History - Spain - Philip Ii And The New World

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Overview

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. Philip’s reign was a period of consolidation in the New World, with his main aim to control and exploit the lands he had inherited rather than acquire new lands - there were only 2 significant additions

. A few settlements on the coast of Florida and in Asla, the Philippines taken with little opposition in 1565

. Added to this was the bonus of the trading opportunities offered with the greater links to Portugal's empire from 1580

. The successful management of the Indies (8000km from northern New Spain to south of Peru) was one of Philip's finest achievements

. Philip had 2 main objectives - To protect and exploit his territories; To convert the Indians to a true understanding of the Catholic faith

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New World financial impact

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From the 15705 Philip enjoyed an abundance, and then from the 15805 a superabundance of silver and this allowed him to plan political and military enterprises on a new scale. By the 15805 he was getting three times the amount of silver as the 15605 and four times in the 15905 thus Patrick Williams argues he abandoned prudence in favour of ambitious foreign policies. Philip also tightened up customs duties and the tax from the Indies trade (the almojarifazgo de Indias) quadrupled. Later in his reign he also introduced the alcabala in Mexico and Peru and benefited from Crown monopolies on products such as playing cards. A further boost to crown finances provided by a tax on merchants who wanted to convert gold and silver bars into coins at mints at Seville, Toledo and Segovia. Raised 200 000 ducats just in 1595. Total received by the govt. under Philip was 64.5 million ducats and in addition large sums taken from private traders - McKinnon-Bell calls the silver a ’mixed blessing’ as the money allowed monarchs to run up huge debts and added to inflation.

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Impact of English privateering and 1588 Armada 1

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English piracy meant that Philip had to spend more and more defending his Atlantic shipping routes and New World possessions. Under Philip a convoy system was introduced to protect the twice-yearly treasure fleets. This system worked and no complete treasure fleet was captured in the 16th century. From 1564 two annual convoys were used whereby all ships leaving Spain for the Indies had to sail in convoy except those with sufficient armaments or communications vessels. The first batch sailed in April/May for Veracruz in New Spain, the second in August for Nombre de Dios on the isthmus of Panama. They then met up at Havana and sailed back as a united fleet the following autumn. Seems like a clumsy system but it worked and was needed due to the English threat and made capturing or destroying an entire fleet almost impossible (only happened once in 200 years at Matanzas in 1628). Downside was that the shortage of good in the colonies allowed English traders to illegally access the market to some extent and little defence of the Pacific Coast from Panama to Lima. Also meant trade couldn’t be all year round and the convoys had to be paid for out of the trade profits

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Impact of English privateering and 1588 Armada 2

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Lynch argues that Atlantic piracy damaged the confidence in the trade to some extent. Although events such as Drake’s 1572 Panama mission only caused losses of 1/20m of annual exports it impacted on confidence of Spanish merchants to invest made worse by the outside chance that Philip might sequester the ships for imperial finances anyway. Drake’s 1587 raid on Cadiz caught and destroyed the New Spain fleet in port and demolished their cargoes and caused panic amongst the merchants of Seville. Armada failure impact = 1588 lost 50% of entire fleet and linked to Cadiz 1587 60%. Of the 8000 officers and men that sailed very few returned to active service. Demands of the Armada and defeat meant that no convoy left October 1586 to March 1589 for Tierra Firme. But; as early as 1590 an amazing recovery and by 1592 Indies trade returned to its normal rhythm so from the wreckage of the Armada Spain preserved her richest possession. Spain also had 3 main Armada units for New World defence (Atlantic, Caribbean and convoy escort).From 1588 groups of small, well-armed ships designed for speed (zabras) used successfully on the Atlantic route. The addition of Portugal in 1580 added the Azores which gave Spain an additional base to protect convoys from.

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New World impact on Spain's economy 1

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. Until 1620 Spain managed to almost exclusively control the monopoly of New World trade through Seville. This was some achievement given English and French attempts to break the monopoly and the limits of 16th communications and testament to Spain’s administrative control from Seville and in the Americas and naval cover and military instillations at key points (Havana and Cartagena) in America

. The Spanish ship-building industry benefited from the need for more ships, especially the Basque ports in the north. 1520-1580 the northern ports provided 80% of the shipping for the Indies route

. Spain exported wine and oil from Andalucia, cloths from central Spain, tools from Basque country, mercury for almagamation of silver and men. Indies'sent back hides, sugar, dye woods but most of all silver.

