Cádiz - History Lab

Correspondence between Miguel José de Azanza and José de Mazarredo Salazar.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:04 +0000

It contains four letters addressed by Mazarredo to Azanza: 1. On the transfer of Azanza from Cádiz to El Puerto [de Santa María], and considerations regarding the defence of Cádiz against the English (on board. 8 July 1797). It ends with two expressions written in Basque. 2. On the transport and itineraries of the ship “El Monarca”, whose departure for America was scheduled for the following 20 January, criticising the unclear instructions of the superior (Island, 27 December 1797). Attached is a copy of a letter from José Mazarredo to José Justo Salcedo [y Arauco], in command of the ship “El Monarca”, which in turn inserts another of “19 of the current” from D. Juan Lángara [Minister of the Navy] to Mazarredo (Cádiz. 25 December 1797). 3. On the evolution of the meteorological weather (Island. 17th in the afternoon [probably January 1798]). 4. Sends letter from Mr. Lángara [Minister of the Navy] to Azanza, enclosed, who is not to be found, and announces that his preparations have been approved by the superiority (Island. 18 in the evening [probably January 1798]).

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File on José Juan de Cadalso Vázquez

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:58 +0000

Record of José de Cadalso Vázquez to enter as a student at the Real Seminario de Nobles de Madrid. Known as a man of letters for writing works such as Cartas Marruecas and Noches Lúgubres, he was a career military man who began his training in the classrooms of the Real Seminario de Nobles de Madrid.

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List of those killed and wounded on the Bahama in the Battle of Trafalgar

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

After Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, the Spanish court proved to be a weak extension of French policy. Charles IV’s latent weakness encouraged the French cause around the invasion of Portugal in 1801. A year later, France and England signed the Peace of Amiens, but their confrontation was soon to resume, and Spain became involved in this confrontation. The direct consequence of this situation was the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), where the Spanish fleet was destroyed by Admiral Nelson’s squadron. This defeat led to a further weakening of control of the overseas territories, which resulted in considerable economic collapse.

The post List of those killed and wounded on the Bahama in the Battle of Trafalgar first appeared on History Lab.

Cadalso y Vázquez Vizcarra y Andrade, José de

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

Document containing the evidence presented by José de Cadalso y Vázquez to obtain the title of Knight of the Order of Santiago. The author of such well-known literary works as Cartas marruecas and Noches lúgubres, he had a military career, like many descendants of merchant families, which enabled him to apply for honours.

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Epidemics of plague in Spain: 16th and 17th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

The plague epidemic had an early manifestation in Spain. There is evidence of outbreaks of plague along the Mediterranean strip of the peninsula as early as the 6th-8th centuries. During the 14th century, the Black Death appeared in Europe, an epidemic which, interspersed with others such as influenza and typhus, reappeared in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1596 the plague reached the peninsula via Santander, a port area. It spread virulently through the territories of Extremadura and the two Castiles, especially the area around Madrid. The Cantabrian coast and Andalusia were also affected, as well as the area between Alicante and Valencia. It was in the latter city that another plague epidemic broke out years later, in 1647. From Valencia it spread to the northern part of the Crown of Aragon: Catalonia and the Aragonese territories themselves were affected. Andalusia was also hit again, with the city of Seville suffering significant human losses, where it is estimated that 45% of the population died. It was in Seville that another epidemic appeared in 1676. With no time to recover, cities such as Seville, Cordoba, Malaga, Cadiz and Jaen were the protagonists of the horror. They were joined by Cartagena, in the Kingdom of Murcia. These were the last large-scale epidemics to occur in the peninsular territories of the Hispanic Monarchy. Once the epidemic, demographic and food crises of the 17th century were overcome, the 18th century ushered in a period of generalised growth.

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Fleets of New Spain

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

The New Spain Fleets linked Spain and the Viceroyalty of Mexico during the Modern Age. The route of this fleet was established, usually departing along the Guadalquivir River from Seville-Sanlúcar de Barrameda and, from 1680, from the Bay of Cádiz. Once at sea, they would head for the Canary Islands, and from there they would set course for America until they reached the port of Veracruz. The image shows precisely the departure of the fleet from the port of Veracruz to Cadiz, on a return voyage to Spain. These fleets transported mainly agricultural and manufactured goods from Europe to America, and brought silver and colonial products such as grana cochineal, leather, tortoiseshell, ginger and cocoa, among others, to the old continent. Asian products such as silk, which had arrived in New Spain via the Manila Galleon, were also shipped. The New Spain Fleet would remain in force until the end of the 18th century, thus enjoying a long history.

