SEVILLE HIRING HOUSE: BACKGROUND, CREATION, FUNCTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Casa de la Contratación de Sevilla or de Indias was a body created by the Crown of Castile in 1503 to control and manage all aspects related to the American territories.

Christopher Columbus first reached American lands on October 12, 1492. The navigator had reached an agreement with the Catholic Monarchs with which he assured control of the lands he could find, as well as a percentage of their wealth.. However, many problems soon arose and Columbus lost his prerogatives.

Hiring House in the Alcázar of Seville - Source: Iantomferry at English Wikipedia

Even before this, the Crown had realized that it needed some kind of body to control trade and travel to the New World on its behalf. After a few years in which this task was in the hands of Juan Rodríguez Fonseca, the Catholic Monarchs issued a Royal Provision with which the Casa de Contratación was created.

Among its functions were the control of traffic to America, including granting permission to carry out expeditions, training the pilots of the ships that were to make the crossing or the collection of all pertinent information. The latter allowed the development of the first maps of the territory.

Background

The discovery of America by the Europeans occurred on October 12, 1492. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, had convinced the Spanish kings to finance an expedition to reach Asia by crossing the Atlantic. However, in the middle of its path a new continent appeared.

Columbus had signed with the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragón, an agreement through which he would be appointed Viceroy and Governor of the lands he discovered. Likewise, the Capitulations stated that the navigator would obtain a tenth of the wealth he found.

However, Columbus soon began to become a problem for the Spanish Crown, as complaints about his behavior in the new lands were increasingly frequent and serious.

In addition, when the Crown understood the importance of the discovery, it decided that the best option was to manage and control all traffic with the new continent.

Columbus, as early as 1500, had to renounce his prerogatives and the Spanish monarchs allowed other exploiters to travel to the Indies.

Juan Rodriguez Fonseca

Already in 1493, before Columbus made his second trip, Isabel de Castilla had appointed one of his trusted men as the highest authority in everything related to the discovered lands. He was Juan Rodríguez Fonseca, Archdeacon in the Cathedral of Seville.

Fonseca did a great job organizing Columbus's second voyage, but discrepancies between the two did not take long to appear. The main problem was the vision that each one had on how to organize relations with the New World.

For the discoverer, America had to be managed as if it were a monopoly controlled by him and the Crown. For Fonseca, on the other hand, all power should be in the hands of the Spanish kings.

In the following years, the confrontations between the two men grew in intensity. Columbus pressured the monarchs to withdraw their powers from Fonseca, but was unsuccessful.

Repeal of the privileges of Columbus

The lack of results of Christopher Columbus's colonizing project, along with pressure from Fonseca and other supporters, caused the navigator to fall from grace. The Catholic Monarchs withdrew its powers and decided to create a body that would be in charge of everything related to America.

Creation

During the years following the discovery, the Spanish sent several expeditions in search of gold and other riches. In addition, they continued with their work of conquest and colonization. However, the lack of control caused some explorers to try to hide their findings from the Crown.

Similarly, problems of various kinds arose, from the lack of supply to the first settlers settled in Hispaniola to various rebellions among the colonizers themselves.

Faced with this situation, the Catholic Monarchs promoted the formation of an administrative body intended to manage and control traffic to and from the Indies.

The Royal Provision of Alcalá de Henares

The organization created by the Catholic Monarchs received the name of Casa de Contratación de Sevilla for the Indies, the Canary Islands and Atlantic Africa. The legislation that detailed its composition and functions was a Royal Provision signed in Alcalá de Henares on January 20, 1503

That document contained twenty ordinances to regulate its operation, including the one that explained its main tasks:

“… Collect and keep in it, all the time necessary, whatever merchandise, maintenance and other equipment are necessary to provide all the things necessary for the contracting of the Indies; to send there everything that was convenient; to receive all the merchandise and other things that would be sold from there, of which everything that had to be sold or sent to be sold and contracted with other parties where necessary. "

Ordinances of 1510

Seven years after the promulgation of its first regulation, the Crown passed other more detailed ordinances. These refer to multiple aspects, from working hours to the regulation of emigration, including how merchants and seafarers should relate to each other.

