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The
Spanish relied on African slave labour to make their American colonial project possible, but now lacked any trading or territorial foothold in West Africa, the principal source of slave labour. Thus the Spanish were reliant on Portuguese slave traders for all their requirements, and a contract for a specified annual supply was issued by the Spanish king, called the
59:. A peça was used to measure quotas and to assess tariffs. Broadly speaking one peça equated to one healthy male or female slave between 15 and 25 years of age; slaves between 25 and 35, and between 8 and 15 years were valued at 2/3 peça with those outside this age range and those infirm being valued lower.
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Obtain as much indulgence of the royal officers in the measurement of our negros as you can, the usual measurement is 3 for 4 but we would not here be understood that you should buy their favour, believing it will not answer to the
Company, for we doubt the introduction each year of even 4,000 negros
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divided the
Atlantic Ocean and other parts of the globe into two zones of influence, Spanish and Portuguese. The Spanish acquired the west side washing South America and the West Indies, whilst the Portuguese obtained the east side washing the west coast of Africa—and also the Indian Ocean beyond.
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to head-counts might be expected to indicate the type or "quality" of slaves in any particular group; the higher the ratio the greater the number of prime male slaves. Use of such ratio provides data to historians and researchers attempting to estimate genders and ages of slaves introduced into
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treaty. It provided much scope for private profit-making by corrupt company officials, as company factors (local managers) received a share of half of the net sale proceeds on resale of the slave, as an incentive to control illegal slave-trading activity, the other half going to the company.
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was also used in connection with illegally imported slaves, identifiable primarily by absence of
Company brand on their skin, who if detected within Spanish territory could be seized by British authorities, as holder of the
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originated in the mid-17th century and referred to a "prime male slave in good physical condition between 14 and 30 years of age and about 4 ft 8 inches tall". It was thus a unit used to enumerate a cargo of slaves.
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followed with regard to maximum volumes introduced (i.e. supplied). The locally resident company factor (i.e. manager) boarded the ship accompanied by royal
Spanish officials, including the president, the
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of compensation of 110 pesos to the deprived owner and a tax of 33 1/3 to the
Spanish royal authorities. Thus such captured illegal slaves had to be measured and stated as a fraction of a
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297:. "Deductions were made for physical defects, such as filed teeth, missing limbs and tribal scars, as well as for women, children and old people".
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312:, however payment of bribes for such reductions was deemed uneconomic. One instance of such a company order has survived as follows:
84:. It is suggested by Scheider that the term originated in the number of cloths from India exchanged for a person in West Africa.
192:, formed in 1711, as an inducement for the Company assuming liability for the public debt of the government. Previously the
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per annum. It also provided for the imposition by the
Spanish of an import tax of 33 1/3 pesos on each of the first 4,000
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by the
British for all factories and licensed trading posts is 0.79, thus one slave was on average assessed as 0.79 of a
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different areas, actual headcount figures being unavailable. A representative average ratio during the tenure of the
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The
British factor had instructions from the company to negotiate for the lowest assessment possible in terms of
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specified that the
British would be permitted for the next 30 years to introduce into the Spanish colonies 4,800
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into the Spanish West Indies & until we exceed that number it cannot be of any advantage to the Company
78:, in which units of slaves to be traded and taxed were not referred to by a simple head-count, but as
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inches, seven quarters was thus 57 3/4 inches, in other words 4 ft 8 inches, equating to one
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slave-carrying ships at Spanish ports, the human cargo had to be inspected for health (
188:. This apparently profitable monopoly was re-granted by the British government to the
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47:("piece of India") was a unit of value during the 16th to 18th centuries used in the
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Sorsby, p.60, design of brands differed in each Company factory (trading post) p.206
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had been held by the Portuguese and by Genoese, Dutch and French slave traders. The
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was not relevant to the selling process, only to the process of disembarkation.
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between the Spanish colonies in the Americas and slave traders operating from
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is given variously in different sources, but Schneider gives it as follows:
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being about 33 inches, about one British yard; thus, one quarter
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British Trade with Spanish America under the Asiento 1713-1740
496:, DPhil thesis, University College London, November 1975
348:, and resold for the company's benefit, on payment per
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Sizes, grades, units, scales, calendars, chronologies
92:The exact conversion factors between persons and a
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111:2 persons 12/14 - 16/18 = 1
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69:Treaty of Alcáçovas
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224:On the arrival of
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88:Definitions
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431:2007-01-20
63:Background
22:Portuguese
67:The 1479
404:See also
253:and the
27:boa peça
24:) (also
391:Asiento
369:Asiento
363:indulto
345:Asiento
329:Indulto
309:Asiento
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177:Asiento
168:Asiento
151:quartas
38:Spanish
422:"Peça"
250:fiscal
139:palmos
36:), in
377:Ratio
262:varas
145:palmo
142:(one
277:was
274:vara
268:vara
18:Peça
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