the cognizance of the Inquifition; that fuch as were guilty of it might be tried and punifhed, according to the fecret and fummary form in which that dreadful tribunal exercifes its jurif diction. e) Others, uninftructed by obferving the pernicious effects of monopolies in every country where they have been established, have propofed to veft the trade with America in exclufive companies, which intereft would render the most vigilant guardians of the Spanish commerce against the incroachment of the interlopers. f)

Befide thefe wild projects, many schemes, better digefted and more beneficial, were fuggefted. But under the feeble monarchs, with whom the reign of the Auftrian line in Spain clofed, incapacity and indecifion are confpicuous in every department of government. Inftead of taking for their model the active administration of Charles V. they affected to imitate the cautious procraftinating wifdom of Philip II. and deftitute of his talents, they deliberated perpetually, but determined nothing. No remedy was applied to the evils under which the national commerce, domeftick as well as foreign, languifhed. Thefe evils continued to increafe, and Spain, with dominions more extenfive and more opulent than any European

e) Moncada Reftauracion politica de Efpagna, p. 41. f) Zavalla y Augnon Reprefentacion, &c, p. 190.

state, poffeffed neither vigour, nor money, g) nor induftry. At length, the violence of a great national convulfion rouzed the flumbering genius of Spain. The efforts of the two contending parties in the civil war, kindled by the difpute concerning the fucceffion of the crown at the beginning of this century, called forth, in fome degree, the ancient fpirit and vigour of the nation. While men were thus forming, capable of adopting fentiments more liberal than those which had influenced the councils of the monarchy during the courfe of a century, Spain derived from an unexpected fource the means of availing itself of their talents. The various powers who favoured the pretenfions either of the Auftrian or Bourbon candidate for the Spanifh throne, fent formidable fleets and armies to their fupport; France, England, and Holland remitted immenfe fums to Spain. Thefe were fpent in the provinces which became the theatre of war. Part of the American treafure, of which foreigners had drained the kingdom, flowed back thither. From this æra, one of the moft intelligent Spanish authors dates the revival of the monarchy; and, however humiliating the truth may be, he acknowledges, that it is to her enemies his country is indebted for the acquifition of a fund of circulating fpe

g) See NOTE LXV.

cie, in fome measure adequate to the exigencies of the publick. i)

Step towards improvement by the Bourbon monarchs; by exclading foreigners from trade with Peru;

As foon as the Bourbons obtained quiet poffeffion of the throne, they difcerned this change in the fpirit of the people, and in the ftate of the nation, and took advantage of it; for although that family has not given monarchs to Spain, remarkable for fuperiority of genius, they have all been beneficent princes, attentive to the happiness of their subjects; and folicitous to promote it. It was, accordingly, the firft object of Philip V. to fupprefs an innovation which had crept in during the courfe of the war, and had overturned the whole fyftem of the Spanish commerce with America. The English and Dutch, by their fuperiority in naval power, having acquired fuch command of the fea, as to cut off all intercourfe between Spain and her colonies, Spain, in order to furnish her fubjects in America thofe neceffaries of life, without which they could not exist, and as the only means of receiving from thence any part of their treasure, departed fo far from the ufual rigour of its maxims, as to open the trade with Peru to her allies the French. The merchants of St. Malo, to whom Louis XIV. granted the privilege of this lucrative commerce, engaged in it with vigour, and carried it

i) Campomanes, i, 420.

on upon principles very different from thofe of the Spaniards. They fupplied Peru with European commodities at a moderate price, and not in ftinted quantity. The goods which they imported were conveyed to every province of Spanish America, in fuch abundance as had never been known in any former period. If this intercourfe had been continued, the exportation of European commodities from Spain muft have ceased, and the dependence of the colonies on the mother-country have been at an end. The moft peremptory injunctions were therefore iffued (1713.) prohibiting the admiffion of foreign veffels into any port of Peru or Chili, k) and a Spanish fquadron was ployed to clear the South Sea of intruders, whofe aid was no longer neceffary.

em

by checking contraband trade, particularly of the English Affiento company.

But though, on the ceflation of the war, which was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht, Spain obtained relief from one encroachment on her commercial fyftem, fhe was expofed to another, which the deemed hardly lefs pernicious. As an inducement that might prevail with Queen Anne to conclude a peace, which France and Spain defired with equal ardour, Philip V. not only conveyed to Great Britain

k) Frezier Voy. 256. B. Ulloa Retab. ii. 104, &c. Alcedo y Herrera Avifo, &c. 236.

the Affiento, or contract for fupplying the Spanifh colonies with negroes, which had formerly been enjoyed by France, but granted it the more extraordinary privilege of fending annually to the fair of Porto bello, a fhip of five hundred tons, laden with European commodities. In confequenee of this, British factories were eftablished at Carthagena, Panama, Vera Cruz, Buenos-Ayres, and other Spanish fettlements. The veil with which Spain had hitherto covered the ftate and transactions of her colonies was removed. The agents of a rival nation, refiding in the towns of moft extenfive trade, and of chief refort, had the best opportunities of becoming acquainted with the interior condition of the American provinces, of obferving their stated and occafional wants, and of knowing what commodities might be imported into them with the greatest advantage. In confequence of information fo authentick and enpeditious, the merchants of Jamaica, and other English colonies who traded to the Spanish main, were enabled to affort and proportion their cargoes fo exactly to the demands of the market, that the contraband commerce was carried on with a facility, and to an extent unknown in any former period. This, however, was not the moft fatal confequence of the Affiento to the trade of Spain. The agents of the British South Sea company, under cover of the importation which they were authorised to