| Resumo: | This work underlines the importance of Yucatan's commercial relations across the Atlantic Ocean, as opposed to the traditional belief that these exchanges were small and infrequent. Due to the margination and poverty of the province, in 1590 the Spanish Crown granted Yucatan a license to send two small ships each year, with the necessary products. This license allowed the securing of a trade that until then had been quite precarious. This is why the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the movements of ships and merchandise between 1590 and 1600 lets us understand why, despite being considered secondary, this region's commerce occupied, as seen from Seville, a considerable position among the great amount of Atlantic trade. These analyses also reveal why during the seventeenth century Yucatan would come to be the most favored of the smaller posts along the Spain-Indies trading route.
|