Managing the Slave Trade: the Accounts of the Angola Contract between 1597-1600

INTRODUCTION

The Atlantic slave trade during the 16th century has recently been the subject of new approaches that highlight both the varied nature of the origin of the agents involved in it (Portuguese, Spanish, conversos, Jews, Creoles, etc.), emphasizing the mixed African, Iberian and American identities, as well as the complexity of the economic networks that played a key role in its development (Mark and Horta, 2011Mark, P., and Horta, J. da S. (2011) The forgotten Diaspora. Jewish communities in West Africa and the making of the Atlantic World. New York: Cambridge University Press.; Green, 2012Green, T. (2012) The rise of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in Western Africa, 1300-1589. New York: Cambridge University Press.; Cabral, 2015Cabral, I. (2015) A primeira elite colonial atlântica: dos “homens honrados brancos” de Santiago à “nobreza da terra”: finais do séc. XV - início do séc. XVII. Praia: Pedro Cardoso Livraria.; Wheat, 2016Wheat, D. (2016) Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ; Fernández Chaves and Pérez García, 2016Fernández Chaves, M. F., and Pérez García, R. M. (2016) “La élite mercantil judeoconversa andaluza y la articulación de la trata negrera hacia las Indias de Castilla, ca. 1518-1560.” Hispania, 76 (253), pp. 385-414. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/hispania.2016.012 ). Our knowledge of this rich and rapidly changing Atlantic world has also developed around the commercial and administrative organization of the trade, whose complexity increased over the years, bringing into play many commodities, besides slaves (Pérez García, 2022Pérez García, R. M. (2022) “El capitalismo de Génova y Burgos y la apertura de la ruta negrera de Santo Tomé al Caribe en la década de 1520.” Anuario de Estudios Americanos, 79 (2), pp. 419-450. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/aeamer.2022.2.02 ).

Specifically, the trade in slaves and merchandises in Africa was managed by the Portuguese Crown through the signing of contracts with individual merchants or, more often, with merchant companies, although sometimes those trades were directly organized by the crown (Dias, 1964Dias, M. N. (1964) O capitalismo monarquico português (1415-1549). Contribuição para o estudo das origens do capitalismo moderno. Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra.; Pereira, 2019Pereira, E. (2019) A contractor empire: public-private partnerships and overseas expansion in Habsburg Portugal (1580-1640). PhD Thesis, University of Leiden.). In exchange for the payment of a fixed sum to the Crown, the contractors held the lease of the management of the taxation of different areas of Africa and the organisation of the commerce supporting the trade of slaves and other goods. Among these contracts, those of Cabo Verde and São Tomé were particularly prominent, while the Angola Contract only came into being in the 1580s, separated from the one of São Tomé.¹The classical works about the Atlantic Slave Trade have focused on many features of this traffick, like the number and provenance of slaves and boats, the losses of the Middle Passage, and other aspects, and have drawn a complete overview of the problem. See Curtin, 1972; Eltis and Engerman, 2011; Eltis and Richardson, 2008. It’s also very important Elbl, 1997. See too, Mellafe, 1973. The Portuguese asientos between 1595 and 1640 were studied in the classical work of Vila Vilar, 2014. Nevertheless, the study of these contracts has not been so developed yet. See for the case of Cape Verde, Cohen, 1994; Torrão, 2001a, 2013; also, Carreira, 2000, pp. 31-54, 127-132 and 133-258. A general overview of these contracts is presented in Mauro, 1997, I, pp. 213-227. More up-to-date is the list in Silva, 2011, pp. 288, 290. The contractors enjoyed extensive autonomy that enabled them to organise the mercantile activities in their domains and to make other economic agents dependent upon their actions, while at the same time providing a service to the Crown, which outsourced the handling of the slave trade and other matters. Although they were overseen by official representatives of the Crown displaced to the regions of interest and were obliged to comply with a series of conditions that varied according to each contract, these documents, the contents of which have rarely been preserved for the 16^th century, shed much light on the Atlantic slave trade in its early phase.²We have recently analysed the Cabo Verde Contract for 1574-1580, and the São Tomé Contract of 1583-1589, published in Fernández Chaves, 2018, pp. 93-120, and 2022b, pp. 451-485.

From the time of the Iberian Union, the monarchy offered the Guinea, São Tomé and Angola contractors the possibility of sending slaves not only to Brazil and Portugal but also to Spanish America, including the right to use a certain number of licences, which made the bidding for these contracts more attractive in the eyes of Portuguese financiers and merchants. In general terms, from 1582 onwards, the number of slaves to be sent to Spanish America in those contracts was 3,000, 500 for each of the six years of each contract, although this number varied somewhat. The Crown obtained a part of the earnings, a quarter or a third of the sale price of the slave in America, depending if the contract was one of Guinea, or the other of Angola and São Tomé (Scelle, 1906, I, pp. 335-336Scelle, G. (1906) La traite négrière aux Indes de Castille. Contraites et traités de Assiento. Paris: Librairie de la Societé du Recueil J.-B. Sirey.; Garcia, 1962Garcia, R. S. (1962) “Contribuição ao estudo do aprovisionamento de escravos negros na América Espanhola (1580-1640).” Anais do Museu Paulista. XVI, pp. 1-195. ; Vila Vilar, 2014, p. 36Vila Vilar, E. (2014) Hispanoamérica y el comercio de esclavos. 2nd ed. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla.; Fernández Chaves, forthcomingFernández Chaves, M. F. (forthcoming) “La esclavitud africana y la necesidad de mano de obra en América. Debate político y soluciones prácticas (1582-1595).” Manuscrits. Revista d’Història Moderna. ).