. Moreover, a shipbuilding Industry developed In the Caribbean and on the Pacific Coast of America. A textlle Industry also developed. The merino sheep were Introduced to Mexico and by 1598 there were 25 cloth factories in the vicinity ol Mexico City, all uslng Indian slave Iabour

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New World impact on Spain's economy 2

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. Kamen argues that from the 1580s onwards, the new World became more self-sufficent in production - Thus Spain's produce was less important

. Lynch argues 2 maln periods of trade expanslon wlth NW. Flrst 1504-1550,second 1562-1592 under Phlllp. Alded by the 1564 Improved convoy system, 1562-1608 the number of vessels on the lndles route Increased 176%, volume of tonnage 238%. American trade (malnly sllver) 'was the most Important single Item In Spain’s economy, and without it her position in the second half of the 16'" century would have been Immeasurably weaker. Subsequently, there was an Intimate connection between the contraction of trade from 1630 to 1640 and the decline of Spain under the later Hapsburgs.’ (Lynch) Sevllle; populatlon 35 000 In 14805, 50 000 In 1533 to 120 000 In 15905. By 1598 It was among the 6 largest cities In Europe and 1/3 as large agaln as Madrid. But ltallan, Burgundlan and French merchants dominated this trade. SevIIIe's trade flourIshed but most In foreign goods and went to alien merchants. Thus ‘superflclal prosperity’ (Kamen) in Castile which had few roots In Its own resources. Spanish merchants simply Imported foreign goods for re-export to the Indies such as arms, tools, manufactured goods and luxury Items. Often available from Spanish producers but the Imports were cheaper and better quality. All encouraged by 1566 ggvernment decision to allow Spanish merchants to export sllver and so Spanish merchants used the NW profits to buy goods abroad rather than source them from Spain. McKinnon-Bell: In effect, Seville became a European port, serving the general European economy, and dominated by foreign merchants rather than Spaniards. As young men left the land to emigrate or seek fortune in the trading cities of Cadiz and Seville, shortage of agricultural products worsened. In years of drought/plague the towns could not be fed without Importing Calabrian grain and so prices continued to rise. Thus the New World may have damaged Spain more than help it.

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New World and Inflation

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. By looking at real wages Hamilton calculated that 1530-1600 Spaniards could buy 20% less goods suggesting Spaniard were left worse off by NW trade. This was his ’price revolution'. Modern historians agree 400% inflation rate over 16‘h century but silver was not the only cause of inflation. . Nadal Oller has shown that annual rate was 2.8% 1501-62 and 1.3% 1562-1600. 0 War argues the juros and credit culture led to inflation. . Kamen sees smuggling and illegal exports of bullion as key. But, Inflation added to by NW bullion. . Much of the silver never landed In Spain as it went to pay bankers and much went to foreign merchants who took it out of Spain

. Population rise led to a lack of food and inflation and high taxation too

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Stimulated ideas in Spain

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. Improvements in map-making, geography and technical processes for silver extraction

. Philip even financed an expedition to study plants and animals in the New World in 1570 by Dr Francisco Hernandez

. Also, the Franciscan Bernadino de Sahagun, wrote in 1569 the 'History of the Things of New Spain', a masterpiece fo anthropological research drawn up with the help of native Mexican scholars

. The development of refining techniques usIng mercury were first used In New Spain In 1557 and Potosi in 1574 - allowed more rapId exploitation of the siIver coupled with the opening of Huancavelica mercury mine In 1564 nearby

. This meant that sliver production In Peru began to outpace New Spain - Potosi had a population of 120,000 by the end of the century and oven rivalled Seville as the boom town of the Hispanic world.

