page_title: Asiento de Negros
section_title: Dutch & Portuguese: 1671–1701
hierarchical_section_title: Asiento de Negros / Holders of the Asiento / Dutch & Portuguese: 1671–1701
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Joshua van Belle, merchant in Spain, mayor of Rotterdam. 125 x 102 cm. Dublin. National Gallery.
context_page_description: The asiento was a short-term loan or debt contract, of about one to four years, signed between the Spanish crown and a banker or a small group of bankers against future crown revenues, and included after peace treaties were signed. Between the early 16th and the mid-18th century, asientos were used by the Spanish treasurer to adjust short-term imbalances between revenues and expenditures. The sovereign promised to repay the principal of the loan plus high interest. The participant bankers in Seville, Lisbon, Genoa and Amsterdam, in turn, drew on the profits and direct investments obtained from a large number of Atlantic merchants. In exchange for a set of scheduled payments, merchants and financiers were given the right to collect relevant taxes or oversee the trade in those commodities that fell under the monarch's prerogative. In this way a set of merchants received the right to ship tobacco, salt, sugar and cacao on a trade route from the Spanish West Indies, some times accompanied by licences to export bullion from Spanish Main or Cadiz.
context_section_description: 1671-1674: António Garcia, a Portuguese, the heir of Lomelino, In 1675 he looked for assistance from Balthasar and his brother Joseph Coymans and the Dutch West India Company, financing the loan and the shipping. Garcia arranged to purchase all the slaves in Curaçao.
  1676–1679: Manuel Hierro de Castro, and Manuel José Cortizos, members of the Consulado de Sevilla. The Spanish proposed to get the slaves from Cape Verde, located on the demarcation line between the Spanish and Portuguese empire, but this was against the WIC-charter. The Dutch offered to bring the slaves to Hispaniola or the ports on the Spanish Main. From 1662-1690, only twenty slaving vessels set out under the Spanish flag, mostly between 1677 and 1681, an average of less than one a year.
  [Señor. El Maestro Fray Juan de Castro, Religioso de la Orden de Santo Domingo, dize : Que por el año de 1678 hollandose en la Ciudad de Cádiz, le solicitaron D. Baltasar Coymans, y Pedro Bambelle de Nacion Olandeses, para la disposicion de un Asiento, que se auia de hazer para comerciar à Indias, haziendole grandes ofertas... y auian de ser Españoles los que le auian de hazer ; y reconociendo... que se trataua de adulterar el comercio...]
  In May 1679 the Coymans financed slave transports, organized by Captain Juan Barroso del Pozo, of 9,800 "negros" to Curaçao.
  In 1680, Barroso from Seville and Nicolás Porcio, his Venetian son-in-law, became asentistas.
  1682–1688: Juan Barroso del Pozo (–1683) and Nicolás Porcio succeeded in getting the asiento for 6.5 years. It was Porcio who encountered many financial difficulties after the loss of ships and slaves. In 1683 he travelled to Portobelo, but was taken prisoner. He was unable to make his payments to the crown, alleging that the local authorities in Cartagena were working against his interests.
  In 1684 Genoa was heavily bombarded by a French fleet as punishment for its alliance with Spain. The Genoese bankers and traders made new economic and financial links with France.
  February 1685 – March 1687: Balthasar Coymans succeeded in ousting Porcio. The cash payment of 200,000 Spanish escudos to the Spanish government, an indispensable feature of this bargain, was furnished by the Amsterdam house of Coymans. Coymans made an immediate payment towards some frigates for the Spanish navy being built in Amsterdam and an advance on the dues he would be liable for on goods imported to Spanish America.
  Royal Order, signed "El Rey", commanding Don Balthasar Coymans, Don Juan Barrosa and Don Nicolás Porzio to assemble ten Capuchin monks (Franciscan friars) from either Cadiz or Amsterdam for the purpose of sailing to the coast of Africa to buy slaves, to convert them to Christianity and sell them in the West Indies, 25 March 1685 Balthasar & Johan Coymans.
  Carta de Rodrigo Gómez a [Manuel Diego López de Zúñiga Mendoza Sotomayor, X] Duque de Béjar informando de la concesión de un asiento de negros en el Río de la Plata a favor de Baltasar Coymans y pide recomendaciones personales para que su hijo Pedro sea empleado en ese negocio. Menciona también a Gaspar de Rebolledo, Juan Pimentel como Gobernador de Buenos Aires y a [Carlos José Gutiérrez de los Ríos Roha, VI] Conde de Fernán-Núñez. Antwerp, 1685-04-17.
  July 1686: King Charles II of Spain starts an investigation into the legitimacy of the Asiento. The asiento with B. Coymans is annulled.
  October 1686: The Dutch refuse to accept the "Junta de Asiento de Negros", a commission of dubious authority.
  There is a risk of war between France and Spain; Jamaica is becoming more important than Curaçao.
  1687–1688: Jan Carçau, or Juan Carcán a former assistant of B. Coymans, takes over the asiento.
  March 1688: Jan Carçao is put in prison in Cádiz, accused of fraud. In June 1688 the commission delivered an opinion the Dutch must recognize its authority before discussions could proceed.
  1688 – October 1691: Nicolás Porcio.
  1692–1695: Bernardo Francisco Marín de Guzmán
  1695–1701: Spain returned to the Portuguese; Manuel Ferreira de Carvalho representing the Cacheu and Cape Verde Company.
  1699-1703 Manuel
caption: The Dutch merchant in Cadiz Joshua van Belle, involved with his brother Pedro van Belle in slave trade, painting by Murillo in 1670, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
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