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Casa de Contratacion might be considered one of the most important buildings in the Spanish Empire. The discovery of the New World sparked a revolution of trade that could arguably be the focal point in Spanish dominate of trade. When discovering the new America Spain encountered resources unknown to Europe and a large abundance of Specialty resources such Silver. There is much debate on how much Spanish Silver was imported and that affect towards the economic structure of Seville and Europe in general. Seville was created as an economic business in the sense that the Spanish government created the Casa de Contratacion. The House of Trade or in Spanishm, Casa de Contratacion was created by Queen Isabella in 1503 to oversee commerce between Spain and its New World Colonies.[1]The foundation of this building could be said to be a regulatory agency that oversees exports and imports.
Since Seville, Spain was growing in large proportions to become an epicenter for trade a statistical analysis of population growth within Seville saw a large migration towards the port city. There are many factors that have contributed towards this migration one analysis is that the population from North and Central Spain migrated to head towards the New World. The other analysis came to be that since Seville was the only way to migrate to the New World and back many individuals came from the New World to establish themselves. Looking at the exact numbers in the 1500’s Seville population was 60 thousand, by the late 1588 the population spiked more than double to 129 thousand.[2]
Even though Thomas Malthus wrote his piece on The Principle of Population a century in the future his social economic view can still be applied to what happened to Seville. In Malthus eyes he compares the population multiple with food production. That population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase, and, that the superior power of population is repressed, and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence, by misery and vice.[3]
- ^ John Michael Francis (2006). Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-85109-421-9.
- ^ "La Población De Sevilla En El Siglo XVI." La Población De Sevilla En El Siglo XVI. Accessed April 13, 2016. http://personal.us.es/alporu/histsevilla/poblacion.htm.
- ^ Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population, in Oxford World's Classics reprint. p 61, end of Chapter VII