Thanks to the fact that nowadays more and more books are digitized we are able to read books that are some times for decades no longer available for the public for several reasons. That’s quite a pity while these books contains useful information while the archives are destroyed, incomplete or nor accessible. Campbell described in his book the trade shipping between Spain and the New World.(1)
P.280: “The method in which this trade is carried on is well enough known in general, but few enter far enough into its particulars. In order to give as distinct an account of this matter as possible, we shall speak of the Galleons, the Flota, the Flotilla, Register-Ships, and Guarda Costas; and when we have done this, the reader will perfectly comprehend the mystery of the Spanish policy in this point.”
P. 284: “A register-ship is so called, from its being registered with all the Effects embarked in Spain, in the books kept for that purpose in the Chamber of Seville. As this general account will not probably appear satisfactory, I shall endeavour to state the matter more fully. A company of mer-
P. 285: chants having, as they conceive, just grounds to imagine that European Goods are greatly wanted at some particular ports in the West Indies, they draw up a memorial or petition, containing these reasons in the clearest and concisest terms, and lay it before the Council of the Indies. The prayer of this petition is, That they may have leave to send a ship of three hundred tons burthen, or under, to the port they mention. When leave is obtained, they pay a certain sum to the crown, which is generally between thirty and fifty thousand pieces of eight, besides presents, and those no small ones, to the King’s officers, from the greatest to the least. That this however may not induce any suspicion of fraud, they register their ship and cargo, that it may appear consistent with their petition and licence, and yet (such a fatality there attends on all custom-house cautions) this ship of under three hundred Tons generally carries upwards of six hundred ton of goods, and affords accommodation for passengers besides. Copies from the register are transmitted to the Governor and Royal officers at the port, to which the register-ship is bound; and such is their diligence, such their integrity, that when the ship comes to an anchor in the port, they make a very narrow enquiry, and yet there is seldom or never any fraud discovered, but, on the contrary, this ship of six or seven hundred
P. 286: ton returns into Europe with an authentick certificate from all the King of Spain’s officers, that she does not carry quite three hundred, together with a Bill of Lading in the same strain of computation. By these register-ships there is sometimes a gain of two, or three hundred cent- which enables the owners to pay so bountifully for cheating the King, having first got the money by robbing his subjects. These register-ships go to Buenos Ayres, St. Martha, Porto Cavallo, and other places, to which neither the Galleons nor Flota come; yet, generally speaking, they return with those fleets, as they sometimes go out with them, and so leave them in a certain Latitude. The Spanish Grandees often interest themselves in procuring such licences; and some people do not stick to say that they find their account in it.”
Source
John Campbell. The Spanish empire in America: Containing, a succinct relation of the discovery and settlement of its several colonies etc. London, 1747.
Note
1. Just like Rev. Edward Clarke did in 1760 and 1761.
