Page 243 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

216 P. Fournier and R. Junco Sanchez

13.1 Historical Background

Spain as a colonizing entity was a mercantilist power, based on the geopolitical
hegemony that started developing as a result of the union of the crowns of Castile
and Aragon, and the impulse of the Catholic Kings based on the discoveries and
colonization of most of the territories of contemporary Latin America, as well as the
subsequent expansion towards Asia promoted under the Habsburg dynasty
(Schwartz 2012: 148–149, 161).
Spain pursued institutional establishments in complex, economically and politi-
cally developed precolonial regions, characterized by urban settlements with high
demographic density, state level social organizations, and hierarchical economies
relying on coercive labor systems. In the case of Mexico, pre-Columbian develop-
ments met the conditions required by the mercantilist goal to extract resources using
an indigenous dependent labor force without modifying deeply previous economic
structures (Lange et al. 2006: 1418). Mercantilism depended to a large extent on the
government’s direct intervention in the economy with a colonial domination over the
possessions of the Crown, to achieve its supremacy and enrichment, which would
strengthen the army, at the same time through restrictions in commercial trade to
promote and protect domestic production in Spain; in fact, the colonies had to sell
certain goods exclusively to the metropolis and acquire many goods only from the
Iberian Peninsula (Frieden 2012: 18). Political authorities used the state to establish
trade restrictions and !nance extra-market institutions to obtain rents for certain
groups and deny privileges to others (Lange et al. 2006: 1416).
By its nature, mercantilism aligns the economic and state elites, concentrating
resources in few hands. Consequently, the mercantilist economic model fostered the
development of a rigid hierarchical society in which the majority of the population
depended on a small elite. In fact, the consumption of luxury goods was part of the
ideological and social binder that cemented the social hierarchical structures and the
production of surpluses, in addition to the fact that long-distance trade of mer-
chandise united the elites of the world system and was an essential component of
the world economy that developed within the framework of mercantilism (Frank
1990: 183).
The Colonial Period in Mexico is generally dated from the fall of the urban
center of Tenochtitlan (the contemporary historical district and its vicinity in
Mexico City) at the core of the Aztec Empire to Hernan Cortes in 1521, to inde-
pendence from Spain in 1821. In reality, that conquest did not fully happen until
much later in other areas of Mexico. Mexico City however, with its large population
to be exploited and its established complex political system including an extensive
trade and tribute organization, was an ideal location to become the center of the
viceroyalty of New Spain under the Spanish monarchy for the next 300 years.
New Spain was exploited primarily for the bene!t of the Spanish Empire,
eventually providing more than half the yearly taxes taken in by the Spanish
monarchy. Its exports, however, were limited to the few materials in which Spain
had any interest. Perhaps most important was silver from mines in Hidalgo, near