/. Lat. Amer. Stud.

7, 1, 1-21 Printed in Great Britain

Trade and Navigation in the

Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru*
by L. A. C L A Y T O N

The movement of many vessels up and down the coasts of the Viceroyalty
of Peru in the seventeenth century marked the existence of a lively commer-
cial system within the Spanish Empire. In many respects, this maritime
economy evolved quite apart and under different influences from die Adan-
tic world. The nature and dynamics of this trade and navigation within the
viceroyalty's domain in diis century are the subject of this brief exploration.
The primary goal is to outline die major aspects of trade and navigation and
describe some meaningful trends. Secondarily, a consideration of the subject
seems to reveal die existence of an economy, lively, robust and expansive diat
stands in sharp contrast to die ardiridc, decaying state of Spain's general
economy in die seventeentii century.
Traditionally, any description or analysis of trade and navigation in the
viceroyalty has been hampered by a myopic vision that viewed the movement
of treasure galleons between Peru and Panama as die principal activity of
die viceroyalty's fleet. These institutional approaches were wedded to an
external or imperial concept of colonial history. The flow of treasure between
colony and modier country was considered die only significant activity to
study, founded pardy upon the large reservoir of readily accessible material,
principally royal laws and regulations, and certainly upon the impact that
silver from Peru had upon die Old World. Nonetheless, it is important to
recognize that Peruvian trade and navigation in die seventeendi century were
to a large extent disassociated from the Adantic connexion. Indeed, the Peru-
vian merchant marine averaged in size about fifty vessels in die seventeenth
century, and of diese only four or five were employed annually in the treasure
voyage from Peru to Panama. Thus a more balanced interpretation of
the viceroyalty's maritime activity in diis century might be realized by con-
sidering trade and navigation in the old Mar del Sur, or Soudi Sea as the

* The author wishes to thank the University of Alabama Research Grants Committee and
the Alabama Consortium for the Development of Higher Education for assistance in the
preparation of this article, and Mrs Ruth Kibbey for typing the final draft.
L.A.S.—1

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 2 L. A. Clayton

Pacific was known to the colonists, from both the traditional or imperial and
the regional or American points of view.

The Atlantic Connexion

Activities associated with die cities of Potosi in Upper Peru and Porto
Bello in Panama have been most intensely studied by those interested in the
trade of the colony. The ties that bound these cities certainly formed an inte-
gral part of the viceroyalty's maritime economy and offer a good place to
begin. Potosi, of course, yielded copious amounts of silver during the col-
onial period while Porto Bello was the entrepot where the silver was
exchanged for the wares of Europe. Interposed was a network of sea trans-
portation that moved die silver nordi and returned widi the European
merchandise for dispersion and sale in the viceroyalty. These ships formed
a critical link in the chain of silver diat bound Peru to Spain and conversely
transmitted Spanish immigrants, officials, laws and culture to the colony.
The vessels of the Real Armada del Sur were the chief carriers in the
Peru-Panama traffic during the seventeenth century. The Armada itself was
quite small, never numbering more than two or three galleons in the full-
time service of the Crown. This nucleus was most often supplemented by a
like number of merchant vessels attached temporarily to the Crown's service.
Thus, when the Armada did sail, most contemporary observers recorded the
fleet's strength at between four and six vessels, all usually quite ample and
with adequate space to serve the needs of the trade.
The transportation of silver nordi and the return voyages from Panama
were somewhat irregular activities governed by upset timetables in the Atlan-
tic and influenced by foreign intruders, major shipwrecks, bankruptcies or
other unforeseeable circumstances in the Pacific.1 Once the silver yields from
Potosi were ready, they were moved from the sierra to the seaport of Arica
in April by mule trains. It required about ten days to embark the silver at
Arica and about ten more days for the voyage to Callao, where the fleet
remained for about twenty days while the merchants of Lima accomplished
their business.2 The diird leg of the trip from Callao to Panama was begun
normally in late May and lasted about a month. At Panama die silver was

1
Maria Encarnaci6n Rodriguez Vicente, El Tribunal del Consulado de Lima en la primera
mitad del siglo XVII (Madrid, i960), pp. 220-21. This work is solid and indispensable for
knowledge of Peruvian merchants and practices in the seventeenth century.
2
Ibid., p. 216. The collection of debts, the registration of silver and the payment of the
avcria were all aspects of this business. For more information on the merchants and their
guild, the Consulado, see Manuel Moreyra y Paz-Soldan, El Tribunal del Consulado de
Lima, sus antecedentes y jundacion (Lima, 1950), and Robert Sidney Smith, El Indice del
Archivo del Tribunal del Consulado de Lima (Lima, 1948).

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 3

trans-shipped one last time for the passage to Porto Bello where a fair was
celebrated toward the end of July or the beginning of August. The merchan-
dise acquired at the fair in exchange for silver was then brought back across
the Isthmus, embarked on the waiting vessels of the Armada and despatched
soudi. The return voyage was always longer because of adverse winds and
currents and usually lasted about three months with a layover at Paita in
northern Peru to replenish and rest.3 The fleet was back in Callao by the
end of November or die beginning of December, and here the bulk of the
merchandise was sold and further distributed within die viceroyalty, ' opera-
tions executed in large part by credit for there was very little silver in
circulation after the silver voyage of the fleet a few months back '.4
Credit, or at/ios, extended in these transactions was usually covered by
the silver yields of the mines during January, February and March, usually
die best months for the mines. This silver in turn made up the bulk of the
treasure mat was embarked on the Armada in May and the cycle commenced
anew.5 That, at any rate, was die idealized cycle.
Of die many factors diat affected the smootii operations of the cycle an
important one was the self-interest of the Lima merchants. A consulado, or
merchants' guild, was created in Lima in 1613 and, although these merchants
were straddled between the dictates of Sevillan monopolists and Crown
policy and the often antipadietic desires of the viceroyalty's consumers, they
managed a very prosperous existence by constandy seeking dieir own goals.6
The Crown desired annual sailings of die Adantic fleets, die famed carrera,
to ensure a steady flow of silver from Peru to Spain. Nevertheless, the ideal
was seldom realized, for ' from 1600 to 1650 only 29 fleets came to Tierra
Firme V The object of die Sevillan monopolists was to restrict the flow of
goods through Panama to Peru, create an artificial scarcity widiin die colony
and thus keep prices at a very profitable level. The merchants of Peru sub-
scribed to diis principle but with some modifications. They would have had
the flota, or new world fleet, sail only once every two years to ensure scarcity

3
It was not uncommon for passengers to debark and some goods to be unloaded at Paita to
continue the trip overland to Lima, for the voyage from Paita south was especially tedious.
* Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 214; Earl J. Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price
Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (Cambridge, Mass.), p. 18; John Lynch, Spain Under the
Habsburgs, Spain and America, 1598-ijoo (Oxford, 1969), p. 218; Marie Helmer, ' Le
Callao (1615-1618) ', Jahrbuch fur Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschajt und Gesellschajt
Lateinameri\as, 11 (1965), 145-95.
5
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 214.
6
Smith, El Indice del Archivo, p. xii.
7
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 224; Manuel Moreyra y Paz-Soldan, Estudios sobre el
trdfico maritimo en la (poca colonial (Lima, 1944), pp. 67-87; Pierre and Huguette Chaunu,
Seville et VAtlantique (/504-7650) (8 vols., Paris, 1955-9), Annex Graphique (i960), p. 9.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 4 L. A. Clayton

and prevent the possible glut of the market that yearly sailings implied.8
These conditions prevailed in fact in the first half of the century and were
accentuated in the second, for only nineteen fleets reached Panama in that
period.
The community at large in Peru desired, as is the wont of the consumer,
abundant selections at modest prices. It was much to their advantage to have
frequent sailings, preferably annually, with large shipments. Whenever the
extremes of the balance were reached, over-abundance or extreme scarcity,
acute hardships afflicted the parties: commerce would suffer and merchants
go bankrupt at one end or the general public would bear the pain at the
other. Not only would the commerce of Peru be adversely affected if the
market was glutted but die Spanish merchants at Porto Bello, forced to sell
at extremely low prices, often faced penury and bankruptcy upon returning
to Spain. On the other hand, if the supply was extremely scarce, as in 1626
due to Dutch activity in the Pacific that had paralyzed commerce in the
previous two years, the merchants let greed carry the day. Accusing them
of virtual extortion that same year, the Lima cabildo, backed by popular
indignation, jailed some merchants for not selling according to an estab-
lished list price.9 Additionally, all parties could be upset by a natural
disaster such as a shipwreck. In 1632 Nuestra Senora del Rosario, a large
merchantman bound for Callao with goods and slaves from the Porto Bello
Fair, foundered off Ancon, a bay some miles north of Callao.10 Prices sky-
rocketed and small merchants went bankrupt as a result of this incident.
In spite of die hazards of die trade, the merchants prospered, even though
die tempo of commerce between Peru and Panama slackened in the middle
and latter half of the century.11 The inability of the Spanish to organize and
despatch a fleet more than once every two or three years during the century
(and, as noted, this trend was accentuated in the second half) essentially met
the demands of the Peruvian merchants and authorities who prospered from
its existence.12 Additionally, and most important, the energies of the vice-

8
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 222. A glut often led to severe financial stresses and
bankruptcies. See Pedro de Leon Portocarrero, ' Anonymous Description of Peru (1600-
1615)', in Irving Leonard (ed.), Colonial Travelers in Latin America (New York, 1972),
p. 103.
9
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 224.
10
Archivo General de Indias (hereafter cited as AGT), Lima 43.
11
Lynch, Spain, p. 224; Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p. 227.
12
Emilio Romero, Historia econdmica del Peru (2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1949), 1, 248,
' . . . without doubt the highest authorities to the most humble classes participated in con-
traband'; ' Titulo y Comisi6n de Maestre de Campo Santiago de Tesillos', Adas del
Cabildo Colonial de Guayaquil (hereafter cited as ACG), Archivo de la Biblioteca Municipal,
Guayaquil, Book III, pp. 89-91, contains orders from the fiscal (attorney) of Lima con-

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 5

royalty's merchants were reoriented in the seventeenth century as trade and

commerce with Spain fell off. Their attentions shifted from the Atlantic to
the Pacific.

South Sea Trade

Of all the different voyages made by Peruvian vessels in the South Sea,
perhaps none was so profitable, so long or so demanding as the one between
New Spain/Central America and South America in the seventeenth century.
During this century, as in the previous one, the principal lure into the trade
for Peruvians was supplied by the luxuries of the Orient, while the abun-
dance of silver within the colony made purchases easy, for bullion was as
esteemed by the East as by the West.13 From the 1570s onward the Manila
galleons that sailed annually across the Pacific to Acapulco brought precious
goods, ' Chinese damasks, satins, silks, chinaware, porcelain, perfumes, and
jewelry', that were trans-shipped in large quantities to Peru." The seem-
ingly inexhaustible resources of the Potosi mine, which reached its peak out-
put at the end of the sixteenth century, stimulated the trade so vigorously
that the Crown forbade it in the early 1590s to prevent the continued leakage
of silver to the Orient.
The early development and diversification of the Mexican economy con-
stituted another motor of the Peru-Mexico trade. Many goods manufactured
in New Spain, among them ' textiles, clothing, furniture, jewelry, toilet and
household goods, leather goods and books ', were imported by the Peruvians
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.15 Not only Peruvian silver, but
wines, cacao, mercury and other commodities flowed northwards in return
as Peru herself developed in the seventeenth century.
The trade between the colonies was extremely prosperous and by the early
1590s ' amounted perhaps to 2 or even 3 million pesos a year \ 1 6 A combina-
tion of circumstances, among them the Crown's desire to stop the flow of
silver east and the jealousy of Spanish merchants who grew increasingly irate
at the erosion of their monopoly, eventually led to the official prohibition in

cerned with the suppression of contraband and provides indisputable evidence of the wide-
spread practice of rhis illegal activity. The Adas del Cabildo Colonial de Guayaquil
are currently being published by the Archivo Hist6rico del Guayas. To date (Feb. 1974),
vols. 1 and 11 (1634-9 an<^ '640-49) have appeared and vols. HI and iv will be available
before the end of 1974.
13
Woodrow Borah, Early Colonial Trade and Navigation Between Mexico and Peru (Berke-
ley, 1954) remains the standard account of this trade; see also William L. Schurz, The
Manila Galleon (New York, 1939) for the trans-Pacific trade.
14
Lynch, Spain, p. 225.
15
Ibid., p. 224; Borah, Early Colonial Trade, pp. 80-95.
16
Lynch, Spain, pp. 225-6; Borah, Early Colonial Trade, pp. 116-24.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 6 L. A. Clayton

1593 of the re-export of Chinese goods from New Spain to Peru.17 Nonethe-
less, the trade continued to expand illegally so that by 1602 the cabildo of
Mexico City estimated the value at between three and five million pesos, most
of which was going to the Orient since Mexican manufactures ' amounted
to no more than about one-tenth in value of the trade' due to the develop-
ment of native Peruvian industry.18 The first third of the seventeenth century
was marked by fruitless endeavors on the part of the Crown to constrict
the trade further, both from New Spain to Manila and New Spain to Peru,
in continuing efforts to redirect the flow of Peruvian silver east. The number
of sailings per year was reduced, the size of the vessels was limited, specie
was banned from passing between Peru and New Spain, penalties were in-
creased and traffic between the colonies finally completely forbidden in
1634.19 The laws tended to stimulate the enlargement of existing channels of
contraband trade and to further the creation of new ones. One indicator
of the vigor of this, as well as legitimate, trade was the size and development
of the Peruvian merchant marine during the seventeenth century.
Between 35 and 40 vessels, navios (ships) and barcos (barks) principally,
were in service in 1590.20 A little over a century later, at least 72 vessels were
known to be in service.111 It is thus probable that between 1590 and 1690 the
tonnage of the viceroyalty's merchant marine doubled. Furthermore, in the
last decade of the century an average of at least four and possibly more
vessels were built in the viceroyalty annually, a certain indicator of buoyant
industry.22 Documentation of ship traffic passing through major ports is
17
Lynch, Spain, p p . 225-6; Borah, Early Colonial Trade, p p . 124-7.
18
Lynch, Spain, p. 225: ' indeed one Mexican activity, silk raising and manufacturing, was
a victim of Chinese competition, which, combined with Indian labour shortage and crown
policy, helped to ruin the industry.'
19
In 1604 the size of the Manila galleons was reduced to 200 tons each, while all trade be-
tween Mexico and Peru was restricted to three ships of 300 tons or less. ' These might carry
products of Mexico and Peru for exchange, but no specie, and they were restricted to the
ports of Acapulco and Callao . . . Further decrees reduced navigation between the vice-
royalties to two vessels, then to one vessel, and in 1631 all trade and navigation was ordered
to a halt . . . a prohibition which was renewed in 1634 a n ^ endured for the rest of the
century and beyond, . . . ' Lynch, Spain, p p . 225-6; Chaunu, Seville, viii, 1, 759.
20
'. . . averiguaci6n de los navios que este presente afio an ydo al Reyno de Tierra Firme . . .
y el porte de ellos y los que al presente [July 1, 1589] estan en este puerto [Callao], . . .'
in Roberto Levillier (ed.), Gobernantes del Peru, cartas y papeles, siglo XVI (14 vols.,
Madrid, 1921-6), xi, 298-302.
21
Letter from Conde de la Monclova to King, 15 A u g . 1695, in Manuel Moreyra y Paz-
Soldan and Guillermo C&pedes del Castillo, Virreinato peruano, documentos para su
historia, coleccidn de cartas de virreyes, Conde de la Monclova (3 vols., Lima, 1954-5), ">
document 155, p p . 62—72; ' raz6n de los navios fragattas barcos y chinchorros que trafican
este mar del sur ' , AGl, Lima 89.
22
Los navios y vageles que se han fabricado desde que el Exmo Senor Conde de la Monclova
se present6 en Paita para Virrey destos reinos son los siguientes ' , AGI, Lima 89.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 7

uneven, but it is still probable that as early as 1615 over forty and perhaps
fifty vessels were in service, as well as a like number in the early 1660s.23
The services rendered by this fleet to the Peruvian economy were diverse and
often instrumental in the development and support of coastal commerce and
key industries.
Some major crops grown in the viceroyalty in the seventeenth century
were wheat, sugar, olives, grapes and cacao. Industrially, a wide assortment
of textiles were manufactured in quantity, and the arts and crafts industries
of centers of population such as Lima and Quito produced a range of
society's necessities and luxuries. Of all the Spanish crops introduced into
Peru perhaps none was more important than wheat. Considered essential
for the diet of any Spaniard, it is not surprising that the grain was brought to
Peru soon after the Conquest; by 1550 thousands of janegas (about a bushel)
were being harvested in Peru.2* The grain was initially planted all along the
coast, although by the seventeenth century the major wheat producing centers
were located slightly inland or in higher zones.26 Grown in distant northern
valleys such as the Chicama and in far southern areas in the vicinity of
Arequipa, the wheat was distributed along the coasts of the viceroyalty by
the merchant fleet.
Wine and olive oil formed indispensable components of the Spanish diet as
well. Grapevines were introduced early into the colony and by mid-sixteenth
century diousands of gallons of wine were being consumed annually in Lima
alone.26 Spain, as might be expected, constantly opposed the manufacture of
wine in Peru, and legislation to restrict it dates from as early as 1569.27
Philip II decreed that no new vines be planted nor those in existence replaced,
while in 1602 Philip III ordered that tributary (mita) Indians not be used in
the vineyards.28 Furthermore, as early as 1614, Peruvian wines were for-
23
' Libro donde se asienta la raz6n de los navios y barcos del trato que salen y entran en cl
puerro del Callao de los demas de las costas del mar del sur, anos de 1615 hasta de 1618 ' ,
Archivo National del Peru (hereafter cited as AN/P), foja 0037. T h e above document be-
longed to the old Archivo de Comercio y Hacienda which was recently incorporated into
the AN / P . See also Helmer, ' Le Callao ' , ]ahrbuch, 145-95, m which she analyzes the
document. T h e 1660s figure is extracted from ' libro y raz6n de los pessos que se cobran . . .
en el Puerto del Callao por los Maestres de las naos y demas bajeles que estan en el, que
corre desde quince de Otubre de 1661 hasta 1663 ' , AN IP, foja 0162.
24
Romero, Historia economica, p . 179. Romero wrote that ' 300,000 fanegas of wheat and
corn ' were being harvested annually.
25
Ibid., p . 180. For the later ascendancy of the Chileans in the wheat economy of the
colony, especially after the earthquake of 1687, see Demetrio Ramos, Trigo chilene,
navicros del Callao y hacendados limenos (Madrid, 1967) and Sergio Sepiilveda, El trigo
chileno en el mercado mundial (Santiago de Chile, 1959).
26
Ibid., p . 185.
27
Lynch, Spain, p . 125; Borah, Early Colonial Trade, p . 124.
28
Romero, Historia econdmica, p p . 185-7.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 8 L. A. Clayton

bidden from entering Panama or Guatemala because of their strong com-

petitive stance vis-h-tns the Spanish wine industry. Nonetheless, the wine
growers of Peru prospered, and the transportation of this valuable commodity
both within the viceroyalty and northward to Central America and Mexico
constituted a prime activity of the fleet. Wine formed such an important
article of trade between Peru and Central America that repeated supplications
to drop the prohibitions sometimes met with success, such as in 1685 when
the ban on the trade was lifted for a period of three years.20 Even the Church
participated in the violation of the restrictive laws on production and distri-
bution of wine, for the very pragmatic reason that wine was needed to cele-
brate masses (as well as being consumed prodigiously by the good friars) and
the shipments from Spain, irregular and small, simply could not meet the
demands of the Church. The wines of Peru were produced in valleys to the
south of Lima, Moquegua and Jayanca, and especially in the vicinity of
Pisco, as well as farther inland. The province of Ayacucho, for example, pro-
duced 5,000 arrobas (an arroba was about twenty-five pounds) of grapes
annually in the seventeenth century.30 The olive tree was introduced early
after the Conquest and soon thereafter restricted by the monopolists of Spain.
However, the olive oil industry, like the wine and grain one, was eventually
established based on the demands of a growing Spanish and mixed popula-
tion whose needs could not be satisfied by the trickle through Panama.
The sugar industry also appears early in the history of the viceroyalty.
Sugar plantings (canes) were most likely transported from Mexico to Peru
on the heels of the Conquest, for by 1549 four mills (trapiches) were already
in operation. The sweet tooth of limenos was such nevertheless that Peru had
to depend heavily on Mexico in the sixteenth century to satisfy its craving.
Restrictions soon appeared on the growth of the cane. However, it was not
so much because it represented a danger to the Spanish industry as because
of one of the principal by-products of the industry, alcohol. The large con-
sumption of alcohol by the general population, but especially by the Indians,
was the bane of Spanish administrators in the colonial period. They tried,

29
Royal C&iula, 21 May, 1685, Coleccidn de Manuscritos de la Biblioteca del Ministerio de
Relaciones Exlcriores, Lima (hereafter cited as MRE/L) in ' Libro de ceclulas de Su.
Magestad y otras providencias desde el ano de 1613 hasta el de 1687 ', foja 250. Demetrio
Ramos, Mineria y comercio interprovincial en HispanoamMca, sighs XVI, XVII, y XVlll
(Valladolid, 1970), p . 237. Ramos, chapter vi, ' El comercio interprovincial a lo largo del
Pacifico, en la epoca de los Austrias ' , is a particularly good description of trade and com-
merce in this period. See also Alvaro Jara, ' Estructuras de colonizaci6n y modalidades en
el trifico Sur Hispano-Americano ' , Historia y Cultura, Santiago de Chile (1966), for a
short interpretation of commerce in this period, focusing particularly on Chile and utiliz-
ing some important statistical evidence heretofore not related in this fashion.
30
Romero, Historia econdmica, p . 187.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and "Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 9

quite logically, to strike at the problem at its source by limiting the growth
of sugar cane, but to little avail.31 The valleys north of Lima, especially in
and about Trujillo, became the principal producers of sugar and spirits in
the seventeenth century, most of it, of course, exported by sea to other areas
of the viceroyalty.
The province of Guayaquil was an especially rich source of products for
the maritime trade of Peru. Cacao and a variety of tropical woods were the
common exports. Cacao found its most rewarding markets from Panama
northwards along the Pacific coast to New Spain among a population whose
favorite beverage was chocolate.32 Although the commerce of the bean was
consistently limited and even forbidden by the Crown in attempts to sever
all links between the viceroyalties, contrabandists and official connivance
developed this trade into one of the most lucrative in the Pacific. Tropical
woods and timbers were shipped in large quantities southwards to those cities
located along the long and generally arid, treeless Peruvian coast. Oak,
guachapeli, yellow and black mangrove and assorted other woods were used
in the construction and decoration of public and private residences, offices,
palaces and churches, and Lima naturally enough was the prime consumer.
Guayaquil also served as the major port outlet for the products of Quito,
Cuenca and the mountain area in general. Kerchiefs, hats, blankets, sandals,
hams, biscuits, cheeses, pitch and cordage were some of the exports, and
attest to a most diverse economy in the interior of the Kingdom of Quito.3'1
Major imports that passed through Guayaquil were figs, wines and raisins,
the last two products associated with the grape-growing regions of Peru far
to the south.
The textile industry of Peru was based on the heritage and labor of the
Indians and, unlike other industries, it was rather consistently encouraged
by the Spaniards. Spanish sheep were brought over in the sixteenth century
and adapted well in almost all the Andean provinces, especially about Lake
Titicaca, Ayacucho, Jauja, Tarma and to the north around Cajamarca.34
Obrajes, or workshops, manned by Indian labor that was largely tributary,
formed the principal producing units. The products of the obrajes failed to
match the perfections of both their pre-Columbian predecessors and the con-
temporary standard of goods from Spain and Europe. Nonetheless, the

31
Ibid., p. 184.
32
Adam Szaszdi and Dora Leon Borja Szaszdi, ' El comercio del cacao de Guayaquil ',
Rcvista de Historia de Amirica, numeros 57—8 (Enero-Diciembre, 1964), 1—50.
33
Luis Torres de Mendoza, et al. (eds.), Colecci6n de documentos iniditos rdativos al descu-
brimicnto, conquista y organizaddn de las antiguas posesiones espafiolas de Amfrica y
Oceania (hereafter cited as (CDIAO) (42 vols., Madrid, 1864-84), ix, 263.
3
* Romero, Historia econdmica, p. 205.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 io L. A. Clayton

industry was encouraged, for the needs of the viceroyalty's citizens out-
stripped the ability of Spanish merchants and shippers to supply the colony.
Indeed, there was such a backlog of requests from Peru to Spain that it
ordinarily required five years to fill an order. Faced with such a time lag and
the possibility that the order would never reach America, how much better to
encourage the native industry, utilizing native cloths and products and assure
a steady, if not the most elegant, supply of garments for wear and trade.
himenos alone employed 323 Indian tailors, 129 cobblers and 80 silk weavers
in 1612.35
Presiding over many aspects of Peruvian trade, industry and navigation
were the merchants of Lima. This group was distinguished by its wealth and
commercially privileged position. In an age when a wage of twenty to fifty
pesos a month was considered adequate, there existed in Lima in the early
seventeenth century at least sixty merchants with capital of over 100,000 pesos
apiece and some with fortunes over 500,000 and even a million pesos.36 They
controlled the movement of goods and silver throughout the viceroyalty, acted
essentially as brokers for the mine owners of the interior, were wholesalers
for the host of smaller retailers in Peru and generated much commerce for
the merchant fleet.
Evidence on the national origins and social and economic status of the
shipowners, masters, pilots, supercargoes, mates and seamen is abundant but
scattered. Studies of the Conquest and immediate post-Conquest period reveal
that foreigners were ' the most active element in the seafaring population',
and this phenomenon continued into the seventeenth century.37 In a short but
seminal article, Maria Encarnaci6n Rodriguez Vicente concluded that ' the
numerous foreigners dedicated to the sea in Peru . . . came to constitute an
essential and undeniable element in a territory particularly bound to maritime
traffic ' . " She listed Portuguese, Corsicans, Genoese, Greeks, Savoyards,
Venetians, Ragusians and even a few French as being present in varying pro-
portions in the Peruvian seafaring population. The majority were employed
as pilots, many were masters, some were owners or operators, while a few

35
Ibid., p . 218. For more on arts and crafts in colonial Peru see Emilio Harth-terr£, Artifices en
el virreinato del Peru, historia del arte peruano (Lima, 1945).
36
Leon Portocarrero, ' Anonymous Description ', Leonard (ed.), Colonial Travelers, p . 103.
Lynch, Spain, p . 214; Romero, Historia econdmica, p . 147.
37
James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1^2-1^60: A Colonial Society (Milwaukee, 1968), pp.
114-15. Lockhart estimated the seafaring population in the following proportions: ' I t
appears that about a fourth of all sailors were non-Iberians, a third non-Spanish, and half
from regions speaking other languages than Spanish.'
38
Maria Encarnaci6n Rodriguez Vicente, ' Los extranjeros y el mar en Peru ', Noveno Colo-
quio Internacional de Historia Marftima, Las Rutas del Atlantico, Anuario de Estudios
Americanos (1968), xxi.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru n

sailors and gunners filled out the list. That Peru was already a cosmopolitan
society is also well documented by the observations of an early seventeenth
century traveler in the viceroyalty, Pedro de Leon Portocarrero: ' [In Peru]
there are representatives of the Portuguese, Galicians, Asturians, Basques,
Navarrese, Aragonese, Valencians, natives of Murcia, French, Italians, Ger-
mans, Flemish, Greeks, people from Ragusa, Corsicans, Genoese, Mallor-
quins, Canary Islanders, English, Moors, and immigrants from India and
China.' 3 6 Laws from as early as the 1570s forbade foreign pilots, masters and
mariners to enter the South Sea.40 Nevertheless, in recognition of their indis-
pensability, exceptions were made that allowed them to live and work in the
Pacific with certain reservations.*1
The social and economic status of mariners varied with their rank and
rate. Owners occupied the top post of a vessel's hierarchy and most ship-
owners, if residents of Lima at any rate, enjoyed all the privileges and rank
of full membership in the prestigious Consulado. While the merchants in
Peru, large and small, wholesale and retail, were numbered in the thousands,
only 300 to 400 were regularly enfranchised to elect the prior and consuls of
the guild.42 These included those who had previously served as officers of the
Consulado, merchants who owned shops or were affiliated with others loca-
ted on the Calle de Mercaderes (now Jiron Union), the main entrance to the
Plaza Mayor (now Plaza de Armas) or the Calle de la Cruz, and shipowners
who lived in the city. The economic and political positions of owner/masters
within the Consulado were thus quite strong due to their enfranchisement.
Many of these owners sailed on their vessels as masters and thus the two
occupations were most probably socially equivalent. In other major maritime
cities of the viceroyalty, such as Guayaquil, shipowners and masters num-
bered among the most prominent individuals in the community, and further
testified to that occupation's worth. 43 Most ships carried licensed pilots in
addition to masters, but in many cases one man filled both offices. Thus,
pilots also enjoyed a modicum of similar rank within the community.*4 The

30
Le6n Portocarrero, ' Anonymous Description ', Leonard (ed.), Colonial Travelers, p. 101.
40
Recopiladdn de leyes de los reynos de las Indicts (hereafter cited as RECOP) (3 vols., Mad-
rid, 1943 [1681]), Ley XI, Libro IX, tomo XXXXIIII.
41
For example, foreign masters and pilots were forbidden to sail together, those that were
certified had to post sufficient bonds to cover their cargoes, etc.
42
Smith, El Indice del Archivo, pp. XXI-XXII.
43
Archivo Histdrico del Guayas (hereafter cited as AHG), Guayaquil, Escribanos Piiblicos/
Protocolos (hereafter cited as EP/P), 83—84. Data is circa 1628 and was extracted and tran-
scribed by Juan Freile, the Archivo Hist6rico's palaeographer.
44
They also were paid well. Manuel Dominguez received 450 pesos in 1630 for serving as
pilot on San Juan Bautista on a roundtrip voyage from Guayaquil to Lima, AN/P, leg. 18,
Real Tribunal del Consulado.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 12 L. A. Clayton

fact that a law was decreed in 1615 which forbade the viceroy from placing
his retainers (criados) aboard royal treasure galleons as masters and that
masters must be ' examined Pilots, and of confidence', indicates that both
offices carried prestige and considerable monetary remuneration.45 Foreign
seafarers of the pilot/master rank must have found this employment a con-
venient avenue to ship-ownership, entrance into the Consulado and, finally,
into the general Creole mercantile elite of the viceroyalty.
A wide chasm existed between the owner/master/pilot class and the ordi-
nary seaman. Historically the life of a sailor has never been highly esteemed
and the lowest echelons of society were those usually tapped by captains and
masters in need of hands. The make-up of the viceroyalty's ship crews
appears to follow this traditional pattern. In the sixteenth century foreigners
and sailors were lumped togedier indiscriminately and characterized as the
' scum of the earth\ 4 6 Seventeenth-century crews were made up, in large
part, of the racial fringes of colonial society, Negroes, Indians and Mulat-
toes.47 Early eighteenth-century observers, such as Dionisio de Alsedo y Her-
rera and Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, wrote very critically of these
mixed colonial crews and charged them with lack of discipline, sloppiness,
inattentiveness and a host of other sins. Indeed, shipwrecks were more often
caused by, or at least attributed to, negligence and bad seamanship than by
the forces of natural circumstances.48 The blame fell ultimately on the pilots
and masters, but the hodgepodge crews they worked with certainly were a
contributing factor.
The life of a sailor, if wages are used as a standard of living, was immea-
surably better than that of the average Indian attached to an hacienda or
obraje in the viceroyalty. Whereas the wage of an obraje Indian in the early
seventeenth century was 30-35 pesos a year, the average wage of a grumete or
marvnero (striker or sailor) fell between 22 and 30 pesos a month. 49 Further-
more, navigation in the South Sea was largely free of foreign threats (com-
pared with the Caribbean in that same century) and of hurricanes, and discip-

« RECOP, Ley XII, Libro IX, tomo XXXXIIII.

46
Lockhart, Spanish Peru, p . 115.
47
Ship registers in the Real Tribunal del Consulado section of the AN/P are replete with such
evidence. The crew of Santa Rufina which sailed from Callao to Panama in Dec. 1670
listed, for example, the following officers and crew: Cap. Pedro Hernandez, owner and
master; Cap. Francisco Garcia Sim6n, pilot; Joseph Guanaes, alfe>ez; Agustin de la Crez,
supercargo; and the seven following sailors: Juan Criollo, negro; Cosme Criollo, negro;
Anton Angola, negro; Simon de Sarate, criollo; Santiago de la Cruz, yndio; Agustin de
Aller, yndio; Diego Perro, yndio.
18
L. A. Clayton, ' The Shipwreck of Nuestra Seiiora del Rosario ', unpublished ms.
40
Fernando Silva Santisteban, Los obrajes en el virreinato del Peru (Lima, 1944), p. 60; ACl
Contaduria 1705.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 13

line, as noted, was rather slack aboard ship. Life as an able-bodied seaman
on any sailing ship of diat period was, of course, never a lark, but the aver-
age seventeenth-century crewman of the viceroyalty probably enjoyed a better
existence than his counterpart in the Caribbean and Atlantic.

Regulation and Contraband

Sea traffic in seventeenth-century Peru was governed by a host of rules and
regulations which were applied rigorously at Callao, but with a laxity that
increased as one moved further away from the seat of the viceroyalty to the
provincial ports. The major maritime duty charged was the almojarifazgo.
It was first decreed for Peru in 1573 but not applied until 1591 when a 5 per
cent duty was levied on all commercial goods passing into the viceroyalty's
ports and a 2 per cent duty on goods passing out through the customs
houses.50 The tax, figured on an ad valorem basis, fluctuated between iJ/i per
cent and 7 ^ per cent during the seventeenth century, while on occasion
foodstuffs such as wheat and vegetables were exempted.51 Although initially
handled by royal officials, by 1640 the Consulado had assumed the respon-
sibility of collecting this duty.52 An asiento or contract was signed between
the Consulado and the viceroy on an annual basis. This assured both parties
that the price the Consulado paid in return for assuming the responsibility
would be in rough accord with the almojarifazgo taken in the previous year
or two. It also provided the Consulado with the opportunity to bargain with
the Crown for rights and privileges. The second major tax on seaborne traffic
was the averia, a duty collected to support the Armada del Mar del Sur. It
was first instituted in the early 1580s by Viceroy Martin de Enriquez after
Francis Drake's raid along the Peruvian coast in 1579 and levied as J^ per
cent tax on all merchandise carried.53 The rate was elevated in 1592 to 1 per
cent as the Armada was augmented better to protect Peru following Thomas
Cavendish's raid of 1587. In the 1630s Viceroy Conde de Chinchon raised it to
2 per cent in continuing efforts to keep the royal fleet effective. By the middle
of the century the Consulado had assumed the responsibility of collecting
this duty as well. Asientos were signed for the farming out of the averia, and
the price of the contract averaged about 100,000 pesos per year in the second
half of the century.5* Most of this amount, however, was required by the
Atlantic fleets, and the Armada del Mar del Sur received only a pittance in
comparison.
50
Romero, Historia econdmica, p. 247.
51
Ibid., p. 148; Smith, Bl Indice del Archivo, p. xlii.
52 Ibid.
53
Romero, Historia econdmica, p. 148.
34
Smith, El Indice del Archivo, p. xlii.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 14 L. A. Clayton

Maritime laws and regulations covered more, of course, than the mere
collection of duties. As noted earlier, the nationality of masters and pilots was
the subject of certain regulations, although they were obeyed indifferendy
due to the shortage of qualified personnel. Massive amounts of litigation
papers that now lie largely uncatalogued in the National Archive of Lima
deal with everything from freight rates to smuggling and attest to the variety
of maritime issues and disputes that were heard by the Tribunal of the Con-
sulado.55 It was not unusual for individual cities along die coast to levy a
special tax on the movement of goods through their customs houses to meet
a particular local need. The cabildo of Guayaquil, for example, asked that
certain duties be levied for a period of ten years to help defray die costs of
constructing royal buildings (customs houses, warehouses), a cabildo and a
jail.56 In 1707 Trujillo petitioned for similar duties to help build a hospital,
from which townspeople as well as indigent mariners would benefit." De-
tailed regulations existed to govern procedures after shipwrecks with the pos-
sible recovery of goods in mind. Upon news of a shipwreck, the Consulado
commissioned a trusted member to travel to the site and recover what was
salvageable.58 Those goods with recognizable ownership markings were
turned over to their proprietors while die rest were sold at auction and the
moneys realized distributed amdng the owners on a pro-rated basis. Major
shipwrecks, however, were fairly infrequent - perhaps on the average of one
every five years in the seventeendi century — and passengers commonly made
out well enough at least to reach land.59 Goods were sometimes recovered
easily in shallow waters by experienced divers, and the discrepancy between
the ship registers and the type and value and quantity of wreckage brought
up occasionally implicated the lucky survivors - masters, owners and the
rest - in die contraband trade.60
Smuggling developed largely during the seventeenth century in the Pacific.
As official Spanish sources of manufactured goods diminished and the means
to transport them from Spain to America shrank, the merchants of Peru
turned to otjier European outlets for supplies, which usually reached die Mar
del Sur in some sub rosa fashion. Moreover, increasing restrictions on inter-

55
See legajos 115-30 in the Real Tribunal del Consulado section of AN/P.
« ACG, 12 May, 1655, Book III, p . 235.
57
AN IP, N o . 0610 of the old Archivo de Hacienda y Comercio.
58
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p . 232; AN/P, Real Tribunal del Consulado, leg. 116.
58
Clayton, ' The Shipwreck of Nuestra Seiiora del Rosario '.
60
Rodriguez Vicente, Consulado, p . 232; statistics from La Marina, 1780-1822 (Lima, n . d . ) ,
Colecci6n Documental de la Independencia del Peru, p p . 328-38, appear g r i m m e r : 33 ship-
wrecks between 1773-1800, a 24-year period. However, most were small vessels, with 17
losing less than 10,000 pesos per wreck and only a few with a high rate of loss, both in
life and property.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 15

American trade by the Crown were consistently evaded by determined Peru-

vian traders who sought natural markets for their products. Lastly, com-
pliance with the tedious regulations that governed ship departures, sailing
plans, etc., and the concomitant payment of heavy duties were considered
onerous burdens by masters and owners who found it most convenient to
avoid as many of these legal obstacles as possible.
The voyage of Nuestra Senora del Pdpulo from Peru to New Spain and
back in 1677-8 offers a classic example of the ways, profits and risks of
contraband trade in the South Sea.61 Although trade between Peru and New
Spain was banned by royal decrees, certain exceptions were sometimes made
and special licenses granted by the viceroys. Populo had sailed to New Spain
in 1677 with such a license and a cargo of 3,500 quintales of mercury from
Huancavelica destined for the silver mines of Mexico. She returned to Callao
safely, but troubles commenced early on the morning of 12 August 1678.
Captain Francisco Colmenares de Lara, a port inspector, approached Pdpulo
in his launch about seven that morning and noticed that lama, or slime,
covered a yard wide (a vara) band around the vessel above the waterline. He
noted this in his report, along with the suspicion that Populo had returned
heavily laden from Acapulco and had discharged the bulk of her cargo, con-
traband, before she reached Callao. She more than likely had done so at Paita
in the north where she had stopped for victualling, and where royal officers
were more easily bribed. Nonetheless, not all had been unloaded in the north
and Colmenares discovered enough contraband goods aboard, ninety-one
fardos, or bundles, of pepper, fifty boxes of Chinese wax (marquetas de cera
de la tierra de China) and so forth, to charge officers and crew with com-
plicity to smuggle. The first to testify in his own defense was Captain Fran-
cisco de Villanueva, master and probably owner of Populo. Asked how all
these contraband goods got aboard his vessel, Captain Villanueva could think
of nothing more original than to claim he became ill upon arriving at
Acapulco and was indisposed until his vessel left that port. Captain Antonio
de Mendoza, pilot of the vessel, then gave his version. He too had been ill
and saw nothing; but, since his obligation was simply to navigate the ship,
he certainly did not feel guilty. Others called to testify - the official scribe,
gunners and sailors - all coughed up the same, lame excuse. All had mysteri-
ously and coincidentally been ill and now all shared in the penalties. Villa-
nueva was sentenced to four years of exile from Callao at a distance of not
less than fifty leagues on pain of being sent to Chile, Joseph de Solas, the
scribe, received the same and others received similar penalties.
Participation in contraband trade and disregard for both the letter and
61
Letter from Viceroy Melchor de Limn y Cisneros to King, 27 Aug. 1678, AGI, Lima 76.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 16 L. A. Clayton

spirit of the law appear to have been quite common about the middle of the
century. In fact, illegal activity became so commonplace that Viceroy Garcia
Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Conde de Salvatierra, felt compelled to initiate an
investigation and forcibly to remind royal officers up and down the coast of
their duty.62 The fiscal, or King's attorney, in Lima, Pedro Vasquez de
Velasco, was put in charge of the investigation, and his report revealed the
widespread abuse of regulations in the viceroyalty. Even before ships cleared
Callao they defrauded the royal treasury by not paying full duties on goods
carried. Many shipped cargoes intended for contraband trade, obtained licen-
ses to sail for legal destinations, and then deviated from their sailing plans to
practice their trade. San Francisco de Asis, commanded and owned by Cap-
tain Pedro de Villegas, was a typical violator. She received a license to go to
the valley of Trujillo and the city of Panama. From there, however, she
passed on illegally to ' la otra costa', or Central America, to sell wines and
other prohibited goods. San Francisco de Ortega also had been caught
trafficking in a similar pattern. She had come from Pisco to Callao loaded
with wine and subsequently received a license to sail for Manta. From there
she passed on to Central America and probably traded at either Realejo or
Sonsonate.63 A favorite port for contrabandists was Guayaquil, where there
existed compliant officials and a good export crop, cacao.8* Royal officials at
the port usually possessed a substantial interest in the cacao trade and, while
strictly forbidden to do so, they issued licenses to clear for Central America.
The cacao taken there was then transported to Mexico by land or across the
Duke Gulf to Campeche. In return, these vessels brought back with them
forbidden Chinese, Mexican and Castillian wares to be landed or transferred
at ports such as Guayaquil and Paita.65 What particularly galled Viceroy
Salvatierra and his investigators was the blatant complicity of so many royal
officials in the illegal traffic. Juan de Vallarta, who investigated Guayaquil,
reported that, as far as he was concerned, the culpable ones were not the
masters and shipowners (although they were certainly guilty by participa-
tion), but the justices and royal officials, including the corregidor, who per-
mitted the trade to exist.66 As noted above, ecclesiastics participated in con-
traband trade quite as eagerly as most. Viceroy Conde de la Monclova pro-
mulgated an order in 1704 that specifically forbade ecclesiastical personnel

62
' Titulo y Comisi6n de Maestre de Campo Santiago de Tesillos ' , ACG, m , 89-91.
03
See David R. Radell and James P . Parsons, ' Realejo: A Forgotten Port and Shipbuilding
Center in Nicaragua ' , Hispanic American Historical Review, 51 (May, 1971), p p . 295-312.
61
Szaszdi, ' El comercio del cacao ' , Revista de Historia, p . 7 ff.
65
Ropas, cloths, from Castille were prohibited from being imported into Peru from Acapulco,
Realejo and Sonsonate, AGl, Lima 76.
66
Titulo y Comisi6n . . . de Tesillos ' , ACG, H I , 89-91.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 17

from concealing contraband material in their convents and monasteries, but

it probably had little effect, since the creole clergymen tended to side with
those native Peruvians who considered the entire corpus of restrictions and
prohibitions as ' unjust and not binding in conscience ' . "
Even the Consulado itself appears to have been indirectly implicated in the
trade. On at least one occasion in 1674 r o v a l officials discovered contraband
goods on board a vessel at Callao. Subsequently she was embargoed and
guards were placed on her at the cost of the owner.68 The Consulado there-
upon complained to the Crown that their contract for the collection of the
almojarifazgo had been grossly violated. The contract expressly empowered
solely the Consulado or its representatives to collect duties and inspect vessels
at Callao, and thus the royal official, specifically Maestre de Campo Don
Antonio Davila, had trespassed on his authority. The Crown agreed and for-
bade such intrusions, thus satisfying the Consulado's insistent demands for
autonomy and, by implication, for freedom from strict supervision by over-
enthusiastic royal bureaucrats at Callao.
Various remedies attempted by the viceroys were, for the most part, in-
effectual and perhaps reflected an acceptance of reality that no royal edict
could change. For example, upon the conclusion of his rather extensive in-
vestigation into contraband practices and official complicity, Viceroy Garcia
Sarmiento de Sotomayor in 1650 issued a surprisingly benign set of instruc-
tions and exhortations. He called upon all royal officials stationed at port
cities to be vigilant and responsible in the performance of their duties, that
the royal treasury not be defrauded, that delinquents be punished and so
forth.69 When his instructions were more specific, the admonitions were
equally flaccid. If ships were not found to possess valid licenses and
registers for the ports where they were discovered, royal officials were to
oblige the vessels to take their cargoes where they were meant to go.70 The
efforts of Viceroy Monclova to combat the illegal introduction of Castillhn
and Chinese goods through Mexico into Peru at the end of the century had
been unrewarding as well, and he attributed this failure to a lack of incen-
tives for informers (denunciadores).'11 Monclova suggested, in compliance
with certain guidelines from the Council of the Indies, that informants be

07
Lynch, Spain, p. 226: Viceroy Monclova to King, 19 Nov. 1704, AGI, Lima 408 in Paz-
Solddn y C&pedes del Castillo (ed.), Virreinato peruano, II, 295.
68
MRE/L, ' Libro de ce'dulas de Su Magestad y otras providencias desde el ano de 1664
hasta el de 1737 ', foja 117.
«° ' Ti'tulo y Comisi6n . . . de Tesillos ', ACG, in, 89-91.
10
Ibid., ' si no hubieron cumplido con su obligaci6n les obligardn y apremiarfn a que lo
hagan, ya que descargan en los dichos puertos la cargo que Uevaran para cllos . . .'
71
Monclova to King, 20 Aug. 1704, AGI, Lima 407: Moreyra y Ce'spedes del Castillo,
Virreinato peruano, 11, 232-3.
L.A.8.—3

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 18 L. A. Clayton

paid from the royal treasury if the contrabandists' goods could not be turned
to cash rapidly (one-third the value of the contraband goods confiscated),
that slaves be granted their liberty if they informed on their masters and
that, if slaves belonged to other masters, these be paid the worth of the slaves
who would then be manumitted. Monclova's campaign against contraban-
dists at the turn of the eighteenth century was complicated by the appearance
of the first French merchant ships in the Pacific. This group's presence off
the viceroyalty's coast augured a change in the fortunes of Peru's commerce
that must be treated separately.72 Nonetheless, tlieir appearance helps to high-
light one major geographic characteristic of the South Sea in the seventeenth
century, isolation from the Atlantic, that contributed to the creation of an
autochthonous shipbuilding industry.

The Ships
Most vessels, royal or private, that operated in the South Sea were built
in the shipyards of Peru, while others were of Central American origin."
For commercial purposes, the South Sea was a closed ocean during most of
the seventeenth century. The tip of South America, guarded by bitter
weather, difficult seas and winds and frequent tempests, was an effective
deterrent to all but the boldest mariners. Rarely did Spanish vessels attempt
to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice-versa. The futile efforts made
by Sarmiento de Gamboa, one of Spain's most brilliant mariners, to plant a
settlement along the Straits in the 1580s stands as tragic testimony to the
difficulty of any activity, especially sailing, in these waters. Hence, a new
and independent shipbuilding industry was created to meet the maritime
and naval needs of the viceroyalty.
The industry came to be centered at Guayaquil, which possessed an out-
standing wooded hinterland serviced by a network of streams and rivers for
easy access. The small group of Spanish craftsmen in the city tapped the large
native population for manpower.7* Negro slaves and free blacks, many

72
See Sergio Villalobos, ' Contrabando francos en el Pacifico, 1700-1724 ' , Revista de His-
toria de Amirica, (Mexico) n u m . 51 (1961) and E . W . Dahlgren, Lcs Relations Commer-
dales et Maritimes entre la France et les CStes de L'Ocfan Pacifique, Commencement du
XVIII siecle. Tome I—Le Commerce de la Mer du Sud, Jusqu'a la Paix d'Utrecht (Paris,
1909) cited in Moreyra y Paz-Soldan, El Tribunal del Consulado de Lima, p . xxxvii.
73
Dionisio de Alsedo y Herrera, Compendio historico de la provincia, partidos, ciudades,
astilleros, rios, y puerto de Guayaquil, en las costas del mar del sur (Madrid, 1741). Facsimile
reproduction by Eliecer Enriquez, Guayaquil a travis de los sighs (Quito, 1946), p . 27.
7
* T h e Amerindian population of the Ecuadorian coast possessed a rich legacy from the sea.
Long voyages of trade and perhaps of migration in pre-Columbian times were unparalleled
accomplishments of seamanship and navigation. These people certainly added an unexpec-

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 19

of them skilled artisans themselves, were also utilized in the industry.

They were adept and intelligent people and, indeed, by the end of the seven-
teenth century, played a large role in the industry as foremen and super-
visors in many cases. Aside from the iron and metal fittings which were im-
ported from Spain, almost all materials employed in the shipyards of Guaya-
quil were present in the Pacific. The industry at Guayaquil was thus well
fitted: the knowledge came with the Europeans; the labor was plentiful; the
natural resources, especially woods, in abundance. Unfortunately, no genuine
pictorial record or model of one of these vessels exists, but descriptions and
evaluations are available. They appear to have been rather ugly by European
standards, given to straight sides and wide hulls." Nonetheless, they were
good merchant ships for, if sailed properly, they could deliver a maximum
amount of goods with moderate freightage fees.7"
The prevailing Humboldt Current and winds that pushed everything in a
north-northwesterly direction along the viceroyalty's coast until turning west
around the latitude of the Gulf of Guayaquil were the sources of much adver-
sity for ships going south. The tales of exasperated travelers, who often chose
to debark at Paita in northern Peru and continue their journey to Lima terres-
trially, attests to the great difficulty of making this leg of the voyage, as well as
to the pilots' conservative tendencies, for they commonly chose to hug the
coast. Nonetheless, the best round-trip voyages from Callao south to Val-
paraiso or north to Guayaquil ranged from two to three months, which, if
allowing for the unloading of cargo and the procurement and loading of a
return shipment, is not a considerable amount of time."

Conclusion
The geographical and maritime isolation of the viceroyalty and to a lesser
extent of other Spanish American colonies that bordered on the Pacific Ocean
was a primary influence on the formation of trade and commerce and the
development of navigation in seventeenth-century Peru. Certain indicators,
such as the rapid decline of the Atlantic carrera system in the second half of

ted dimension to the Spanish shipbuilding community at Guayaquil. See ch. vn of L . A.

Clayton, ' T h e Shipyards of Guayaquil in the Seventeenth Century: History of a Colonial
Industry ' (unpublished P h . D . dissertation, Tulane University, 1972).
75
Clayton, ' The Shipyards ' , ch. iv.
76
T h e freight rates in the early seventeenth century from Guayaquil to Lima or Panama
were about six to eight reales per arroba, a light charge considering the amount carried
and distance covered, CDIAO, ix, 263-4.
77
' Libro de las enttadas de todos los navios que han llegado a este Puerto [Callao] de
diferentes . . . desde 27 de Junio de 1725 hasta fin de Diziembre de 1726 ' , AN IP, no.
0509; ' libro de las salidas de los navios para diferentes puertos . . . desde 24 de Julio de
1725, hasta fin Diziembre de 1726 ' , AN IP, no. 0512.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 20 L. A. Clayton

the century compared to the rise of maritime trade in the South Sea in the
same period, clearly point to the existence of different economic forces at
work in the viceroyalty. Indeed, the trend toward self-sufficiency in the
American portion of the Spanish Empire that John Lynch described in the
second volume of his Spain Under the Habsburgs seems to be quite applicable
to Peru in that period. Between 1701 and 1704 there were 241 ship departures
from Callao and of these only 35, or 14-5 per cent, were destined for Panama,
the viaduct for legitimate trade with Spain.78 Manuel Moreyra y Paz-Soldan,
perhaps the ablest student of commerce in this period, wrote of the Peru-
Panama trade at the end of the century: ' commerce with Panama was found
to be very reduced compared to data from the beginnings of the [seven-
teenth] century.' T9 Furthermore, of these 241 ship departures, only three,
and they were French, were bound for Cape Horn and the Atlantic. All the
rest were licensed for ports within the viceroyalty and Central America. Some
preliminary and as yet largely unrefined data gathered recently from seven-
teenth-century sailing records in the National Archive of Peru tends to
corroborate the statistics from the incipient years of the eighteenth century.
Between November 1661 and November 1663, for example, seventy-five
vessels with identifiable ports of origin arrived at Callao.80 Only fourteen of
these, or 18-5 per cent, had cleared from Panama. The trend, while by no
means absolutely substantiated, nonetheless appears in outline. Wheat and
copper from Valparaiso and Concepci6n, wines and olive oil from Pisco, tex-
tiles from Quito moving through Guayaquil, woods and cacao from that port,
sugar from Trujillo and the northern valleys, pitch, tar, ink and cedar from
Nicaragua, and myriads of other crops and products dominated the trade.
Seventy-five per cent of the almojarifazgo collected at Callao was drawn
from trade and commerce directed to ports other than Panama. 81
The isolation of the Mar del Sur from the Atlantic axis of the Empire also
contributed to the growth of some distinguishing features in the realm of
navigation, or broadly speaking, that subject which encompasses the ships,
the men, and the way they routinely dealt with the vagaries of the ocean they
sailed upon. While a heavy foreign element among the owner/master/pilot
class appears to have prevailed, the lower mates and sailors were drawn for
the most part from the racial fringes of colonial society, Mulattoes, Zambos,

78
Manuel Moreyra y Paz Soldan, Estudios sobre el trdfico marltimo en la tpoca colonial
(Lima, 1944), p. 7.
™ Ibid., p. 16.
80
' Libro y raz6n de los pesos que se cobran pertenecientes a Su. Mag. procedidos del dos y
medio por ciento . . . 1661 ', AN/P, doc. 0162 of the old Archivo Hist6rico del Comercio y
Hacienda.
81
Moreyra, Estudios sobre el trdfico . . . p . 14.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Trade and Navigation in the Seventeenth-Century Viceroyalty of Peru 21

Negroes, Mestizos and Indians. Critical observers such as Juan and Ulloa
wrote disparagingly in the 1730s of Peruvian crews, as noted earlier. None-
theless, the young naval lieutenants' criticisms must be taken with certain
reservations, for naval officers have historically considered all merchant
sailors as little better than louts and ne'er-do-wells compared to the discipline
and order which diey expect within their own family. The light sprinkling
of shipwreck records in die archives does not appear to justify such a harsh
consideration of the performance of the viceroyalty's crews.
It is clear from this short overview that trade and navigation within the
viceroyalty were dynamic and vital aspects of colonial life, for the maritime
services grew and prospered in proportion to the needs of a developing
Spanish and mixed population. The products of native industry and die
crops of die littoral were die basic commodities, bodi in bulk and value,
carried by die merchant fleet, while silver and wares from Europe and China,
legitimate or odierwise, account for die remaining percentage of the fleet's
use. In many respects diis reflected die growdi and slow maturation of a
colony which was gradually establishing an economy and identity for itself.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X00016631 Published online by Cambridge University Press