not the lords of the vast herds which grazed across the prairies, who were?

These people had no gold, it is true, but some of Coronado's men found a bowl of glittering white stuff, which they say was silver, which the natives prized highly. Then, as now, they treasured their choice precious stones. To-day their doorways are sometimes studded with these jewels. The doorways, it is true the entrances to their houses, and to the temples where their secret rites are performed-are but skylights, like the hatchways of a ship, in whose wooden rims the Indians stick the pieces of blue turquoise, dug from the mesa side.

In the spring of 1540 Francisco Vasquez Coronado went in search of all these things of which the friar had told him. He commanded an ample force, splendidly equipped, of men whom any explorer might have envied him. He found the Seven Cities of Cibola, and he explored the country from the grand canyons of the Colorado to the rolling prairies of Nebraska and Kansas. He made his way back to Mexico in the early summer of 1542, to report that the expedition was a total, dismal, ruinous failure.

Coronado had done his best. He had even found everything about which he had been told, except the gold and silver. But all this was nothing, because people had not understood what the Indians had meant when they described to Friar Marcos those wonderful cities of Cibola, those pueblo villages of Zuñi and Moki which seem so wonderful to us to-day.

IX. THE CASA DE CONTRATACION OF SEVILLE.

By Prof. BERNARD MOSES.

The establishment of the absolute power of the Spanish Crown made easy the adoption of the fundamental provision of Spain's American policy, namely, that Spanish America should be regarded and treated as subject directly to the King, and not to be controlled by the functionaries hitherto existing for the government of Spain. When it is said that Spain founded her rights in the New World on the celebrated bull of Alexander VI, which was designed to put an end to conflicting pretensions between Spain and Portugal, there is revealed an attempt to conceal the fact that the only claims which Spain or the Spanish King had to lands in America were based on usurpation. Carrying the pretended right back to a grant by the Pope only fixed the act of usurpation one step earlier. But whatever title was transmitted by the papal bull was conveyed to Ferdinand and Isabella, not to the Spanish nation, and the subsequent political and ecclesiastical administration of the affairs of Spanish America was carried on under the presumption that the King was the sole political superior. From a strictly legal point of view Mexico and Peru, and later the other states of equal dignity, appear as kingdoms in a personal union with the Kingdom of Spain, rather than as colonies in the ordinary meaning of that term.

As a consequence of this fundamental fact of Spanish policy, other bodies were created to assist the King in administering the affairs of his American possessions. The first in rank of these special agencies was the Council of the Indies. It was created while Columbus was making preparations for his second voyage, and at the time of its establishment consisted of eight councilors. It was placed under the direction of the archdeacon of Seville, Don Juan de Fonseca. It was required to reside at court, and might be presided over by the King.

It held supreme and exclusive jurisdiction in the affairs of the Indies. The separation of powers, which has become a familiar feature of modern states, was not carefully regarded in Spain in the sixteenth century. The Council of the Indies covered the whole field of governmental activity. It was a legislative body, in that from it proceeded the laws for the government of the Spanish possessions in America; it was also a judicial body, sitting as a court of final appeal for all cases concerning American affairs which were of sufficient importance to be carried to it; and it was, furthermore, an executive body, inasmuch as its advice was sought by the King on all questions of great importance in the administration of the Indies. And in order that it might be in a position to deal wisely with the affairs intrusted to it, it was a part of the King's policy to appoint many of its members from persons who had been in the public service in America or in the Philippine Islands, and had thus acquired great practical knowledge of the transatlantic countries. (Alman, Historia de Mejico, I, p. 35.)

