Topic summary
Guadalquivir river
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Guadalquivir.
Between Seville and Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Following the discovery of the Americas, Seville became the economic centre of the Spanish Empire, because its port, under the jurisdiction of the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade), had come to hold the monopoly of the trans-oceanic trade. As early as the Middle Ages navigation of the Guadalquivir River was already becoming increasingly difficult: by the year 1500, a great deal of heavy cargo was being handled farther downstream at the harbor of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the Guadalquivir exits into the sea. As a consequence, Seville finally lost its trade monopoly to Cádiz.