The ''Casa de Contratación'' (, House of Trade) or ''Casa de la Contratación de las Indias'' ("House of Trade of the Indies") was established by the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

, in 1503 in the port of

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

(and transferred to

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

in 1717) as a crown agency for the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

. It functioned until 1790, when it was abolished in a government reorganization. Before the establishment of the Council of the Indies in 1524, the Casa de Contratación had broad powers over overseas matters, especially financial matters concerning trade and legal disputes arising from it. It also was responsible for the licensing of emigrants, training of pilots, creation of maps and charters, probate of estates of Spaniards dying overseas. Its official name was ''La Casa y Audiencia de Indias''.

Establishment

Unlike the later East India Companies, chartered companies established by the Dutch, English, and others, the ''Casa'' collected all colonial taxes and duties, approved all voyages of exploration and trade, maintained secret information on trade routes and new discoveries, licensed captains, and administered

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

. In theory, no Spaniard could sail anywhere without the approval of the ''Casa''. However, smuggling often took place in different parts of the vast

. The ''Casa de Contratación'' was created by Queen

Isabella I of Castile Isabella I (; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''Isabel la Católica''), was Queen of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from 1474 until her death in 1504. She was also Queen of Aragon ...

in 1503, eleven years after Christopher Columbus's landfall in the Americas in 1492. Ochoa Alvarez de Isasaga (Ysasaga) was named factor for the Crown by King Ferdinand "the Catholic: and Queen Juana I of Castile in 1509 for the Casa. The ''Casa'' was the Spanish counterpart of the Portuguese organization, the '' Casa da India'', or House of Índia of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, established in 1434 and destroyed by the

1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, All Saints' Day, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In ...

. Dr. Sancho de Matienzo became the first treasurer, Jimeno de Bribiesca the first ''contador'', and Francisco Pinelo the first factor. They soon controlled the economic development of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

Operation

A 20 per cent tax, the '' quinto real'' (royal fifth) was levied by the ''Casa'' on all

precious metals Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Precious metals, particularly the noble metals, are more corrosion resistant and less chemically reactive than most elements. They are usual ...

entering Spain. The other taxes could run as high as 40% to provide naval protection for the trading ships or as low as 10 per cent during financial turmoil to encourage investment and economic growth in the colony. Each ship was required to employ a clerk to keep detailed logs of all goods carried and all transactions. The ''Casa de Contratación'' produced and managed the '' Padrón Real'', the official and secret Spanish map used as a template for the maps carried by every Spanish ship during the 16th century. It was constantly improved from its first version in 1508, and was the counterpart of the Portuguese map, the '' Padrão Real''. The ''Casa'' also ran a navigation school; new pilots, or navigators, were trained for ocean voyages here. Spain employed the then standard

mercantilist Mercantilism is a nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources for one-sided trade. ...

model, governed (at least in theory) by the ''Casa'' in

. Trade with the overseas possessions was handled by a merchants' guild based in Seville, the '' Consulado de mercaderes'', which worked in conjunction with the ''Casa de Contratación''. Trade was physically controlled in well-regulated trade fleets, the famous ''Flota de Indias'' and the

Manila galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...

Reductions

By the late 17th century, the ''Casa de Contratación'' had fallen into bureaucratic gridlock, and the empire as a whole was failing, due primarily to Spain's inability to finance both war on the Continent and a global empire. More often than not, the riches transported from

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

and

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...

to Spain were officially signed over to Spain's creditors before the Manila galleon made port. In the 18th century, the new Bourbon kings reduced the power of Seville and the ''Casa de Contratacion''. In 1717 they moved the ''Casa'' from Seville to

, diminishing Seville's importance in international trade.

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

further limited the powers of the ''Casa'', and his son, Charles IV, abolished it altogether in 1790. The Spanish treasure fleets were also officially ended due to the abolition, bringing an end to the prosperous Spanish colonial income.

Mapmakers

The cartographic enterprise at the ''Casa de Contratación'' was a huge undertaking, and critical to the success of the voyages of discovery. Without good navigational aids, the ability of Spain to exploit and profit from what it found would have been limited. The ''Casa'' had a large number of cartographers and navigators (pilots), archivists, record keepers, administrators and others involved in producing and managing the ''Padrón Real''. Explorer

Amerigo Vespucci Amerigo Vespucci ( , ; 9 March 1454 – 22 February 1512) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence for whom "Naming of the Americas, America" is named. Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the A ...

, who made at least two voyages to the New World, was a pilot working at the ''Casa de Contratación'' until his death in 1512. A special position was created for Vespucci, the '' piloto mayor'' (chief of navigation), in 1508; he trained new pilots for ocean voyages. His nephew, Juan Vespucci, inherited his famous uncle's maps, charts, and nautical instruments, and along with Andrés de San Martín was appointed to Amerigo's former position as the official Spanish government pilot at Seville. In 1524, Juan Vespucci was appointed ''examinador de pilotos'' (Examiner of Pilots), replacing Sebastian Cabot who was then leading an expedition in Brazil. In the 1530s and 1540s, the principal mapmakers (known as "cosmographers") in the ''Casa de Contratación'' working on the ''Padrón Real'' included Alonso de Santa Cruz, Sebastian Cabot, and Pedro de Medina. The mapmaker Diego Gutiérrez was appointed as cosmographer in the ''Casa'' on October 22, 1554, after the death of his father Diego in January 1554; he also worked on the Padrón Real. In 1562, Gutierrez published the map entitled "Americae ... Descriptio" in Antwerp. It was published in Antwerp instead of Spain because the Spanish engravers did not have the necessary skill to print such a complicated document. Other cosmographers included Alonso de Chaves, Jerónimo de Chaves, and Sancho Gutiérrez (Diego's brother). In the late 16th century, Juan López de Velasco was the first ''Cosmógrafo-Cronista Mayor'' (Cosmographer-Chronicler Major) of the Council of the Indies in Seville. He produced a master map and twelve subsidiary maps portraying the worldwide Spanish empire in cartographic form. Although these maps are not especially accurate or detailed, his work represented the apogee of Spanish mapmaking in that period, and surpassed anything done by the other European powers. Cartographers in England, the Low Countries, and Germany, however, continued to improve their skills in making maps and in organizing and presenting geographic information, until by the end of the 17th century, even Spanish intellectuals were lamenting that the maps produced by foreigners were superior to those made in Spain.

References

External links

The Consulados de Comercio and Defense of Maritime Commerce
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casa De Contratacion Exploration Economic history of Spain Political history of Spain Spanish colonization of the Americas 1503 establishments in Spain 16th century in Spain 17th century in Spain 18th century in Spain History of Seville History of Cádiz National mapping agencies Organizations established in the 1500s Government of Spain Spanish exploration in the Age of Discovery