Casa de la Contratación
Item
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Country
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ES
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Name of institution (English)
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General Archive of the Indies
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Language of name of institution
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spa
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Contact information: postal address
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Avenida de la Constitución s/n // Calle Santo Tomás 5, 41071 Seville
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Contact information: phone number
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0034 954500528
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Contact information: email
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agi1@cultura.gob.es
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agi2@cultura.gob.es
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Reference number
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ES.41091.AGI/11//CONTRATACION
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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House of Trade
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Title (official language of the state)
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Casa de la Contratación
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Language of title
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spa
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Creator / accumulator
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Casa de la Contratación
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Date(s)
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1492/1795
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Language(s)
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spa
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Extent
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51 series
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The second collection in volume and importance of the Archivo General de Indias is the one formed by the documents of the Casa de la Contratación. This extensive fonds is divided into 51 series according to the subject and typology of the documentation. It includes very interesting materials related to all the activities of the Casa de la Contratación, such as those regarding trade and shipment of goods between Spain and America, the organisation and control of fleets and navigation, control of the "Passengers to the Indies", civil jurisdiction in matters of trading companies, freight, deceased property, contracts, and so on. For instance, section 3 ("Naturalezas de extranjeros") includes records of the naturalization of foreign-born merchants who operated in Spanish America, among them several Portuguese New Christians. Numerous other examples of documentation regarding the participation of New Christian merchants in Spanish American trade can be found throughout the various series of this fonds, which make it one of the most important collections for research on New Christian networks in the Spanish Atlantic.
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Archival history
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The Archivo General de Indias, established in Seville in 1785, preserved the fonds produced by the institutions created by the Spanish Central Administration for the government and administration of Spanish overseas territories. These institutions are the Consejo de Indias y Secretarías de Despacho (Council of the Indies and Secretaries of State and Office), Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade), and the Consulates of Seville and Cádiz. Likewise, other fonds of smaller institutions and even individuals related to the Spanish colonies in America are preserved.
The geographical scope covered by the records of this fonds is broad, including Iberian America and the Philippine Islands. There is also abundant documentation on other neighbouring countries such as the United States, Brazil, etc.
As to the chronological scope, the documentation covers more than four centuries, from 1492 to the independence of the Spanish territories in America in the first third of the 19th century. Records are also preserved until the second third of the 19th century on the islands of Cuba and the Philippines, which remained Spanish provinces until 1898.
The archive is housed in the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes, the old merchants' exchange of Seville. Today the Archivo General de Indias houses some nine kilometres of shelving, in 43,000 volumes and some 80 million pages, which were produced by the colonial administration.
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(source: Guia del Archivo General de Indias)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Casa de la Contratación de Indias, a Crown agency for the Spanish Empire, was created by the ordinances of January 20, 1503. It had its headquarters in the Reales Alcázares de Sevilla, where it remained until its transfer to Cádiz in 1717. The House was settled there until 1790, when its extinction was decreed.
The House was created to manage the trade with the overseas territories, in the image of the Casa da India in Lisbon. This body had a triple mission: to direct Spanish American trade and navigation, to serve as a commercial court of justice, and as a scientific institution to study and train on maritime and cartographic issues.
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(source: Censo Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica)
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System of arrangement
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The complex administrative organisation of the Casa de la Contratación gives rise to an enormous volume of documentation that does not have, of origin, a systematic arrangement, nor an organic classification. This may be due to the division of documentation between Seville and Cádiz.
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Author of the description
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Rui Queirós de Faria, 2021
