
fresh transport of the wares. The hardships and the added cost brought
about by regulations such as these may be imagined, and, as was only to
be expected, a system such as this recoiled upon the heads of those who
were responsible for its adoption.
Occasionally circumstances arose in connection with these official
fleets which bore with almost equal hardship upon Spaniard and colonial
alike. Thus, when the English, Dutch, and French buccaneers took to
harassing the South American coast in earnest, there were periods when
the galleons of the Indies were kept within their harbour for a year and
more. Then the Spaniards went perforce without the South American gold,
and the colonial's life was shorn of the few comforts which the wildly
expensive imported articles had been wont to bring.
The home authorities invariably appeared loth to take into account the
possibility of human enterprise. It was not likely that the colonials
would submit tamely to such tremendous deprivations as those intended by
Spain. Foreign traders, moreover, notwithstanding the ban and actual
danger under which they worked, were keenly alive to the situation, and
to the chances of effecting transactions in a Continent where so
handsome a profit was attached to all commerce. The result was the
inception of smuggling on a scale which soon grew vast, and which ended
in involving officials of almost all ranks. The Governors of the various
districts themselves were usually found perfectly willing to stand
sponsors for all efforts of the kind, and, viewing the matter from the
modern point of view, they are scarcely to be blamed for their
complaisant attitude.
Here is a narration written in 1758 of the manner in which these
transactions were carried on. The author, referring to it in an account
of the European settlements in America, asserts that the state of
affairs was one likely to prove extremely difficult to end--
"While it is so profitable to the British merchant, and while the
Spanish officers from the highest to the lowest show so great a
respect to presents properly made. The trade is carried on in this
manner: The ship from Jamaica, having taken in negroes and a proper
sortement of goods there, proceeds in time to the place of a
harbour called the Groute within the Monkey-key, about four miles
from Porto-Bello, and a person who understands Spanish is directly
sent ashore to give the merchants of the town notice of the arrival
of the vessel. The same news is carried likewise with great speed
to Panama, from whence the merchants set out disguised like
peasants, with their silver in jars covered with meal to deceive
the officers of the revenue.... There is no trade more profitable
than this, for their payments are made in ready money, and the
goods sell higher than they would at any other market. It is not on
this coast alone, but everywhere upon the Spanish Main, that this
trade is carried on; nor is it by the English alone, but by the
French from Hispaniola, and the Dutch from Curassoo, and even the
Danes have some share in it. When the Spanish Guardacostas seize
upon one of these vessels, they make no scruple of confiscating the
cargo and of treating the crew in a manner little better than
pirates."
From all this, the shortcomings of the Spanish attempts at a protective
system are sufficiently evident.
In view of the hostile reception extended to them in all parts of the
Continent by the Spanish officials, it was only to be expected that
foreigners, whenever they had the opportunity, should have rendered a
whole-hearted assistance to this business of smuggling. Moreover, since
there was seldom peace between the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the
former were only too glad to foster this trade, and thus defeat the
object of the Spanish authorities, and incidentally line their own
pockets. It was all the more difficult for the Spanish Colonial
Government to maintain a consistent attitude when the introduction of
the slaves, on whom the welfare of so many districts depended, was in
the hands of foreigners.
This state of affairs applied in a far lesser degree to Brazil, since
that country was frequently able to obtain its human consignments in
Portuguese vessels from its fellow-colony of Portuguese West Africa. The
Spaniards, on the other hand, were dependent upon other nations for the
importation of their slaves, and they were from time to time accustomed
to grant special licences for this purpose. It was the reverse of likely
that men of a temperament which urged them to raid the African shores in
search of their human quarry, and to sail their black cargoes through
the tropics, would abstain from making the fullest and most general use
of an opportunity thus offered, as the Spanish officials invariably
found was the case to their cost, and occasionally, as has been said, to
their profit!
The rivalry which characterized the relations between Spain and Portugal
did not fail to be carried across the ocean, nor, when transferred to
the colonies of either nation, did the mutual jealousies grow less
bitter. Indeed, scarcely had the colonization of Brazil and of the
Spanish territories commenced in earnest when the struggle between the
two nationalities began.
