The+Seville-Cadiz+Monopoly

=**The Seville - Cadiz Monopoly**= John C. Fink.

With Columbus' discovery of the American continent in 1492 and Balboa's discovery of the Pacific ocean would, along with Spain's control of the trade routes to and from the New World,cause Spain to become a world power during the 15th to 17th Centuries. The Seville/Cadiz Monopoly would allow Spain to dominate the trade to and from the New World as well as shaped the development of the language spoken in the Americas. The Monopoly also had an influence on the dialect of Spanish spoken in the southern regions of Spain.

Queen Isabella of Castile, in 1503,chose the city as the port from which trade ships were allowed to sail to and from the American ports. Located inland, the distance that separated Seville from the sea would seem to be an odd location for such an important port. However the river which connected contained many sandbars proving hazardous to travel unless a pilot how knew the river was navigating. This allowed the city and port a natural degree of protection from those who would attempt to attack it as well as capture any ship entering. Established 1507 in Seville,Spain, the Casa de la Contratación ( House of Trade) would dominate trade routes to and from the Americas and would cause the town to be a melting pot of languages and cultures. The explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who had a business in Seville, was appointed chief navigator to the Casa in 1508. He was responsible for licensing the ship's captains and producing new maps of the routes to the new discoveries.

**Why was Spain able to create the monopoly?**
Three very important things allowed the monopoly to florish, One was the Spanish exploration of the new continent and the surrounding areas. This was important as it allowed the Spanish to monopolize the trade to and from those areas. As new areas were discovered, they were added to the existing maps controlled by the Casa de la Contratación. If a ships captain wanted to know how to get to a specific area many thousands of miles away, he would need maps to tell him the direction to sail in and for how long. The Casa de la Contratación controlled the maps and allowed only those who sailed from Seville to posses them.

The second item that allowed that allowed the Seville Monopoly to flourish were the hazards of pirates. When ships sailed from the port of Seville, they went in a convoy which carried protection from those who would attempt to capture the olives, wheat, ceramics and leather goods going to the New World as well as the Gold and later silver bouillon coming from the mines in the new lands. Using the taxes paid by those sailing to the new lands, the Casa built ships to protect the merchant ships going to the and from the new lands. To enable them to do this cheaply, the Casa ran its own shipyard, eventually building larger ships to carry more cargo at a time as well as larger armaments..

In addition to this, all Spanish settlements in the newly discovered areas were forbidden to trade with non-Spanish ships. As a result of this foreign trade was restricted to the black market trade.

[[image:800px-Spanish_Empire_Anachronous_0.PNG width="320" height="161" align="left" caption="The Spanish Empire"]]**Move from Seville to Cádiz**
By the 1600's Seville had become a bustling melting pot of cultures and languages. However the increase in population as well as the increase in traffic on the river brought problems to Seville which would lead to its eventual replacement by Cádiz as the port to leave from. In 1649, Seville was hit by a plague epidemic which depleted the population. In addition many ships had sank in the river on their way to and from Seville, which then posed navigation hazards. In addition the ships themselves were increasing in size, which made the travel on the river harder. As a result of this, in 1717, the Spanish government moved the monopoly to the seaport of Cádiz.

**Decline of Spanish empire and the End of the Monopoly.**
Beginning in 1688 with the defeat of it's armada at the hands of the English, the Spanish Empire began to lose some of its domination of the world. As wars were waged both in Europe and in the Americas, more money was needed to fill the coiffures of the Spanish treasury. This lead to tax increases up to as high as 14% on the merchandise reaching market and also to an increase in black market trade. As colonies pulled away the dominance of the monopoly began to crumble. Under the reign of Charles III (1659 -1788) the monopoly saw its powers greatly reduced. Charles' son, Charles IV would abolish the monopoly in 1790 during his reign as king.

 **Implication for spoken Spanish in the Americas as well as Spain**.
The result of the Seville – Cádiz monopoly had a profound effect on the way the Spanish language evolved not only in the southern area of Spain near the ports, but in the Spanish Colonies as well. The language the traders spoke was heavily influenced by the mixture of the Andalusian (Southern) Spanish dialect and the people who mixed with them from the various regions. The Spanish government via the monopoly dictated the route traders had to take in order to do business with the colonies as well as the ports in the New World ( Nombre de Dios in Panama, Vera Cruz in Mexico, and Cartagena in Colombia originally) where it was permissible to trade. The route taken was created not for efficiency but to maximize the taxes that were sent back to Spain as well as to line the pockets of the local governments. A prime example of this was the route by which goods would be shipped to Buenos Aires. The goods would leave via ship from Seville ( and later Cádiz) to Eastern Panama. Where they would be shipped overland to the western side of Panama to make the trip down the South American coastline to Chile and then overland to Buenos Aires. This had a profound effect on the mixtures of Spanish and native contact languages spoken. Over time the various languages spoken between the people living in the Colonies and the traders, changed to incorporate the Spanish language as it was spoken in the Andalusian areas of Spain as well some of the native language. This along other historical factors would combine to give us the Spanish dialect spoken today in the areas which were once part of the Spanish Empire.