In the case of the Angola Contract, previous research knew only the first of the agreements signed by Pedro de Sevilha and António Mendes de Lamego for 1588-1594 (Scelle, 1906, I, pp. 790-794Scelle, G. (1906) La traite négrière aux Indes de Castille. Contraites et traités de Assiento. Paris: Librairie de la Societé du Recueil J.-B. Sirey.), after this area had been detached from the São Tomé Contract. A subsequent Angola Contract, effective between 1593 and 1603 (Mauro, 1997, I, p. 215Mauro, F. (1997) Portugal, o Brasil e o Atlântico, 1570-1670. Lisboa: Estampa. ), was thought to have been signed by João Rodrigues Coutinho and Pedro Gomes Reinel. However, we have recently shown that the contract for the extraction of slaves from Angola and the taxation of this activity was in fact signed by the cristão novo merchant João Nunes Correia and his partners Manuel Fernandes Anjo, and André Lopes Pinto. Signed in March 1594, and with effect between mid-1593 and 1600, this contract was divided into three parts for the first partner, two for the second, and one for the third (Fernández Chaves, 2022aFernández Chaves, M. F. (2022a) “El «trato e avenencia del reino de Angola para el Brasil e Indias de Castilla» de 1594-1600. Gestión y organización de la trata de esclavos en una época de transición.” Revista de Indias, 284, 2022, pp. 9-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2022.001 ).³See too the PhD Thesis of Rodrigues, 2019. Moreover, this contract was parallel to the agreement signed by Pedro Gomes Reinel to supply 4,250 slaves per year for 9 years to the Indies of the Crown of Castile (Vila Vilar, 2014, pp. 45-50Vila Vilar, E. (2014) Hispanoamérica y el comercio de esclavos. 2nd ed. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla.), in such a way that it was a crucial tool in the correct compliance of Reinel’s deal. In addition to the Angola Contract, studies have noted that the agreement on brazilwood for 1593-1600 was signed by the same three partners, João Nunes Correia, Manuel Fernandes Anjo, and André Lopes Pinto (Mauro, 1997, I, p. 176Mauro, F. (1997) Portugal, o Brasil e o Atlântico, 1570-1670. Lisboa: Estampa. ; Salvador, 1978, p. 166Salvador, J. G. (1978) Os cristãos-novos e o comércio no Atlântico Meridional. São Paulo: Pioneira.; Mello, 1993, p. 63Mello, J. A. G. de (1993) “Os livros das saídas das urcas do porto do Recife, 1595-1605.” Revista do Instituto Arqueologico Histórico e Geografico de Pernambuco, 58, pp. 21-143. ),⁴De Mello erroneously indicates 1595 as the date of the brazilwood agreement with other partners. thus the supply of slave labour and the management of brazilwood in Brazil was controlled by the same consortium of merchants (Carrasco Vázquez, 2004aCarrasco Vázquez, J. M. (2004a) “Los conversos lusitanos y la Unión Ibérica: oportunidades y negocios. El caso de Juan Núñez Correa.” In: A. Alvar Ezquerra, J. Contreras Contreras, and J. I. Martínez Ruiz, coords., Política y cultura en la época moderna (Cambios dinásticos. Milenarismos, mesianismos y utopías). Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá, pp. 768-769.). New documents provide further information on this point since it appears that the brazilwood contract was effective from the day of St. John the Baptist in 1593 until the same day in 1599, and was initially divided into two halves, one for João Nunes Correia and the other for Vasco Martins da Veiga, of the powerful Veiga d’Evora clan. It has also emerged that João Nunes Correia participated in half of both contracts in the place of his brother Enrique Nunes Correia, the actual title holder and who really provided the money and the deposits required,⁵The acknowledgment of this situation was registered before a notary by the agent of both brothers in Seville, the Portuguese merchant Ruy Fernandes Pereira, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Sevilla [AHPSe], Protocolos Notariales de Sevilla [PNS], leg. 9973, f. 1123r, Seville, 9-XI-1596, “Copia de los contratos.” and actually figuring as Angola contractor in some sources (Fonseca, 2010, pp. 197, 201Fonseca, J. (2010) Escravos e Senhores na Lisboa Quinhentista. Lisboa: Edições Colibri.), a fact that has passed unacknowledged due to his death in 1598 at which time his brother João took over the businesses, and because the Contract had been signed by his brother João. Although the main partners in the Angola Contract were João Nunes Correia, Manuel Fernandes Anjo, and André Lopes Pinto, in the brazilwood agreement it seems that, in practice, the partners in addition to Correia were André Ximenes, Rodrigo de Andrade, Mateus da Veiga, and Manuel Fernandes Anjo, as is recorded in the Portuguese documents.⁶See, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo [ANTT], Cartórios Notariais de Lisboa [CNL], liv. 45, cx. 12, f. 37r, Lisbon, 6-IX1599, in which these partners are named along with “mais participes do dito contrato de pao.” The close relationship between the two contracts and their commercial scope, and the merchants involved, was a further step in the creation of an oligopoly favoured by the Crown, which did not appear to give much importance to the fact that João Nunes Correia was a New Christian suspected of Judaizing in Brazil and that, one year before the signing of both contracts by his brother, in 1592, he had been taken to Lisbon by the Inquisition (about his figure, Lipiner, 1969Lipiner, E. (1969) “João Nunes, o rabi da lei dos Judeus em Pernambuco.” In: E. Lipiner, Os judaizantes nas capitanias da cima (estudos sobre os cristãos novos do Brasil nos séculos XVII e XVIII). São Paulo: Brasiliense. ; Carrasco Vázquez, 2004bCarrasco Vázquez, J. A. (2004b) La minoría judeoconversa en la época del Conde-Duque de Olivares. Auge y ocaso de Juan Núñez Saravia (1585-1639). Unpublished doctoral thesis, Universidad de Alcalá.; Assis, 2011Assis, A. A. F. de (2011) João Nunes, um rabi escatológico na Nova Lusitânia: sociedade colonial e Inquisição no nordeste quinhentista. São Paulo: Alameda. , 2014Assis, A. A. F. de (2014) “Rabi, herege e «muito amigo de Deus»: um comerciante perseguido pela Inquisição no Brasil quinhentista.” Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas, 12-13, pp. 9-26.).