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Contracting House

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

The Contracting House was the institution responsible, from its first ordinances in 1503, for managing all commercial matters related to the New World. It was initially set up in Seville, the main hub of trade with America, where it remained for more than 200 years. Its splendour was such that in the mid-16th century it displaced other European financial centres such as Antwerp. Its first headquarters were in the Royal Shipyards of Seville, but it soon moved to the premises of the Real Alcázar. It remained there until 1717, when it moved to Cadiz, where it remained until 1790, when the institution was abolished. During its first decades of existence in the 16th century, it enjoyed great influence, which would diminish with the passing of time and with the creation of bodies such as the Consulado de Cargadores (Consulate of Chargers). At the end of the 17th century, its role was secondary, a condition that was further reinforced throughout the 18th century, mainly after its transfer to Cadiz. Its most visible activity throughout the 16th and 17th centuries was undoubtedly the organisation of the convoys that marched in the Carrera de Indias: the fleets of New Spain and Tierra Firme. He was also in charge, among other duties, of preparing the merchant ships and galleons of war, registering the merchandise, examining the passengers who embarked and preparing the pilots. It also managed the remittances from the Indies corresponding to the King and private individuals, and functioned as the first instance in its judicial sphere.

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Formalisation of letters of obligation by masters and captains of ships (1580-1598)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

Notary publics set up public offices with royal authority to publicly attest the validity of an agreement and the identity of the parties who signed it. The use of this type of notarial document increased steadily in the main commercial centres of the time, such as Seville, because the notary public offices allowed local and foreign merchants to formalise their agreements without discriminating against them on the basis of their origin or status in the city. In this sense, the power of attorney could be relatively broad, granting full power to the proxy, or, on the contrary, very specific, limiting the action of the person who received it, as the flexibility of these was one of the factors that explained the popularity of the power of attorney itself. After Seville, the geographical references that appear most frequently in proxy letters are the ports of the Andalusian Atlantic coast, especially Sanlúcar de Barrameda, followed by Cádiz. The rise of the former was favoured by the policies of the Duke of Media Sidonia to attract foreign mercantile activity to the region. However, letters of obligation granted by masters and captains of the Carrera de Indias began to be frequent from the mid-1590s for several reasons: until then, contracts were formalised in other notaries’ offices; the existence of greater liquidity until 1590 allowed captains and masters to pay immediately without forcing payment on credit. From 1588 onwards, with the worsening of the wars with England and the Netherlands, merchants understood that the risk of financial operations with America increased and decided to formalise their operations to defend themselves against non-payment or confiscation by the monarchy.

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Granting of titles of nobility and access to the Royal Navy (1690-1829)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

During the 18th century there was an enrichment of Cadiz merchants who came to rise socially acquiring noble titles, going from a family culture of merchants to seek new careers for their children through the income in the Royal Navy. One of the main aspects to be considered initially is the situation of trade, looking at the families still in the business and by studying their sources of wealth also at what level they aspired to in this situation.
With the selection of twenty-seven families from the Cádiz trade, it is possible to find out which of their descendants joined the Academies of Marine Guards from the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. With the data collected, it is possible to establish the transformations that were taking place within the families themselves and the way in which they adapted to the changes experienced by Cádiz society.
The level of interest in the naval institution remained between three and four throughout the first half of the 18th century, growing exponentially in the second half of the century when the merchants of Cádiz received a greater number of noble titles, decreasing again in the early years of the 19th century, highlighting the strategy of ennoblement that marked the institution in these years.

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Choleric Mortality in Andalusia, 1833-35

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

The first Asian cholera pandemic entered the Iberian Peninsula in 1833 via Portugal. In Andalusia, cholera persisted for 16 months, between August 1833 and January 1835. The traditional account of the epidemic, which limited the presence of cholera to western Andalusia in 1833, blamed the exacerbation in the summer of 1834 on the march of an army corps from Portugal. The epidemic spread during the autumn of 1833 from the western provinces to the eastern provinces by means of maritime traffic. The prolonged presence of the disease occurred in the midst of a complicated political situation: the reform of the absolutist regime after the death of Ferdinand VII and the beginning of the first Carlist war. In Andalusia, the first barriers – sea and land – were applied between 18 and 24 August 1831 in response to the news that Gibraltar was suffering from a suspicious disease, leading to the closure of the border with the Portuguese country in February 1833. The upsurge of the pandemic led to the second “cordon sanitaire” formed by troops, until it was lifted in August. Preventive policy, however, moved away from quarantines and cordons to focus on urban sanitation measures and aid for the sick. The majority of the series of sick and dead cases, with modifications, meet the typical conditions of Holomantic outbreaks: a rapid rise in the number of cases, a more prolonged maintenance of an uneven pattern, and a somewhat slower decline. The persistence of the disease in parts of eastern Andalusia during the winter and spring of 1834 gave the presentation of this choleric epidemic its peculiar west-east-west development. In western points, such as Cadiz and Seville, the epidemic occurred on two occasions, but sufficiently separated in time and with no evidence of this insidious interregnum.

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