UNIDAD EDUCATIVA PARTICULAR “SAN JOSÉ DE CALASANZ”

Name:……………………………… Date: ……….……………

Grade: 2do bachillerato Subject: History and Social Sciences

PART IV: Commercial Relations in the Old Regime (S. XVI - XVIII)
In 1492 America is discovered, a new continent to colonize and to exploit. The
first to arrive were the Spanish thanks to Christopher Columbus. The discovery of
this new territory opens new commercial routes by the Atlantic. In the Europe-
America relationship we will distinguish three commercial relations:
A) Commercial relationship between Spain and America

In this relationship the Spanish ports are in contact with those of the Spanish
colonies in America.
In Spain an organism is created called the House of Contract, which was in Seville.
Its mission was to keep the accounting of products that left Spain to America or
that arrived from there. All trade between Spain and America had to go through it
mandatorily by this organism.
In 1530 the Fleets of the Indies arose. They were a set of ships that carried and
brought the goods between Spain and America and vice versa. They were large
ships that formed the fleets and were surrounded by warships, because on the
way they could be attacked by the English and Dutch pirates.
The products that were taken to America were the manufactures, like arms,
clothes, tools and jewels, and other products like cereals, wine ... These were
transported from the port of Seville, and later the one of Cadiz, to the port of
Havana Cuba). This was the point of exchange of goods from the rest of America,
which were carried from Veracruz and Cartagena de Indias. These products were
raw materials (gold, silver, wood ...) and agricultural products that could only be
cultivated at that time in America. Products like tobacco, cocoa, coffee ... The
outline of this relationship was:
Spain La Habana Veracruz / Cartagena de Indias
The process of exchanging goods
between Spain and America was very
long (used to last around one or two
years) and very expensive. It was
controlled by the big bourgeois wealthy
merchants of the time, the onesthat
spent a lot of money on this but the
profits were always much higher.
B) Triangular Trade
It is so named because it had its shopping centers in European ports (mainly
English, French and Dutch) and commercial traffic developed between Europe,
Africa and America.
This trade was based on the trafficking of blacks as laborers of the great
agricultural plantations of the English, French, Dutch and Spanish colonies of
cocoa, sugar and cotton in America.
The way to do this trade was as follows: slaves were acquired in Africa in
exchange for manufactures (weapons, jewelry, textiles, tools ...) in auctions. From
here, large fortunes were made out of money that were used to buy agricultural
products and raw materials (not gold and silver, but cotton, wood ...). Those who
seemed stronger and healthier were always chosen. Then they were mounted in
the Gulf of Guinea in the holds of the boats in subhuman conditions (without
light, with much humidity being in the part that sinks in the sea water, with hardly
any food and very tight). On the way to America a good part died and those who
remained were very weak or sick. They were disembarked in the ports of South
America: Bahia (Brazil); In Central America: Havana (Cuba), Cartagena de Indias
(Colombia), Veracruz (Mexico); And North America: Atlanta and New York. They
were forced to do forced labor, like the mita, in the mines of Potosi (Peru) and
Zacatecas (Mexico) and in the plantations previously mentioned that provided the
raw materials that would later be taken to Europe to close the cycle. The
exchange was carried out according to this scheme:
From this trade they draw
immense fortunes and the
traders involved make large
sums of money. It was banned
at the Vienna Council in 1815,
but would continue for a few
more years until it disappears
completely.
C) Trade between North
Europe and America
This relationship connects the
ports from Northern Europe
with those of North America.
The European ports were: the English port was London, the French Le Havre and
the Dutch port was Amsterdam. The American ports were in contact with the
ones in New York and Montreal.
The exchange was: from Europe, they took manufactures (arms, jewels ...) and
brought raw materials from the large plantations of cotton, tobacco, cocoa or
coffee in the English, French or Dutch colonies in America. It was not large fleets
that traded. They were small groups of merchants who formed associations and
sent ships one at a time or two at a time.
 UNIDAD EDUCATIVA PARTICULAR “SAN JOSÉ DE CALASANZ”
Name:………………………………………………………………… Date: ……….…………………………….
Grade: 2do bachillerato Subject: History and Social Sciences

PART IV: Commercial Relations in the Old Regime (S. XVI - XVIII)
WORKSHEET #10
1. Why do you think the Europeans conquer the Americas?
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2. How was the trade and relation between North Europe and America?
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3. Was the exchanging process between Spain and America smooth? Who
controlled it?
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4. What were the main products, goods and other things that were exported or
acquire by the Europeans?
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5. Who do you think benefit the most from that conquer? And why?
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