THE LITIGATION AND THE CONTRACT ACCOUNTS

One of the handlers of the contract in Angola was the factor Manuel Ruiz Cartagena, who acted in this post between 1597 and 1600. Dissatisfied with the payment for his work in Africa, he sued João Nunes Correia and his partners in 1606 to obtain a fair settlement for his services, providing the contract accounts as supporting evidence for his claim. At this time, both Ruiz Cartagena and Nunes Correia lived in Seville. The latter did so with his family as he had taken out the lease on the asiento de la avería in 1603 (Carrasco Vázquez, 2004b, pp. 180-191Carrasco Vázquez, J. A. (2004b) La minoría judeoconversa en la época del Conde-Duque de Olivares. Auge y ocaso de Juan Núñez Saravia (1585-1639). Unpublished doctoral thesis, Universidad de Alcalá.; Pajuelo Muñoz, 2021, pp. 69-80, 391-408 and passimPajuelo Muñoz, V. (2021) La armada de la guarda. Defensa y naufragio en la Carrera de Indias. Madrid/Sevilla: CSIC, Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla.), and Ruiz Cartagena had probably followed him in his new economic enterprise. The date of the claim is not fortuitous since at the end of August 1606, a warrant was issued against Correia, who was imprisoned at the Castle of Torrejón de Velasco. He was accused by the Treasury of involvement in crimes of embezzlement and bribery, charges with which the ministers Alonso Ramírez de Prado, Pedro Franqueza, and Pedro Álvares Pereira would soon after also be accused (Carrasco Vázquez, 2004b, pp. 248-249Carrasco Vázquez, J. A. (2004b) La minoría judeoconversa en la época del Conde-Duque de Olivares. Auge y ocaso de Juan Núñez Saravia (1585-1639). Unpublished doctoral thesis, Universidad de Alcalá.),⁷This trial would not be concluded until 1613. On Pereira, Luxán Meléndez, 1989, pp. 205, 208, 210, 211, 213. in the first trial against the regime of the Duke of Lerma (Williams, 2010, pp. 193-198Williams, P. (2010) El gran valido. El duque de Lerma, la Corte y el gobierno de Felipe III. 1598-1621. Segovia: Diputación de Castilla y León.).

As the two litigating parties failed to come to an agreement, arbitration was sought in the persons of two other Portuguese merchants based in Madrid, Luis Correa Monsanto on the side of Ruiz Cartagena and Francisco Fernández de Moura on the side of Correia.⁸Archivo Histórico de Protoclos de Madrid [AHPM], Protocolos Notariales de Madrid [PNM], leg. 4017, f. 678r, Madrid, 1-VI-1621. Their intervention was signed on the 3^rd of August 1621.⁹AHPM, PNM, leg. 4017, f. 694r. It must be kept in mind that what was taken down in these documents refers fundamentally to the areas in disagreement between the parties, in such a way that they cannot be considered complete accounts, although the information provided is quite broad, as we shall expound. According to the arbitrators, Correia owed Cartagena the amount of 1,207,207 réis, equivalent to 30,180 reales de plata (rsp) and 15 maravedís (mrs). However, Correia raised the due total to 35,000 rsp (=1,400,000 réis) to cover the expenses and legal fees paid by Cartagena, something that he was not required to do but that he endorsed on the condition that both parties agreed to close the litigation and to not pursue it except through a new action on a different matter.¹⁰AHPM, PNM, leg. 4017, f. 674v-677v.

