CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

extorting, ultimately, from the purchaser, the government was a gainer in charges, profits and duties; whilst the merchants of Cadiz and Seville, who enjoyed the monopoly of trade, were enabled to affix any valuation they pleased to their commodities. The ingenuity of the Spaniards in contriving methods to exact the utmost farthing from their submissive colonists, is not a little remarkable. "They took advantage of the wants of the settlers, and were, at one time, sparing in their supplies, so that the price might be enhanced, whilst, at another, they sent goods of poor quality, at a rate much above their value, because it was known they must be purchased. It was a standing practice to despatch European commodities in such small quantities as to quicken the competition of purchasers and command an exorbitant profit. In the most flourishing period of the trade of Seville, the whole amount of shipping employed was less than twenty-eight thousand tons, and many of the vessels made no more than annual voyages. The evident motive on the part of the crown for limiting the supply was, that the same amount of revenue could be more easily levied, and collected with more certainty as well as despatch,