tutions located at
Seville,--the _Casa de Contratacion_, mentioned above, and the
_Consulado_. The _Casa de Contratacion_, founded by royal decree as
early as 1503, was both a judicial tribunal and a house of commerce.
Nothing might be sent to the Indies without its consent; nothing might
be brought back and landed, either on the account of merchants or of the
King himself, without its authorization. It received all the revenues
accruing from the Indies, not only the imposts on commerce, but also all
the taxes remitted by colonial officers. As a consultative body it had
the right to propose directly to the King anything which it deemed
necessary to the development and organization of American commerce; and
as a tribunal it possessed an absolute competence over all crimes under
the common law, and over all infractions of the ordinances governing the
trade of the Indies, to the exclusion of every ordinary court. Its
jurisdiction began at the moment the passengers and crews embarked and
the goods were put on board, and ended only when the return voyage and
disembarkation had been completed.[10] The civil jurisdiction of the
_Casa_ was much more restricted and disputes purely commercial in
character between the merchants were reserved to the _Consulado_, which
was a tribunal of commerce chosen entirely by the merchants themselves.
Appeals in certain cases might be carried to the Council of the
Indies.[11]

The first means adopted by the northern maritime nations to appropriate
to themselves a share of the riches of the New World was open,
semi-piratical attack upon the Spanish argosies returning from those
distant El Dorados. The success of the Norman and Breton corsairs, for
it was the French, not the English, who started the game, gradually
forced upon the Spaniards, as a means of protection, the establishment
of great merchant fleets sailing periodically at long intervals and
accompanied by powerful convoys. During the first half of the sixteenth
century any ship which had fulfilled the conditions required for
engaging in American commerce was allowed to depart alone and at any
time of the year. From about 1526, however, merchant vessels were
ordered to sail together, and by a _cedula_ of July 1561, the system of
fleets was made permanent and obligatory. This decree prohibited any
ship from sailing alone to America from Cadiz or San Lucar on pain of
forfeiture of ship and cargo.[12] Two fleets were organized each year,