The House of Trade: How Spain Controlled Its Empire from Seville

After the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the world between Spain and Portugal, the Spanish Crown faced a daunting challenge: how to govern an empire spanning two continents and an ocean. The answer was the Casa de Contratación, the House of Trade, established in Seville in 1503. This episode explores the inner workings of Spain's imperial bureaucracy: from the Padrón Real, the secret master map of the New World, to the training of pilots and the licensing of every ship. We meet figures like Amerigo Vespucci, who served as the first Pilot Major, and the cosmographers who compiled knowledge from explorers. We also look at the corruption and smuggling that plagued the system, the transition to Cadiz, and how the Casa's decline mirrored Spain's waning power. A story of paper, ink, and control—the unseen machinery of empire. #CasaDeContratacion #HouseOfTrade #SpanishEmpire #Seville #AmerigoVespucci #PadronReal #PilotMajor #ColonialBureaucracy #TreatyOfTordesillas #NewWorld #ImperialControl #Smuggling #Cadiz #JuanDeLaCosa #Cosmography #HistoryOfColonialism #FexingoHistory #WorldHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo