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Facing predatory Germans and their nightly ambushes, British leaders were forced, both in the First and in the Second World War, to dust off naval methods that they had disdained in the past. The British thoroughly studied and even adapted the convoy system put in place by Philip II, once their deadliest enemy, to ensure that the Fleet of the Indies was not overtaken by pirates. “Using convoys of merchant ships protected by warships was the Anglo-Saxon solution to crossing the Atlantic during the war to alleviate the effects of German submarines. The Spanish case is a very clear and effective precedent. That is why it was not forgotten”, recalls Enrique Martínez Ruiz, twice winner of the National History Award, who has just published ‘The Fleets of the Indies’ (The Sphere of books).
This monumental book analyzes the ins and outs of the system of the fleet of indies, which was in force for almost two and a half centuries in which it demonstrated its effectiveness and rose as one of the great logistical milestones of its time. The journey, which was made twice a year, had as its starting point Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the fleet carried out the last inspections, and from there it departed for La Gomera, in the Canary Islands. After the aguada (collecting water on land), the squadron made up of some 30 ships sailed between twenty and thirty days, depending on the weather conditions, to the islands of Dominica or Martinique (Central America) where supplies were replenished. From there, each ship was distributed to its destination port.
The goal was for no ship to stray from its course and for the large consignments of silver and gold to cross the Atlantic intact. For this, a “unique in the world” and, if you will, “revolutionary” structure was necessary, only within the reach of a power of the magnitude of Spain. “When we talk about the fleets of the indies we have to think not only about the naval organization of the round trips, but also about the infrastructure that organized, developed, maintained and protected the operation of the fleets. A complex organization, which required commercial infrastructure, construction of ships, logistical supply networks, adequate ports for stopovers, protective armies of the galleons and cities and fortifications to repel enemy attacks, “says Martínez Ruiz.
–Apart from the tactical and strategic issues, a constant technological reinvention was needed. How was Spain, which is often branded as decadent, able to maintain such a technological pace during the reign of the Habsburgs?
–We are facing another of the falsehoods that is frequently launched on Spanish science, of which its backwardness stands out due, above all, to an intolerant dogmatism and a persistent immobility. It is disregarded that a territorial deployment such as that of the Hispanic Monarchy can only be maintained with the appropriate resources and means, and science and technology are two of them. For now, Spanish shipbuilding was one of the most advanced in Europe in the Age of Discovery. The Spanish navigation treaties were widely disseminated in Europe, cartographic production was at the forefront of its time and institutionally, the Casa de la Contratación is more than a commercial contracting center: it organizes and controls the fleets, receives and processes the information given by the pilots on their return from travel, has a ‘school for pilots’; cartographers, cosmographers, etc. who work on it. It is a multipurpose center, key in navigation and only comparable to the Portuguese Casa da India, the two most advanced centers in navigation and commerce for a long time in Europe.
-One of the classic myths is that British piracy was the scourge of the Spanish ships, were the fleets of the Indies an effective strategy against these attacks?
-Piracy was not only English, it was also French and Dutch, although the English pirates, the “queen’s dogs”, were perhaps the most famous, with characters like Drake and Hawkins. If we take into account that only one fleet was captured, in Matanzas (Cuba, 1628) by a much superior Dutch fleet, we will have to admit that it was an effective strategy, since the most piracy could do was capture an isolated ship and surprise attacks. to coastal towns. Regarding his activity, an old and admired teacher said that piracy meant to the Hispanic Monarchy what mosquitoes are to the skin of an elephant. From my point of view, their attacks on cities were harder and more tragic than the Fleets or Spanish shipping in general.
-Literature has ended up romanticizing pirate attacks as the logical (liberal) and necessary reaction against the Spanish monopoly in America. Did Spain impose a monopolistic structure detrimental to world trade?
-Pirates, like corsairs and freebooters, are surrounded by a mythical legend, which gives a heroic aura to many characters, who are presented as symbols of resistance to the powerful, bravery and self-sacrifice, forgetting their negative traits and the rejection that caused in a general way until they disappeared in the first decades of the 18th century. At that time, Spain made an effort to maintain trade with America and the Philippines under a monopoly regime, a structure that did not harm world trade, since it continued to exist and develop; In any case, it would be detrimental to the interests of the other powers, jealous of Spanish leadership in this regard.
-Was the economic dependence developed by the Catholic Monarchy for those remittances of American gold and silver so deep?
-Evidently, the Crown needed American metals to maintain its administrative, diplomatic and military apparatus, since its possessions were spread over the four known parts of the world at the time and the defensive needs were great. All of this entailed a high cost, which caused the royal treasury to go bankrupt on several occasions, resulting in bankruptcies. That is why it has been said and repeated that Spain squandered that fortune in the maintenance of useless wars, which led to its ruin.
–Why didn’t Spain take advantage of its commercial domain to develop a powerful merchant navy?
–I do believe that he developed a powerful merchant marine and anyone who reads this book I think will come to the same conclusion. A commercial link has been maintained for more than two centuries thanks to the Fleets of the Indies and the Manila Galleon, which connected Manila (Philippines) with Acapulco (Mexico), continued by land to Veracruz (Mexico) and continued by sea to Havana ( Cuba), where the galleons from Tierra Firme arrived from Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) to continue to Seville, in Spain. This required not only considerable naval resources, but also to have protective armies and to all this we must add the deployment in the Mediterranean. I do believe that Spain had a powerful merchant navy, but it had to compete with other naval deployments as considerable as the British and the Dutch, and in the confrontation, they did not have to protect such an extensive territorial structure or naval trade relations as considerable as the Spanish, which can compete with them until the eighteenth century.
–Talking about metal trade from America is dangerous in these times of political correctness. Where are the times to celebrate the cultural meeting and exchange?
-History is too often manipulated by politics, frustrations and resentment, as if in this way the past could be changed, turning historical discourse into a kind of fool-deceiver. We are in one of those periods, in which denial or silence is imposed so as not to hurt the sensitivities of others, regardless of whether ours is hurt.