The auditors divided the account into three parts. The first dealt with the income obtained from the sale of the cargoes of the ships that had traded in Angola with the avença of the contractors,¹¹The avença was the advantage that the contractors had to organize the shipping to Africa with their own conditions coming into terms with private investors and shipmasters to sail to Africa and then take the slaves to the Americas. See, Eagle, 2013. including the payment of duties for slaves and the various expenses derived from the handling of the Contract. The second was concerned with the ships engaged directly by João Nunes Correia and Manuel Fernandes Anjo, of which the profits were divided into three quarters for the former and one quarter for the latter; the handling costs were also recorded. The third dealt with the ships engaged by Correia and Fernandes Anjo in equal halves and their corresponding expenses.

Ahead of the analysis of each part, a global summary was made of the money invested by the contractors and disbursed by Ruiz Cartagena in the handling of the Contract (Table 1). The resulting sum of 32,655,835 réis was the amount that the contractors claimed they had not yet received from Manuel Ruiz Cartagena. The greater part of this amount, 80.6% (26,350,839 réis), was the value of the merchant cargoes shipped by private entrepreneurs and the contractors themselves. The latter were directly responsible for almost half of the total value, and João Nunes Correia himself had paid almost one-third, 7,653,590 réis. This provides an idea of the magnitude of the role of the contractors in the promotion of the mercantile dynamics in Angola, which greatly exceeded the obligations stipulated in the Contract (Fernández Chaves, 2022a, pp. 16-17, 23Fernández Chaves, M. F. (2022a) “El «trato e avenencia del reino de Angola para el Brasil e Indias de Castilla» de 1594-1600. Gestión y organización de la trata de esclavos en una época de transición.” Revista de Indias, 284, 2022, pp. 9-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2022.001 ). The duties paid by the ships sent to trade in Angola accounted for 9.3% of the total, while the remaining 9.9% covered basic operating costs such as the fees of the notary in Angola, the salary of Ruiz Cartagena and other fees, in addition to the handling costs of conocimientos from the cargoes of Juan de Argomedo, one of the partners of the contractors, and those of another merchant named Juan de Oporto. The receipt of funds sent from Lisbon in the form of licencias,¹²Manuel Ruiz Cartagena took out both licences for 1.600.000 and 400.000 réis, to be paid to Lopo Rodrigues of Lisbon for the value delivered to João Furtado, AHPM, leg. 4017, f. 692v. and the money sent to Pernambuco on Gaspar Fernandes Anjo, brother of the contractor Manuel Fernandes Anjo (Mello, 1993, p. 52Mello, J. A. G. de (1993) “Os livros das saídas das urcas do porto do Recife, 1595-1605.” Revista do Instituto Arqueologico Histórico e Geografico de Pernambuco, 58, pp. 21-143. ), to pay to Bento Maciel, are the final elements of these accounts. It is important to note that the function of Ruiz Cartagena was much more than that of a mere warehouse keeper and seller of goods arriving from Lisbon. Indeed, he collected the taxes pertaining to the Contract, supplied part of the merchandise to the Governor,¹³This role also included supplying the Jesuits in Angola, see Alencastro, 2000, pp. 168-186. handled the private shipments of the contractors, and also negotiated with money orders received from Lisbon and transferred funds to the partners and the relatives of the contractors in Brazil.

On the one part, Manuel Ruiz Cartagena’s expenditures were mainly attributed to the sums disbursed on the “conocimientos” of the cargoes sold in Angola and those sent on to Brazil and the Indies, whether from private entrepreneurs or the contractors. The cost of notary fees, his own salary, and other amounts also figure. The total amount of 34,644,949 réis was further increased by the 1,500,000 réis of the handling costs of several shipments, including “comisiones, seguros, avería de galeones y más costas” which the handler had paid to be settled to Captain Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo in Cartagena de Indias (Table 2). However, the auditors reduced this amount by half, 750, 000 réis, observing “diferencia que hay en ser dinero de Angola a moneda de España,” thus leaving the debt in favour of the handler of the Angola Contract at 35,394,949 réis.

On the other part, the contractors claimed from their former handler the settlement of the duties and commissions included in Table 3, in addition to the 32,655,835 réis, the largest part of which corresponded to the retail value of their cargoes. All this amounted to 32,980,515 réis, thus the contractors were in fact obliged to pay 2,414,434 réis. The contractors agreed to settle “por resto y igualamiento desta cuenta que tantos consta estarse debiendo por resto della al dicho Manuel Ruiz Cartagena,” and divided the amount in two: 1,207,217 réis paid by João Nunes Correia, and the other equal half paid by André Lopes, and Manuel Fernandes Anjo “por mitad que tenían en el dicho contrato,” thus reaching the 35,394,949 réis owed to Ruiz Cartagena and finalizing the debt between the two parties.

ECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF THE CONTRACT. THE CARGOES

Concerning the cargoes sent on behalf of private entrepreneurs, according to these accounts, between May 1597 and November 1600, 15 shipments arrived in the Kingdom of Angola with goods amounting to a total value of 13,791,518 réis (Table 4). Their value was however diminished by the damage suffered during the voyage, in addition to the repercussion of other charges such as the freight of each bead container (1,333 réis, containing approximately 106 stones), each bundle of cloth (between 1,000 and 1,422.2 réis per bundle) and each pipa (transport drum), used to hold goods and wine (between 2,000 and 2,600 réis per unit).

The greater part of the cargoes was made up of textiles,¹⁴A general overview of the different types of textiles sent from Europe in Alpern, 1995. See too, Ryder, 1969, pp. 37, 60-61, and specially for the Portuguese trade in São Tomé, Congo, and Benin: Ballong-Wen-Mewuda, 1993. For Angola in the following century, Caldeira, 2014. It is also essential Lopes and Menz, 2008, 2019. For textiles in an earlier time in Guinea, see, Vogt, 1975; Torrão, 2001b, and Newson, 2013, among many others. with a total of 20,267.1 elbows or covados, and 2,204 varas (the measure used, for instance, in the case of rajeta). As Lopes and Menz pointed out:

The total value of these cloths was 11,785,514 réis, 87% of the total value of these shipments, with an average investment of 928,947.6 réis per cargo. The price of each type of textile is shown in Table 4, as well as the total volume of each type and the percentage that it represented in the total value of the shipped goods. The largest investments were placed in frisado and palmilla. In terms of gross quantity, these types represented 76.8% of the textiles measured in elbows. So-called London cloth was the least abundant type but its value was the highest.¹⁶Already in 1513-1515 “pano de londres roxo” is found in cargoes sent from Castile to the island of Santiago, see, Torrão, 2001b, I, pp. 237-345, here, p. 291. In all cases, some cloths arrived rotten or damaged, and lost resale value. Beads were also shipped, mainly the socalled margarideta, a type of glass bead frequent on the coasts of Guinea, and also used in Angola in the economic transactions for the purchase of slaves¹⁷Compare with the lists of main merchandises offered in the chronicles for Guinea in the 16^th century, commented in Torrão, 2001b, I, pp. 261-263; see also, Newson and Minchin, 2007, pp. 45-46, 52, 318-319. Also, Alpern, 1995, p. 23. Van den Broecke indicates that between Mayumba and the Cape of Lopo Gonçalves “The blacks there desire most of all lijwate massa ma[?-]omba or large rosados,” referring to beads, see, La Fleur, 2000, p. 77. A recent study about the margarideta and beads in the trade from Seville to Angola in Fernández Chaves, 2022c. . The freight containers or drums are also included in Table 4 because they could have been sold in the region after their use had been fulfilled.

As a private initiative, João Nunes Correia and Manuel Fernandes Anjo also sent eight shipments (one in 1597 and seven in 1599), with the investment and profits divided into three quarters for the first and one quarter for the second. The accountants only recorded the value of the contribution of Nunes Correia, amounting to 7,841,303 réis, with an average investment per shipment of 980,162.8 réis. A profit of 7,653,590 réis was obtained, after the deduction of breakage, losses, and the price of the freight containers. The composition of the cargoes was very similar to those described above, with 88.15% of the total value being made up of textiles, and the remaining 11.85% of beads. Only three varieties of textiles were sent to Angola in these shipments, namely arbini (flemish cloths), frisado, and palmilla, and the latter alone represented more than half of the total value of the entire shipment (59.3%). So-called London cloth does not appear in the books. It should be noted that at other latitudes, palmilla was also an important merchandise among the textiles being shipped, and is mentioned for instance in some Dutch voyages¹⁸See for instance the case of Pieter van den Broecke in 1610 when he bought “four elephant’s tusks weighing 74 lb for four covados of palmillo from the natives,” La Fleur, 2000, p. 73. or in the correspondence of Juan de Argumendo himself later ca. 1610.¹⁹Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Angola, cx. 1, doc. 5, where Argumedo writes about “cachera,” “beirames” (from India), “palmilla,” “rajetas” and other textile fabrics. In the Seville archives, we have also documented palmilla for sale in Africa, produced in local workshops in both Andalusia and Extremadura.²⁰AHPSe, PNS, leg. 16763, f. 235r. “Power of attorney of Jorge de León Andrada” On the other hand, we have not found in the cargoes departing from Seville in these same years to Cabo Verde or Angola cloths from London but instead fine trims brought from Milan.²¹AHPSe, PNS, leg. 16757, f. 1126r, 20-V-1598. “Purchase of ‘pasamanos’ of Juan Bautista Soderini.” This is indicative of the specialisation of the cargoes according to the availability of the products at the port of origin. In addition to the margarideta glass beads, there are porcelain beads, the cheapest of all of the goods of the cargoes, with a limited proportion of the total value.²²Note that in the records known for Guinea in 1613, margarideta was a bead of little value, exchanged at 1 pound for 1 or 2 paños, while small porcelain beads, “conta menina de porcelana,” was worth 40 paños for 100 thousand beads. 2.800 thousand had been sent to Angola in this shipment. Cf. on these values Newson and Minchin, 2007, pp. 318-319. A closer view of the Sevillian-Angolan market of beads in Fernández Chaves, 2022c. These beads are also recorded among the products loaded aboard in Seville, complementary to the margarideta and other varieties imitating precious stones that do not appear in these shipments.²³See, for instance, AHPSe, PNS, leg. 9300, f. 1029r, Seville, 21-IV-1598, “Purchase of porcelana contería and cristalina to Guinea.”

Finally, in 1597, João Nunes Correia and Manuel Fernandes Anjo sent four shipments as equal partners, the goods of which reached a total value of 5,518,440 réis, which, after damages and freight costs, came to 5,150,698 réis, with an average investment of 1,379,610 réis per shipment, well above the average investment by private entrepreneurs. Textiles again made up the best part of the cargoes, with margarideta beads accounting for 16.3% of the total value. Again, a common wool textile such as palmilla was predominant, as well as the frisado and a very scarce complement made up of expensive London cloths. There is no arbini or rajeta, which are found in other private cargoes. The high cost of the freight of each drum is noteworthy in these shipments, most commonly fixed at 4,000 réis, except on one of the ships on which it was only 2,000 réis.

As for the rate of arrival of the chartered shipments, and still based on the information provided in these accounts, the 15 shipments sent by private entrepreneurs arrived mainly in 1598, with seven arrivals, also accounting for all the arrivals in Angola in 1600, with only two shipments. In 1597 and 1599, the contractors promoted commercial activities with Luanda. Thus, in 1597, in addition to the four shipments organised by private merchants, a further five cargoes were freighted with the direct participation of João Nunes Correia and Manuel Fernandes Anjo. Again in 1599 and given the scarce private initiative (only two shipments according to these accounts), the contractors sent seven shipments on their own, dividing the investment (and profits) between – for Correia and ¼ for Fernandes Anjo. Thus, these partners were responsible for sending a total of 12 shipments, a little less than half of the entire activity since other private entrepreneurs chartered at least these 15 shipments to the African kingdom.

It does appear, however, that the ships recorded in these accounts were not all those that were sent. We know that in Lisbon in 1599 João Nunes Correia engaged Juan de Argumedo to charter four Portuguese ships to take slaves from Angola to Cartagena de Indias. To do this, they first had to complete their cargo in Cadiz with “margarideta e contaria resgates de Angola… emprestimos e pipas e caldeiras e registos e tudo o mais que necesario for pera as ditas armações … vinhos e azeite.” For this purpose, the contractors advanced the necessary funds which would be discounted from the final payment for the shipment. As shown in Table 8, the loan was equivalent to about 1,000-1,100 réis per slave. It is interesting to note how it was expressly indicated that the shipments would be financed with the money obtained from the sale of brazilwood in Cadiz. Moreover, it was also made clear that the reinvestment in the slave trade would be of interest to all of the main brazilwood contractors, thus João Nunes Correia spoke on their behalf so that his envoy in Cadiz, Juan de Argumedo, “troque o pao en Cadis do Rio de Janeiro todo que ali foi ter na nao de João Bandarida a margarideta e contaria resgates de Angola e que o dito señor frete… tudo necesario pera… gastar escravos e os levar ao Brasil ou a Indias de Castela qual melhor e de mais proveito lhe parecer.”²⁴ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 45, cx. 12, f. 36v. Lisbon, 6-IX1599. Nunes Correia also authorised Argumedo to collect a shipment of 500 pesos from the profits of the Angola Contract sent from Cartagena de Indias by Bartolomeu Jorge, and which he was to use to settle debts and organise these shipments.²⁵ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 45, cx. 12, f. 40r. The money was consigned to Gaspar Suares Drago or Rui Fernandes Pereira. In 1600 the arrival to Seville of the galleon “San Gregorio” with 545 pesos de oro for Gaspar Suares Drago (about 320.588 réis). See Archivo General de Simancas, Consejo y Juntas de Hacienda, leg. 403. The shipmaster was paid 6,000 réis for each slave arriving alive to Tierra Firme²⁶ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 44, cx. 12, f. 57v, 61r y 79v, 16, 12 y 23-VIII-1599, “Freights of Pascual Carvalho, André Alvares and André Luis.” and 7,000 réis in the case of New Spain²⁷ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 44, cx. 12, f. 92r, Lisboa, 26-VIII-1599, “Shipments to Madeira, Angola, and New Spain by the master Vicente Roiz for Juan Jácome Espíndola.” , having paid 300 réis per slave in Angola. If the cargo was “pedra contarias como de vara e covado ne paguara frete algumo,”²⁸ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 44, cx. 12, f. 57v, 61r y 79v, 16, 12 y 23-VIII-1599. The same statement is included in the arguments of the ligitation analised above, Biblioteca Nacional de España, [BNE], Porcones, 1422, 32, “Tercer agravio.” and the transport of the rest of the goods was charged at 3,000 réis per ton for the first five, and 5,000 réis per ton for the subsequent units. Each ton of goods also advanced 500 réis for misfortune.²⁹ANTT, CNL, Cartório 3, liv. 44, cx. 12, f. 57v.

THE EXPENDITURES OF THE CONTRACT

As indicated above, the accounts included the sums disbursed by Manuel Ruiz Cartagena in his post as “factor.” These include so-called “conocimientos,” which refer to goods, cash, and other effects provided by the contractors to the Governor of Angola. Their value amounted to 18,001,250 réis, 85% of which was paid in the form of textile products and margarideta, necessary for commercial exchanges in the area and by contract an obligatory part of the shipments (Fernández Chaves, 2022a, pp. 20, 28-29Fernández Chaves, M. F. (2022a) “El «trato e avenencia del reino de Angola para el Brasil e Indias de Castilla» de 1594-1600. Gestión y organización de la trata de esclavos en una época de transición.” Revista de Indias, 284, 2022, pp. 9-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2022.001 ; 2022cFernández Chaves, M. F. (2022c) “Mercaderes florentinos y milaneses en la trata de esclavos a finales del siglo XVI. Contería y textiles italianos entre Sevilla y África.” In: J. J. Iglesias Rodríguez, J. M. Díaz Blanco, and I. M. Melero Muñoz, coords., En torno a la Primera Globalización: circulaciones y conexiones entre el Atlántico y el Mediterráneo (1492-1824). Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2022, pp. 111-137.). It is noteworthy that not all of these goods came from the shipments made by the contractors themselves since the net value of the merchandise sent in the 12 chartered vessels on record only amounted to 15,320,068.75 réis, The contractor’s handler must therefore have needed to purchase goods from the shipments of private entrepreneurs that were then sold to the Governor and other officials. The main recipient of the goods and cash was the Crown’s treasurer in Angola, Antonio Machado, who on occasion received goods from the King’s handler, Sebastião Coelho. It is interesting to note that part of the collected goods was cash currency, used to pay the salaries of officers and members of the Society of Jesus. The latter payments were recorded to Father José de Acosta, and it appears the members of the Society received a total of 1,598,551.586 réis. A sum of 157,500 réis was sent to Luis Núñez, a resident of Bahia, to purchase weapons.

In addition to these “conocimientos,” Manuel Ruiz Cartagena noted in a separate account the private shipments in which João Nunes Correia put forward three of the four parts (see Table 9). In the case of merchandise, the great majority was also received by Antonio Machado, while the salaries were paid to diverse members of the Portuguese colony, most of them related to the Church.³⁰These were Father Diego de Acosta, procurator for the brothers of his order and for which he received 446.250 réis in 1600; Manuel Roiz Tejera, vicar of the church of Luanda (80.000 réis annually, paid in 1600 for the arrears of 1598, 1599 and 1600); the priest of the church of Luanda, Francisco Roiz Preto (50.000 réis per year); Baltasar Dávila, priest of Nossa Senhora da Conçeição (100.000 réis); and Father Diego Andrión? de Lara, priest of the same church (50.000 réis). Rodrigo Fernandes, treasurer of the main church, was paid his salary for 4 years, amounting to 280.000 réis, and Bento Banha, treasurer of the deceased was paid the salary for 1 year of the late Father Baltasar de Avila, AHPM, PNM, leg. 4017, f. 688r-689v. The deliveries made from these shipments also consisted mainly of textiles and beads, including “margarideta,” “cano de pata,” “abalorio” and other unspecified types.³¹A general overview on beads in Alpern, 1995, pp. 22-24. See also Fernández Chaves, 2022c. Nunes Correia also turned over cash currency, paid several salaries, as well as Jesuit passage rights, and delivered flour and sheep skins.³²AHPM, PNM, leg. 4017, f. 688r-689v.

Finally, the “costas y salario,” described in the accounts as “gastos menudos,” amounted to a little over one million réis and corresponded for the most part to the payment of salaries to the officers of the Contract, with the rest of the entries referring to the notary fees for writing up different registers and receipts of passage, as well as certifications for the tax-free slaves taken out by the Jesuits, the rent of the house where the Contract handler lived, and surely gifts and bribes. In addition, the taxation per wine barrel to finance an “armada” collected more than 57,000 réis, and almost the same amount appears to have been put forward by the contractors to cover the expenses of that same fleet, about which there is very scarce information. Indeed, it appears to have been set up after the Contract was signed (and therefore is not mentioned in the agreement) and funded by the tax collection “a razón de un tanto por cada pipa.”³³BNE, Porcones, 1422, 32, “Tercer agravio.”

THE DUTIES PAID PER SLAVE

The money raised from the collection of duties per slave amounted to 3,054,180 réis, corresponding to 912 slaves loaded on 26 ships³⁴We do not count a patache with a Castilian master who did not pay any slave duties, only the right to sail to Sao Tomé, amounting to 11.160 réis. . The records belong to three ships from 1598 and 24 from 1600, 19 of them from the month of November. This is, therefore, a partial register that does not reflect all of the activities but provides the basis for a better understanding of the discretionary nature of the taxation of the slave trade.

