680 Character of Spanish colonisation [1650-1715 the means of outlet for the treasure of Peru, instead of the pirateinfested Caribbean Sea, had never been pursued, and was now completely frustrated. In the south the Portuguese wished the Rio Plata and the Rio Uruguay to form their western frontier, and in 1680 they established Nova Colonia to prevent the Spanish from colonising in the vicinity of the Uruguay. This post, however, was seized by the Spanish during their war with the Allies; and, though it was restored to Brazil in 1715, no settlement of the boundary question could then be reached. That the colonial power of Spain continued throughout the seventeenth century to decline relatively to that of every other great colonis ing nation, there can be little doubt whether the comparison be made on the basis of the prosperity and strength of the colonial communities which were being built up; or whether Spain be judged by her own ends, and the advantages which the colonies yielded to the mother country in tribute and trading profits, and as a field of employment for a needy aristocracy, be chiefly considered. The former standard Spain always and deliberately set aside. To plant active and self-dependent societies in the lands which she had conquered was an ambition alien to her genius and her history. In some respects her conception of colonisation was narrower than that of any other people of her time. All sought to utilise the resources of the new lands for the upbuilding of their own strength; but Spain continued to concentrate her attention on, and measure her success by, the volume of treasure transported to her from the New World. Learning little and forgetting little, though the art of colonisa tion was being rapidly transformed, she pursued throughout these years her historic course, adding new territory by the sword, exploiting prin cipally its mineral resources, and seeking to administer it in such a manner that it would yield an ample revenue to the Crown. Her maritime power suffered a woeful decline, but she still retained her grip upon her vast dominions. The buccaneers raided exposed ports and preyed upon the routes of commerce; English, French, and Dutch seized outlying islands in the West Indies, and sometimes spread panic along the coasts; but no nation ever gained upon the mainland such a foothold as the Dutch acquired in northern Brazil. Cromwell conceived a joint attack by England and Holland on the colonies of Spain and Portugal: but his great scheme was never realised, and bore no fruit beyond the capture of Jamaica in 1655. Fertile fields for the energies of the younger maritime Powers were opening elsewhere. Colonisation and not conquest occupied their attention. Hence they ceased to covet the possession of Spain's immense territory, and, though they still dispute with her for a share in its commerce, desiring especially the precis metals of which it enjoyed so bountiful a store, they left her mistressf the great continental empire she had founded and of the large islands which lay unpeopled and undeveloped in the Caribbean Sea. The domestic history of the Spanish colonies in the Viceregal period 1650-1715] Character of Spanish colonisation 681 was not eventful. Their political and administrative organisation had been completed in the sixteenth century, and is described elsewhere in this work. At Lima and Mexico the Viceroys ruled in state, endowed with absolute authority, though unable always to exercise it in the remoter parts of their vast dominions. Complaints of their actions might be presented to the Crown by the audiencias, the supreme judicial and administrative bodies; and, as was the case with all other colonial officials, their conduct was subjected to an enquiry on the conclusion of their term of office. The powers possessed by the cabildos, or town councils, and the consulados, or commercial chambers, of Mexico and Lima, were too slight to enable these bodies to modify the character and spirit of so carefully organised a system of absolute government. The life of the country was quiet, even stagnant; it moved in fixed channels, and lacked the elasticity of development that often marks the first stages of a young society's progress. The uprisings that disturbed the peace of Brazil, the murmur of political liberty heard in the English colonies were unknown in Peru and Mexico; though there was at times much turbulence in the mining districts, where an idle population assembled, and where speculators disputed for the possession of valuable claims. In 1667 the lawlessness of Potosí became a scandal, and the Count of Lemos, Viceroy at the time, was compelled to repair to the district, where he restored order with an unusual fierceness. It was difficult also, owing to the weakness of Spain at sea, to protect the coasts from the raids of enemies and to prevent contraband trading. But, as the Spanish population was comparatively small, and the greater part lived in towns, which were generally well garrisoned, the authority of the Viceroys over their subjects was maintained unquestioned. Equally unquestioned was the submission of the colony to the mother country. This was partly a result of Spanish methods of colonisation and of the attention lavished on the problem of governing dependencies. Without faith in her own offspring, Spain was more concerned to weaken than to strengthen her colonies, and precautions were redoubled to ensure their attachment to the empire. The authority of the Crown, the Church, and the nobility, the three principal agents in Spanish colonisation, followed swiftly in the footsteps of the conquering generals; and the political conditions of the mother country were speedily reproduced in the colony. A despotic Government, so organised that its different parts should act as a check upon each other, suspected by the Crown and suspicious of the Creole, laboured to raise a large revenue for transmission home. A wealthy Church, with numerous clergy and monastic establishments and magnificent buildings, pressed upon the productive resources of the country. The tribunal of the Inquisition, enjoying great power, sat in the capital cities, supervised conduct, and repressed heresy. A needy nobility shared out large portions of the land in huge estates. Amongst the people in general, law and custom combined 682 Economic conditions. Creoles.-Indians [1650-1715 to stereotype a caste division, which fixed the social position of a man and his legal rights according to the shade of colour which his skin exhibited. The mother country encouraged the antagonism which thus separated the various classes of her subjects, and felt her authority the more secure on this account. But it was impossible to build a strong and progressive community by setting the home-born white against the native white, the white against the half-breed, the coloured man against the white man, the negro against the Indian. In exploiting their transatlantic possessions the Spanish instinctively diverted much of their energy to the search for the precious metals. There were silver mines in Peru, at Potosí, Oruro, Corocoro, and Castro Vireyna, and quicksilver mines at Guancavelica. The mineral deposits of Mexico were richer still and more easily worked. The large mining population offered a considerable demand for foodstuffs, chiefly wine, flour, and maize, which were often transported over a great distance, as well as for utensils and clothing, which were manufactured, to some extent by the Indians, at Lima and other towns. But from various causes the general resources of the colonies were ill developed. The huge estates granted out to the nobility and the Church were an obstacle to the free disposition of land; and this, together with the absence of agricultural immigrants, the distaste for agriculture exhibited by the Creole, and the possibility of compelling the Indians and the numerous slaves to undertake all necessary cultivation, forbade the extension and prosperity of agricultural settlement. Moreover difficulties of transport and an unwise commercial policy limited the market for produce both at home and abroad. From the generations born in a country more is usually to be expected than from the immigrant. But the Spanish Creole was allowed no sufficient scope for his ability. Civil, military, and high ecclesiastical offices, the best professional positions, the leading branches of trade and manufactures, the high posts at the mines, the large plantations, were all monopolised by the home-born Spaniard. Partly because of this the Creole became apathetic. He scorned agriculture and aspired to belong to the lettered professions, the Law and the Church, to live idly, and to obtain some title commanding social rank. Hence it came about that so large a part of a small Spanish population was located in the towns, and consisted of clergy, officials, soldiers, lawyers, and merchants. The government of the Indians offered a most difficult problem, to which a summary in a later volume will recur. Their labour was of great importance in the economic life of America. Indians were drafted into its mines, its industries, and its pearl-fisheries. They were the principal cultivators of the soil, carried out works of neces sity such as road-making and bridge-building, and paid a tribute to the Crown which formed a considerable item in its income. Ever since the writings and appeals of Las Casas had thrown a lurid light on the fate of these unfortunate people, the Spanish Government had been 1650-1718] The Indians. Commerce 683 engaged in a long struggle on their behalf against the opinion, interests, and practices of its other colonial subjects. The Indians at this time generally lived in villages of their own, were governed by the descendants of their old lords, and for their better protection were maintained in a state of "perpetual minority." But the forced services which they had to render laid them open to the grossest maltreatment. The report of the licentiate Padilla in 1657 revealed terrible abuses still existing in the mining districts of Peru, and led to new ordinances being promulgated which the Count of Lemos laboured to enforce. The presence of Jesuit missionaries, the absence of mines, the introduction of negroes, were all circumstances that in different places contributed to improve the lot of the Indian, and to enable the will of the Government concerning him to take effect. But wherever economic needs provided the excuse, the heaviest burdens of all kinds were inflicted upon this most helpless section of the community. With the tribes in the neighbourhood of the Parana, the Jesuits during the seventeenth century carried out an interesting experiment in the treatment of weaker races and in state-building. Gathering them in villages and excluding all Europeans, they organised a socialist community under ecclesiastical management. They were not less active on the upper waters of the Amazon, where their explorations added much, and might have added very much more, to the boundaries of Peru. The profits which Spain drew from her colonies suffered considerable diminution during these years. Wars with the Araucanians in Chili, and with the Indian peoples on the northern boundaries of Mexico, led to new additions of territory; but, together with the losses from the raids of the buccaneers and outlays for improving the defences of the ports and equipping cruisers to protect commerce and prevent smuggling, they often swallowed up much of the surplus revenue. Even under normal conditions, some parts of the empire scarcely repaid the cost of their government. In 1718 a third vice-royalty, New Granada, was carved out of northern Peru, in the hope that better administration would extract a larger income from this part of the continent. But what was really more unfortunate for Spain was the dwindling away of her colonial trade. In its broadest features her commercial policy had not been illiberal towards her colonies. No systematic effort had been made to shackle their industrial and agricultural progress in favour of producers at home. Skilled artisans were permitted to migrate to America, and the province of Quito numbered an industrial element in its population. If the Spanish colonies were economically backward, it was their social organisation and the character of their people that placed the greatest restraints on their productive powers. None the less, the manner in which the mother country conducted her commerce with her dependencies was most injurious both to herself and to them. The Casa de Contratacion, which administered the economic affairs of 684 French colonisation in North America [1503-1720 America, pushed its regulations into the minutest details. Never perhaps has a Government lavished so much care only to repress the energies of its subjects and to ruin their commerce. Moreover, between 1503 and 1720 the trade of the Indies was a monopoly of the merchants of Seville, and, on the other side of the Atlantic, was controlled by a few businesshouses in Mexico and Lima; both groups of merchants forming in fact, though not in name, a privileged Company, and consulting their own interests by limiting the exchange of goods in order to maintain high prices. For the sake of security all goods were carried across the Atlantic by annual fleets sailing in two great divisions - the flota, to Vera Cruz, to supply the wants of New Spain; the galleons, to Cartagena and Portobello, where was transacted the business of Peru. No large commerce could be developed under these conditions. The tonnage of the two fleets, never exceeding 27,500, steadily decreased, and their voyages became more and more irregular. At the same time, an inviting opportunity was extended to traders of other nations, which, as Spain lost her power upon the sea, and Dutch, English, and French strengthened their positions in the West Indies, was eagerly grasped. Curaçoa, Jamaica, and St Domingo became centres of a contraband trade which gradually assumed large proportions and a regular organisation. Hence it came about that, under the pres sure of circumstances, Spain was compelled to surrender parts of her cherished monopoly. During the War of the Succession she opened her American ports to the French, and by the Treaty of Utrecht she granted important privileges to the English-securing to them on the one hand, the Asiento, or monopoly for thirty years of the slave-trade between her colonies and Africa, which, since 1696, had been held first by a Portuguese and then by a French Company; and, on the other, the right to send one small vessel to the annual fair at Cartagena. In the struggle to retain her commerce against the superior activity of the younger maritime Powers she had failed more decisively than in the struggle to retain her territory. But nothing contributed so much during these years to transform the aspect of the colonial world, as the great work of colonisation which the English and French had begun in the northern continent and the West Indian Islands. On the St Lawrence, the French after a hard struggle had overcome the initial difficulties of agricultural settlement. Their progress had at first been halting and slow, and, in 1660, the colony founded by Champlain at Quebec in 1608 still ran risks of starvation of of extinction at the hands of the Indians. But Louis XIV and Colbert. by systematic and unremitting attention, rescued the settlers from the precarious conditions, and to a few fur-trading posts and Jesuit missiet stations added a small community of seigneurs and peasantry. Strange contrasts presented themselves in the life of the New France which they created. Constructed on the model of Old France, ruled absolutely ani in petty details by a paternal government, under the control of a not less |