Spanish treasure fleet
The convoys were general purpose cargo fleets used for transporting a wide variety of items, including agricultural goods, lumber, various metal resources such as silver and gold, gems, pearls, spices, sugar, tobacco, silk, and other exotic goods from the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire to the Spanish mainland.
The Spanish West and East Indies fleets are considered among the most successful naval operations in history[3][4] and, from a commercial point of view, they made possible key components of today's global economy.
The main procedures were established based on the recommendations of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, an experienced admiral and personal adviser of King Philip II.
From Acapulco, the Asian goods were transhipped by mule train to Veracruz to be loaded onto the Caribbean treasure fleet for shipment to Spain.
[11] Maritime archaeology has shown that the quantity of goods transported was sometimes higher than that recorded at the Archivo General de Indias.
As a result of the discovery of precious metals in Spanish America, Spain's money supply increased tenfold.
[16] The increase in gold and silver on the Iberian market caused high inflation in the 17th century, affecting the Spanish economy.
The economic importance of exports later declined with the drop in production of the American precious metal mines, such as Potosí.
[22] In 1739 during the War of Jenkin's Ear,[22] the British admirals Francis Hosier and later Edward Vernon blockaded Portobello in an attempt to prevent the return sailing of the treasure fleet.
Spain dealt with the temporary British seizures of Havana and Manila (1762–4), during the Seven Years' War, by using a larger number of smaller fleets visiting a greater variety of ports.
These reforms, designed to halt Spain's decline and increase tax revenue, resulted in a series of changes to the fleet system throughout the 18th century.
[22] Philip V began the reforms by sending investigators to report on conditions in Spanish America, who brought back evidence of fraud.
[22] He and following Bourbon kings, notably including Charles III, would make a concerted effort to centralize the administration of Spanish America and more efficiently tax profits from overseas trade.
[22] Another involved the increased use of registered ships, or navíos de registro, traveling solo outside the fleet system to transport goods.
[25] Every year, two fleets left Spain loaded with European goods in demand in Spanish America; they were guarded by military vessels.
Fleets of fifty or more ships sailed from Spain, one bound for the Mexican port of Veracruz and the other for Panama and Cartagena.
The New Spain fleet sailed to Veracruz in Mexico to load not only silver and the valuable red dye cochineal, but also porcelain and silk shipped from China on the Manila galleons.
[27] The Tierra Firme fleet, or galeones, sailed to Cartagena to load South American products, especially silver from Potosí.
Other ships went to the Caribbean island of Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela, to collect pearls which had been harvested from offshore oyster beds.
[28] The overland journey by mule train, as well as supplies provided by local farmers to prepare the fleets for long ocean voyages, invigorated the economy of colonial Spanish America.
In this period he was the owner and captain of the frigate El Ave María y Las Ánimas, a ship which he sailed from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Havana.
In the case of the Manila galleons, only four were ever captured by British warships: the Santa Anna by Thomas Cavendish in 1589, the Encarnación by Woodes Rogers in 1709, the Covadonga by George Anson in 1743, and the Santísima Trinidad in 1762.
[43] The Capitana (El Rubi) was the flagship of the 1733 fleet; it ran aground during a hurricane near Upper Matecumbe Key, then sank.