Almost all of these 912 slaves are described as “piezas” except 10 recorded as “muleques.” The duties are very low at 1,250 and 1666.6 réis on average on two ships destined for São Tomé, in a patache sent by the Governor of Angola with another four slaves³⁵These “muleques” appear in the registers of 23-XI-1600, and that same day a patache of the Governor of Angola is recorded with 4 slaves. Although the taxes of the “muleques” are separate from those of the adult “piezas,” we suggest that the ship must have been the same one, headed to Sao Tomé. None of the three records include the name of the master of the ship. . The average number of slaves per ship is 35 but this figure seems very low for these dates and leads us to suggest that some slaves were not recorded or the cargoes were completed at other ports of call. It does not make sense, for example, that only one slave was recorded on Luis de Oliveira’s ship bound for Cartagena. If we cross-reference this data with the records of the “asentista” of the Indies of Castile, Pedro Gomes Reinel, we may confirm that these ships transported a larger number of slaves. The San Gabriel mastered by Fernão Vaz paid for 110 slave licenses for Cartagena de Indias but carried a total of 190 slaves (Vila Vilar, 2014, p. 246Vila Vilar, E. (2014) Hispanoamérica y el comercio de esclavos. 2nd ed. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla.), while the accounts of Ruiz Cartagena include the collection of 315,000 réis in extraction rights for just 50 “piezas”³⁶AHPM, PNM, leg. 4017, f. “Fees collected by Manuel Ruiz Cartagena in the Angola registry of the ships that departed from there as follows.” . This indicates that the tax business was not the main source of income for the contractors and that their ultimate intention was to encourage trade and to collect the profits from the sale of slaves in America.

Table 11 shows that more than half of the ships listed in this tax register were headed for the Indies of Castile (53.8%). Although 7,000 réis should have been charged in 1599 for each slave exported to the Indies of Castile,³⁷As was indicated in the shipment contracts in Seville, cf. Fernández Chaves, 2022a, pp. 25-26. the average duties per “pieza” was 6,362 réis. The official tax was collected in only very few cases and was mostly settled at 6,300 réis. However, the largest tax reduction was made on the slaves sent to Brazil. Indeed, the official charge per slave of 3,000 réis was reduced to an average of 1,959 réis. The figure of 2,700 réis was commonly applied but in a cargo of 187 slaves destined for Rio de Janeiro tax was dropped to 1,058.8 réis. Although a partial register, Table 12 includes all of the known shipments where the information about Brazil is especially interesting, and complements the scarce records for Bahia and Pernambuco known for these dates.³⁸See, Silva and Eltis, 2008, and Ribeiro, 2008, both in Eltis and Richardson, 2008. See also the scarce data present online at www.slavevoyages.com (accessed 10/01/2021). A recent very accurate work about the departure of ships from Angola to the Americas, complementary to the information studied here is Wheat and Schultz, 2022. Shipments to Lisbon were even cheaper in fiscal terms, at 1,196.3 réis per slave.

CONCLUSIONS

The 1593-1600 Angola Contract stipulated that the contractors were to pay the Crown annually between 14 and 21 million réis (Fernández Chaves, 2022a, pp. 1820Fernández Chaves, M. F. (2022a) “El «trato e avenencia del reino de Angola para el Brasil e Indias de Castilla» de 1594-1600. Gestión y organización de la trata de esclavos en una época de transición.” Revista de Indias, 284, 2022, pp. 9-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2022.001 ), and its development reflected the importance that Angola took in the “first waves” of slaves sent to Western Indies (Wheat, 2011Wheat, D. (2011) “The first great waves. African provenance zones for the Transatlantic slave trade to Cartagena de Indias, 1570-1640.” Journal of African History, 52, pp. 1-22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853711000119 ; Wheat & Schultz, 2022Wheat, D., and Schultz, K. (2022) “The Early Slave Trade from Angola to Spanish America and Brazil, 1575-1595.” Anuario de Estudios Americanos, 79 (2), pp. 487-514. doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/aeamer.2022.2.04 ). Fulfilling this obligation and making an additional profit was not based solely on the collection of taxes in Angola but indeed mostly on the ability of the contractors to finance the “avenças” and to fleet their own ships. As is shown by the accounts, the investment of the goods sent to Angola, on the one hand, and the expenditures disbursed there, on the other, were similar, with taxes playing only a small part in the profits obtained. The real business was in the promotion of cargo shipments through loans and investments from private entrepreneurs and in the sale of merchandise to the inhabitants of the colony. At the same time, the contractors played an important role in supporting members of the Church and the ministers of the King present in Angola, as well as supplying goods and other effects to the Governor. It was therefore their direction of the commercial dynamics between Angola and America that was the true key dimension of their activity, the ultimate goal of which was to promote the slave trade and to obtain high returns of silver and other goods. The cargoes analised in this paper generally had a prominent textile component, while beads were less voluminous but of strategic importance, and other elements appeared in lesser amounts. In this whole process, we cannot overlook the significance of the concentration in the same hands of the exploitation of brazilwood and the slave trade, which indicates a clear economic strategy in the hands of an oligopoly and a strengthening of the position of these merchants in the commercial network of the Iberian Atlantic, the internal relations of which we are still piecing together.