Spanish merchants in the Low Countries during the Early Modern period

By Raymond Fagel, Leiden University

In 1428, the merchants from all the territories of the crown of Castile received their own
mercantile organisation in the Flemish city of Bruges. This Spanish, or Castilian, nation
would remain a very important feature in the comercial landscape of the city for a long time.
Besides two small episodes, 1488-1494 and during the 1580‘s, this nation resided in Bruges
up to 1705. Although other Spanish nations existed in the Low Countries during the Early
Modern period, and notwithstanding the fact that many Spanish merchants were not even
related to these comercial institutions, it is possible to say that the Spanish nation of Bruges
was the focal point of Spanish life in the Netherlands. At least, it has proven to be its most
continuous element. The fact that in 1705 the last consuls handed over the archives of the
nation to the city, which are still being preserved in the City Archives, also makes this nation
to be the origin of most of the information on Spanish trade and immigration in the Low
Countries during the Early Modern period.

Especially between the 1450’s and 1570’s did the Spanish merchants play an important role in
the trade centres of the Netherlands. Their main activity was the importation of Spanish wool,
to be used in the textile industry. Other important products were wine, iron, olive oil, and
fruits. From the Low Countries they mostly sent textile products back to Spain. After 1550
economic changes caused the fall of this trade, which almost died out during the last quarter
of the sixteenth century. The outbreak of the Dutch Revolt most certainly hastened this
development. Until the early 18th century we can detect the presence of Spanish merchants in
the Netherlands, although most mercantile nations had by then dissapeared and the Spanish
nation was dominated by descendants of earlier generations, who themselves were no longer
occupied with Iberian trade.

The first nation in Bruges was that of the lands of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, dating
from 1330. From 1530 onwards, another nation joined together the merchants from the small
Kingdom of Navarre. A fourth nation had by then been organised by the merchants from the
Spanish north coast, who after a conflict in 1455 were separated from the Castilian nation.
The Aragonese left Bruges in 1527 to go to Antwerp, but it remains unclear whether their
nation kept functionning after 1540. The nation of the north coast, often called the Vizcayan
nation, stayed in Bruges until its dissolution in 1585. However, the possession of the
impressive building of the nation caused legal disputes during the whole of the 17th century.
The Navarrese nation settled in Lille in 1586. A minor role was further played by some
Andalusian merchants, who founded a nation that functioned from around 1500 to 1564, first
for a few years in Bruges and henceforth in Middelburg.

Antwerp, the city that would become the main comercial centre of the Netherlands in the 16th
century, came too late to be granted many official organisations of Spanish merchants. Only
between 1488 and 1494 did the Spanish nation reside in the city, and as said before, the
Aragonese settled here after 1527. However, the city did try to organise an official Spanish
nation in 1551, meant to include all merchants coming from all the lands of the Spanish
crowns, so unlike the regional division in Bruges. Unfortunately, the central government, the
city of Bruges, and the Spanish nation in Bruges, succeeded in blocking these plans. Later on,
new attempts to organise a Spanish nation in Antwerp were made, the last time as late as
1649, but all without succes. However, the Spanish colony grew out to become the largest
group of international merchants in Antwerp.

It remains very difficult to quantify the presence of the Spanish merchants. Based on the
surviving records of the official notary of the Spanish nation from 1549, it is possible to say
that during that year 184 Spaniards signed their name before the notary. 130 of them were
described as residents of Bruges, 54 only as present, and a further 11 were called servants.
And although also some Vizcayans and Aragonese appear in these sources, they will almost
certainly be incomplete for the merchants of these other nations. So at least a few hundred
Spanish merchants resided here or passed through the city during the heyday of Spanish trade.

For the city of Antwerp, estimates can be made based on the registers of two Antwerp notaries
from the year 1540. In that year some 210 Spaniards appeared in their documents. Here there
is no Castilian domination, but the number of Spaniards must nevertheless be put into
perspective. The two notaries probably were not the ones with the largest Spanish clientele, so
most certainly more Spaniards must have been active in the city. In 1560 a list was drawn up
of Spaniards from all parts of Iberia living in Antwerp, mentionning sixty married merchants
and 38 unmarried ones. This can be considered the more permanent group of resident
merchants.
Although there exist other estimates of the Spanish presence in the Low Countries, they often
can not be considered to be the least precise nor representative. The most important problem
is the question of mobility, both within the Netherlands as between Spain and the Low
Countries. How many of the Spanish merchants resided more or less permanentely, even with
their families and servants, and how many were only indivudual merchants enjoying a
relatively short stay? Until now the more resident merchants have attracted most attention, as
they are easier to be traced in the city documents, but it is necessary to be careful. The
Aragonese merchant Pedro de Casanova possesed a large house in Antwerp and it is said that
his house was often used by twenty merchants at a time, some of them for periods longer than
one year, others visited it “more than a hundred and a hundred times”.

It seems however possible to combine the image of residing merchants with that of the
travelling merchant. The commercial networks of the Spanish merchants consisted of resident
merchants, often as members of a nation, or with their own houses and ware-houses in the
city. With their help the large majority of travelling merchants, some for a seasonal visit,
others for their apprentice years, could easily function within the foreign city.

In Middelburg and Antwerp, the nations were less important than in Bruges. The evidence
suggests that this made it more necessary for the Spaniards to integrate into their host society.
This could be done by buying the citizenship or by marrying into a local family. In
Middelburg a new citizen could even enter directly into the magistrate, while we see that the
Spaniards entering into the Antwerp magistrate generally came from next generations of
already mixed origin. Strangely enough it seems that integration in Middelburg did not lead to
abandonment of commerce, while in Antwerp the mixed families disappeared from Iberian
trade.

