#assiento

[spanishmain]

William Robertson, The History of America, 1777

As an inducement that might prevail with Queen Anne to conclude a peace which France and Spain desired with equal ardor, Philip V not only conveyed to Great Britain the Assiento, or contract for supplying the Spanish colonies with negroes, which had formerly been enjoyed by France, but granted it the more extraordinary privilege of sending annually to the fair of Porto Bello a ship of 500 tons, laden with European commodities. In consequence of this, British factories were established at Carthagena, Panama, Vera Cruz, Buenos Ayres, and other Spanish settlements. The veil with which Spain had hitherto covered the state and transactions of her colonies was removed. The agents of a rival nation, residing in the towns of most extensive trade, and of chief resort, had the best opportunities of becoming acquainted with the interior condition of their provinces, of observing their stated and occasional wants, and of knowing what commodities might be imported into them with the greatest advantage. In consequence of information so authentic and expeditious, the merchants of Jamaica, and other English colonies who traded to the Spanish main, were enabled to assort and proportion their cargoes, so 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 most fatal consequence of the Assent to the trade of Spain. The agents of the British South Sea Company, under cover of the importation which they were authorize to make by the ship sent annually to Porto Bello, poured in their commodities on the Spanish continent, without limitation or restraint.