The area of the strife, fortunately, was confined. The enormous
territories of tropical Brazil forbade anything in the nature of
thorough exploration on the part of the few and slender bands of the
pioneers, to say nothing of any attempt at expansion. It was in the
south, where the narrow strip of Brazil projected itself downwards into
the temperate latitudes, that the desire for aggrandizement raged. The
Portuguese considered that the natural southern frontier of their great
colony was the River Plate. The Spaniards, having already possession of
the northern bank, fiercely resented any such pretension, with the
result that the Banda Oriental, by which name the Republic of Uruguay is
still locally known, as well as the southern part of the Province of
Paraguay, became the scene of many battles. It may be said that the
warfare between the two nations continued here, with but rare and short
peaceful interludes, for centuries.
The fortified town of Colonia, on the north bank of the Uruguay River,
represented one of the chief bones of contention. Its possession
constituted a strategic advantage of no small importance, and Spanish
and Portuguese flags waved alternately over its shattered ramparts. The
situation was accentuated by the characteristics of the inhabitants of
the Portuguese city of Sao Paolo. These people, who lived in the town
loftily placed upon its rock, had acquired for themselves, almost from
the inception of the colony, a somewhat sinister and reckless
reputation. The Portuguese and half-breeds here, their vigour unimpaired
by a temperate and bracing climate, would sally out to the west and to
the south on slave-raiding expeditions, which they conducted with
extraordinary ferocity and enterprise. Matters of boundaries and
frontiers possessed no interest whatever for these Paolistas or
Mamelucos, by which latter name the swashbuckling members of this
community were better known.
[Illustration: FRANCISCO PIZARRO.
The Conqueror of Peru.
_From an engraving after the original portrait in the Palace of the
Viceroys at Lima._
_A. Rischgitz._]
In the first instance, these forays were responsible for comparatively
little friction, since the number of Indians near at hand was as
plentiful as the neighbouring white men were rare. When the nearer land
became depopulated, however, it began to be necessary to extend the
expeditions farther afield from Sao Paolo, and it was then that the
Mamelucos came into contact with the growing numbers of the Spanish
settlers, and with the Indians who now resided beneath the protection of
the Spanish power. When the Jesuit missionaries arrived in Northern
Uruguay and in Southern Paraguay their advent had the effect of
embittering the feud between the frontiersmen; for the Jesuits, forming
the Indians into companies of their own, withdrew them still farther
from the onslaughts of the Paolistas. These latter determined at all
costs to capture and to drive back their gangs of slaves, became more
and more emboldened, and pushed forward to the south and west well into
the Spanish territories, harrying the missionary settlements, and laying
waste the countryside.
For years the Guarani Indians, unarmed, were helpless in the face of
such attacks. Eventually, however, the influence of the Jesuits obtained
permission from the Court of Spain for these latter to be provided with
firearms, and after this the Indian regiments, trained and disciplined,
offered such effective resistance to the Mamelucos that these were
forced to cease their slave-raids.
In 1574, when the importation into Brazil of negro slaves from West
Africa had become a regular affair, the demand for slaves on the part of
the Paolistas naturally became less active. Even with this item of
discord removed, such intervals of peace as were patched up between the
rival Powers were of short duration. The fertile and temperate lands to
the north of the River Plate still remained in dispute, and although the
Spaniards succeeded in retaining the possession of the bulk of these,
there were times when the Portuguese penetrated as far as the waters of
the great river, and in the end they managed to detach several of the
most northerly districts from Spanish control, and in adding these to
their own colonies.
It was consistent with the curious irony of fate which seemed to direct
the operations of the Continent at that period, that while the
Portuguese and Spaniards, actual lords of the soil, were at daggers
drawn, the foreign seawolves, who had been gathering together, surveying
with longing eyes the fold of riches so rigorously banned from them,
were now making preparations for active aggression. But the history of
the expeditions on the part of these formidable rovers is worthy of more
than one chapter to itself.