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New world government

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. Crown authority strengthened in the New World

. Philip reinvigorated the viceregal system in the Americas

. He used the authority of the secular church to bolster his authority in New World . He developed the Council of Indies further . These achievements were more Impressive given the distance between the New World and Spain

. In 1586, Philip heard about Drake’s sacking of Santo Domingo only 3 months after the event - the voyage from Spain to America varied between 39-175 days with journey back between 70-298 days

. Also, there was difficulty of ruling a population unfamiliar with European ways and the growing power of the creoles (American born Spaniards)

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Viceroys

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. The appointments of Toledo (Peru) and Enriquez (New Spain) ranked among the most successful viceroy appointments that Philip ever made

. They were both men of excellent ability and Philip allowed them to stay in office for 12 years or so which provided the stability of government that had been lacking (especially in Peru)

. Philip proved with the New World government that he was able to delegate true responsibility to viceroys in the New World over a long period of time. There was also a measure of success of Castile in the New World, that they only needed 2 viceroyalties (Peru and New Spain) to control such a large expanse of territory

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Peru 1

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. Change under Philip was that at the start of his reign Peru was far more backward than New Spain and had not really known stable government - Philip changed this. An outstanding Viceroy was Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy to Peru from 1568-80

. On arrival, he found that the Spaniards were exploiting the Indians and fighting amongst themselves without respect for the royal administration - 'the Indians are enemies of work and the Spanish who live there are lovers of idleness’

. He set out on a tour of Peru that lasted 5 years (1570-75)

. On this, he completed the conquest of the Incas by slaughtering the army of the last native leader, Manco Inca in 1572 and by destroying the last free Inca city, ViIcabamba

. He then had Manco Inca ceremoniously beheaded publicly in Cuzco in formal recognition that the Conquest of Peru had at last been completed

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Peru 2

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. He also increased the output of the silver mines at Potosi (remote and difficult to reach at 5000m above sea level) - by introducing the mercury amalgamation process and by using forced labour of the Indians under the mita system, whereby quotas of Indians were forced to work the mines

. This increased production from the mercury mines at Huancavelica

. By the end of Toledo’s term of office, the mines of Potosi alone produced more silver than the whole of Mexico - The price was paid by the Indians

. Toledo was cIearIy concerned about his methods and his impact on the Indians to the point that on his return to Spain, he wrote a Iengthy report justifying his actions

. He argued that he had Christianised primitive peoples who were unabIe to provide for themselves before he arrived, by bringing them into settIements

. The reality was that he had brought them into settIements to increase the output of Potosi

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Peru 3

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. Martin Enriquez (1568-80) in Mexico - organised the repartimiento system, whereby settIers were aIIowed to have a specified number of Indians working for them for given time periods

. He did try to moderate the conditions that the Indians worked in, but gave ultimate importance to the production of siIver

. He secured the roads to the Zacatecas mine so siIver could be moved more quickly

. In 1572, to prevent merchants from profiteering, he took control of ll mercury for the Crown

. He also increased tax yields by introducing the alcabala in 1574

. He introduced the Inquisition In 1571 and allowed the Jesuits to enter New Spain in 1572 - in 1573, he began the construction of the cathedral of Mexico

. In 1580, he was appointed to succeed Toledo in the viceroyalty of Peru . Each was province under the control of a governor who was advised by an audencia or court of appeal

. Audencia was staffed by lawyers who acted as judges and civil servants, so that Spain had a competent and loyal bureaucracy - The Spanish colonies managed to survive into the 19th century until the urge for independence could be held back no longer

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Church in the New World

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. One threat to royal controI over the Church in the Indies were the mendicant religious orders

. Franciscans (arrived in 1524), Dominicans (1526), Augustinians (1533)

. By 1559, there were 802 friars in New Spain - Philip was determined to replace them with secular clergy that he could control more

. Therefore in 1574, he ordered that each Bishop was to control the mendicants in his diocese, and in 1583 ordered that secular priests were to be appointed to jobs instead of friars

. Philip took back control of the religious management of the New World from the mendicants, who were reduced to working as missionaries in the farthermost frontiers of their provinces. Philip also appointed able Archbishops and aIIowed time for them to serve for extended periods - E.g. Pedro Maya de Contreras served as Archbishop of Mexico from 1573-91, and Toribio de Mogrovejo as Bishop of Lima from 1581-1606

. Mexican church councils in 1565 and 1585 brought the Church in New Spain in line with Spain, by implementing the Tridentine Decrees