In Bruges, with all its nations, the situation was different. The existence of foreign nations
made it possible for the merchants to keep their Spanish nationality. The privileges of their
nation gave them a fixed position in the host society without the necessity to integrate. The
Spanish nation had its own laws, its notary, its buildings, and its chapel. The street where the
nation was located, together with some of the private houses of the merchants, was already in
the 16th century called ‘the Street of the Spaniards’. The same, but to a lesser extent, must
have counted for the Aragonese, the Vizcayans, and the Navarrese. They were all
functionning as minorities, at least partly separated from the host society.
In the case of the Spanish nation, the marriage with a local woman or obtaining the citizenship
of Bruges, meant for the merchant the obligation to return to Spain to settle all his business
affairs. If he failed to do so, the city authorities had to imprison him and send him to Spain by
force. Only after that, his legal status could be changed. This separation between city and
nation can be illustrated with the example of Fernando de Matute, who as a citizen of Bruges
and married to a local woman, often participated in the reunions of the nation, but who never
occupied the position of consul of the nation. There are also examples of citizens of Bruges of
Spanish descent who willingly paid a fine to give up their citizenship in order to retun to the
Spanish nation. Even a former mayor of Bruges, Jean Pardo, gave away his citizenship,
gaining in return the privileges of the Spanish nation. The last consuls of the nation, who in
1705 closed the nation and handed over its possesions to the city, only became citizens of
Bruges in that same year. Citizenship and the membership of a nation were clearly two
different sets of privileges.

The outbreak of the Dutch Revolt and the religious division within the Low Countries had its
effect on the Spanish merchants. In a secret report concerning heresy in Antwerp, dating from
1566, we find the names of some Spanish calvinist merchants. It is interesting to note that it
concerned mostly Antwerp born Spaniards from mixed marriages and of marrano origin.
Nevertheless, the great majority of the Spanish merchants remained faithful to the catholic
church and loyal to their king. To give an example of the difficult situation: we find the
calvinist Ursula López de Villanueva seeking refuge from the Duke of Alba in Basel, leaving
her children behind in Antwerp, while her half-sister Eleonora was married to a treasurer of
the Council of Troubles.

Some Spanish families residing for generations in Middelburg would remain in the rebellious
provinces of the north. Salvador de la Palma had to flee to England, but after his return in
1574 he even became a mayor of the city in 1591. His son occupied the same office in 1606.
Another Spanish family from Middelburg, called De Valladolid, moved to Utrecht and
married into the local nobility and one member obtained a canonry in that city. Some
members of the Ayala family also chose to live in the rebellious provinces, while the greater
part of this family would serve Philip II.
Like them, many other descendants of the Spanish merchants were used in Philip’s
government. The fact that they were loyal to Spain, but knew the Low Countries and spoke
several languages, made them a very usuful group. This process continued during the 17th
century. A relatively large group of Spanish merchant families mixed during the Early
Modern period with local families of noble and bourgeois origin. The fact that some of the
rich Spaniards bought estates with the right to bear a noble title, and their possibility to mingle
with the Spanish military stationed in the Netherlands, made their entrance into the local and
national elites of the Low Countries even more fluid. The De Villegas family is a perfect
example of such family, but there were many others.

At the closing of the 16th century, trade between Spain and the Netherlands came in the hands
of merchants from the Low Countries, using their own factors in the Spanish ports and trade
centres. This opposite migratory movement also involved merchants of Spanish origin born in
the Netherlands, who of course were often very well prepared for their work in Spain. As a
result, a considerable remigration of next generation Spaniards took place. An interesting
example was the son of Willem vander Beecke, who traded with Spain from Antwerp before
moving to Spain. He always used his mothers’ name and as such was known as Baltasar de
Compostela. Another example was the Antwerp merchant Gaspar de Añastro, the main figure
behind the 1582 attempt on the life of William of Orange, who left for Spain in that same
year.

The war in the Netherlands also changed the routes of the Spanish wool, that was taken more
and more to cities like Rouen, Lille and St. Omer. Following the flow of their main
merchandise, part of the Spanish merchants also changed their residence to these cities.
Especially Rouen would receive a large group of Spanish merchants. The fact that there did
not exist a Spanish nation in that city, made many Spaniards choose for the citizenship of
Rouen in order to gain a stable position.

Already in 1605, Diego de Aranda complained that the Spanish nation in Bruges was
governed by people who were not merchants anymore, this against the privileges of the
nation. In 1617 two members of that same Aranda family were the last real merchants present
in the nation. The rest, probably some twenty others, was not involved anymore in
international trade. The Aranda family would also hand over the possessions of the nation to
the city in 1705. In Antwerp the same process of integration and abandonment of
international trade took place, but the city also kept attracting new merchants. It seems their
relatively small numbers went up and down during the 17th century, but around 1610 still
some forty Spanish merchants seem to have been present in Antwerp. Around 1630 their
numbers must have fallen again to some twenty merchants.

References

Fagel, Raymond, Spanish merchants in the Low Countries: stabilitas loci or peregrinatio?, in:
Stabel, Peter, Blondé, Bruno and Greve, Anke (ed.), International trade in the Low Countries
(14th-16th centuries). Merchants, organisation, infrastructure, Louvain and Apeldoorn, 2000,
pp. 87-104.

Phillips, William D. Jr., Merchants of the Fleece; Castilians in Bruges and the wool trade, in:
Stabel, Peter, Blondé, Bruno and Greve, Anke (ed.), International trade in the Low Countries
(14th-16th centuries). Merchants, organisation, infrastructure, Louvain and Apeldoorn, 2000,
pp. 75-85.

Vandewalle, André, Bruges and the Iberian Peninsula, in: Vermeersch, Valentin (ed.), Bruges
and Europe, Antwerp, 1992, pp. 159-181.