Another novelty in these new ordinances was the inclusion of the scientific field among the functions of the Casa de Contratación. Through this new regulation, the Senior Pilot, a figure created in 1510, became part of the body, with the function of training and examining sailors who wanted to go to America.

In the same way, the Casa de Contratación also began to take charge of preparing the maps and navigation charts that reflected the new discoveries. An important aspect related to this task was the custody of all documents so that they did not fall into the hands of other countries.

In 1522 all the laws on the Casa de Contratación promulgated until then were printed, something that was repeated in 1539 and 1552. Six years later, in 1585, a new printed version became the basis for part of the Laws of the Indies.

Organization

The Royal Provision of 1503 created three official positions within the Casa de Contratación. These were the factor, the accountant-clerk, and the accountant.

In general terms, between the three of them they had to be in charge of controlling the goods and ships that went to America. To do this, they had to be in permanent contact with other Spanish officials assigned to the new continent and gather information on their needs.

The officers of the Casa de Contratacion were also the ones who elected the captains for the voyages, as well as the clerks. Finally, they had to decide which items to transport to Spain.

Venues

The first headquarters of the Casa de Contratación was Seville. The reason for this choice was, on the one hand, the geographical location of the city, since it was well connected with the rest of the peninsula. Another decisive factor was the navigable river that runs through the town, which allowed goods to be unloaded without problems.

Within Seville, the first building that housed the Casa de Contratación was that of the Royal Shipyards. However, its location was an area prone to flooding, which caused the agency to move to the Real Alcázar of the city.

Transfer to Cádiz

After two centuries, in 1717, the Casa de Contratación moved to Cádiz. The main cause was that the Sevillian river port had lost capacity due to the accumulation of sediments.

A few decades later, in 1790, the organism was eliminated. Trade with America had been liberalized for several years, making its functions meaningless.

Features

From the moment of its creation, the Casa de Contratación had the function of controlling and regulating commercial exchange between Spain and its colonies in America and the Pacific. At first it was a totally autonomous body, but in 1524 it became dependent on the Council of the Indies.

Control traffic to America

The main function of the Casa de Contratación de Sevilla was to take charge of the administration and control of all trips to the new continent, declared as a commercial monopoly of Castile. In this way, anyone who wanted to go to America or transport goods had to have the approval of this body.

Within this function, the officials of the Contracting House inspected all the ships that were going to make the crossing to avoid contraband. Likewise, they were in charge of supplying those ships.

Outside the realm of trade, the House was responsible for approving settlers who wanted to go to the Indies. They had to meet a series of conditions, both religious and national.

Administer justice in commercial and naval lawsuits

The officers of the Casa de Contratación also had some judicial functions. These were focused on the resolution of lawsuits related to trade and navigation. However, according to sources, its resolutions often came into conflict with other organs of the judiciary.

Cartography and

As the colonization of the American territories progressed, it became necessary for the Casa de Contratacion to assume new functions. To this end, an office was created, whose first director was Américo Vespucio, to make all the maps of the lands that were discovered and inhabited.

This office was also in charge of training the pilots to master all the arts of navigation.

Information gathering

Leaving aside the functions related to trade, the exploitation of wealth and colonization, the Casa de Contratación played an important scientific role. It was at its headquarters that all the writings on the nature, cultures and languages ​​of the new continent were received.

All this wealth of information was key to the founding of a new body: the Archivo de Indias. This, at present, is located in Seville, in the old Casa de la Lonja.

The wealth of this archive is the more than 43,000 documents, most of them original, which are now available to researchers.

References

1. EcuRed. Seville Trading House. Obtained from ecured.cu
2. Piñero, Fran. What was the old Casa de la Contratación de Sevilla dedicated to? Obtained from sevillaciudad.sevilla.abc.es
3. Serrera, Ramón María. The Casa de la Contratación in the Alcázar of Seville (1503-1717). Recovered from institutional.us.es
4. Cavendish, Richard. The Casa de Contratación Established in Seville. Retrieved from historytoday.com
5. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Hiring House. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Recruitment House. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
7. Nayler, Mark. A Brief History of Seville´s Golden Age. Retrieved from theculturetrip.com