Casa de Contratación

It also was responsible for the licensing of emigrants, training of pilots, creation of maps and charters, probate of estates of Spaniards dying overseas.

[5][6][7] The Casa de Contratación was created by Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1503, eleven years after Christopher Columbus's landfall in the Americas in 1492.

[8] Ochoa Alvarez de Isasaga (Ysasaga) was named factor for the Crown by King Ferdinand "the Catholic: and Queen Juana I of Castile in 1509 for the Casa.

[13][14] The other taxes could run as high as 40% to provide naval protection for the trading ships or as low as 10 per cent during financial turmoil to encourage investment and economic growth in the colony.

The Casa had a large number of cartographers and navigators (pilots), archivists, record keepers, administrators and others involved in producing and managing the Padrón Real.

[15] His nephew, Juan Vespucci, inherited his famous uncle's maps, charts, and nautical instruments,[25] and along with Andrés de San Martín was appointed to Amerigo's former position as the official Spanish government pilot at Seville.

[26][27] In 1524, Juan Vespucci was appointed examinador de pilotos (Examiner of Pilots),[28] replacing Sebastian Cabot who was then leading an expedition in Brazil.

[34][35] In the late 16th century, Juan López de Velasco was the first Cosmógrafo-Cronista Mayor (Cosmographer-Chronicler Major) of the Council of the Indies in Seville.

[37][38][39] Although these maps are not especially accurate or detailed, his work represented the apogee of Spanish mapmaking in that period, and surpassed anything done by the other European powers.