Provision having been made for the management of the political affairs of Spanish America by the establishment of the Council of the Indies, a second body was then created to take immediate control of the economical affairs. This body had its beginning in the exchange of Seville and the customhouse of Cadiz, which were established between the first and second voyages of Columbus (Lafuente, Historia de España, IX, p. 467). When it had taken definite form it was known as the Casa de Contratacion, which may be appropriately designated in English as the India House. It was definitely established at Seville in 1503. In this year it was ordered that a house should be built in the shipyards of Seville for the trade and commerce of the West Indies, the Canaries, and such other islands as were already discovered or might be discovered in the future. To this "house were to be brought all merchandise and other things necessary for the trade, and such as were carried to the said islands and brought from them. And that in the said house there was to be a factor, a treasurer, and an escrivano, register, or clerk, who were to take charge of all the said trade, as would appear to them more fully by an instruction their majesties had ordered to be drawn up to that purpose."1

For the details of the organization of the Casa de Contratacion we refer in the first instance to the laws by which it was constituted and the

This organization was made especially necessary by the plan of the Spanish King to subject the trade with America to a rigid and exclusive monopoly. Under its control Seville became the only port from which ships might be sent to America, and through which colonial products might enter in return. The India House took account of everything that concerned the economical affairs of the Indies; it had power to grant licenses, to equip vessels, to determine their destiny, and to give them instructions as to their loading and sailing. In the performance of its ample judicial functions it consulted lawyers who were paid by the Government. From its decisions appeal could be taken only to the Council of the Indies. Its officers consisted of a president, a treasurer, a secretary, an agent, three judges or commissioners, an attorney, and such other ministers and officials as might be provided for by law. If it is said that the Council of the Indies stood for the King in political matters and the India House in economical affairs, the significance of the latter body is not thereby fully presented. The activity of the India House is contrasted with that of the Council of the Indies by its larger executive functions, its more immediate participation in the practical work of administration, and by acting as the agent of the Spanish King in maintaining and carrying out the laws relating to the Indies. Its jurisdiction was without special territorial limits; it covered all matters embraced in the ordinances, and reached all persons who contravened these ordinances. All cases arising from

powers of the several officers were determined. Among the collections of these laws the most important is that known as "Recopilacion de las Leyes de las Indias Occidentales." The most serviceable single book on this subject is Norte de la Contratacion de las Indias Occidentales, compiled by Don Joseph de Veitia Linage, sometime commissioner and treas urer of the Casa. His book was published as a single folio volume in Seville in 1672. It was "made English" by Capt. John Stevens, under the title of the Spanish Rule of Trade to the West Indies. In his preface Mr. Stevens says, "I have not, in the englishing of this work, confined myself to the rules of translation, which would oblige me neither to add nor diminish; for I have done both, only abstracting from the author and others that have been consulted what was solid and material, without swelling the volume to a needless bulk with those things that are no way beneficial or instructive. And to make abundant compensation for those useless matters omitted others of the greatest consequence have been inserted, all with the approbation of persons most knowing in these affairs." The references here given are to the English volume, which was printed in London for Samuel Crouch, in 1702; see page 2.

theft or any other crime committed on the voyage to or returning from the Indies, in fact, all cases under the laws of the Indies fell within its exclusive province. But in certain cases, where private persons had suffered injury on the voyage from other private persons, the injured party might demand justice either before the judges of the Casa or before an ordinary court of Seville.

In these two organizations, the Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contratacion of Seville, we discover the two special agents employed by the King in carrying out in America the measures of an essentially absolute rule, whether they concerned the political or the economical affairs of his possessions. All offices or bodies established in America for the purpose of exercising authority of any kind whatsoever were subordinate to the King and these agents of his power. The viceroy, the captain general, the legislative, executive, and judicial council known as the audiencia, derived whatever power they exercised directly from the King. The idea of governmental power emanating from the governed found here no application. Under the viceroy and the audiencia the Government of Mexico or Peru was as arbitrary or absolute as that of Spain herself. That there were several viceroys established in the course of time was not a concession to the wishes of the people to have a local government; it was simply a matter of administrative convenience. The audiencia of San Domingo, the first important political body established for the New World and having its seat in the New World, was created by royal appointment and acted for the King. It exercised not only judicial, but also political functions, and sometimes even directed military operations. It superseded the authority of the early discoverers and explorers who, under the title of governor, had been clothed with certain governmental powers. But whatever the titles of the organizations created in America by Spanish authority, they were all designed to contribute to the two great features of Spanish colonial policy, namely, absolute political control and monopolistic privilege in industry and trade.

The first step in carrying out the restrictive commercial policy which Spain had adopted was to limit the commerce with America to a single Spanish port. Seville became the privileged port, and so remained for about two hundred years, until, by the decree of 1717, the India House with all its privileges was