Casa de Contratación The Casa de Contratación ( , " House of Trade " ) was a government agency of the Spanish Empire , existing from the 16th to the 18th centuries , which attempted to control all Spanish exploration and colonization . Its official name was " La Casa y Audiencia de Indias " ; it was established in the port city of Seville , Castile ( " Corona de Castilla " ) . Introduction . Unlike the later East India Companies , chartered companies established by the Dutch , English , and others , the " Casa " collected all colonial taxes and duties , approved all voyages of exploration and trade , maintained secret information on trade routes and new discoveries , licensed captains , and administered commercial law . In theory , no Spaniard could sail anywhere without the approval of the " Casa " . However , smuggling often took place in different parts of the vast Spanish Empire . The " Casa de Contratación " was founded by Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1503 , eleven years after the discovery of the Americas in 1492 . The Casa was the Spanish counterpart of the Portuguese organization , the " Casa da Índia " , or House of Índia of Lisbon , established in 1434 and destroyed in 1755 by the Lisbon earthquake . Operation . A 20 % tax ( the quinto ) was levied by the " Casa " on all goods entering Spain . The other taxes could run as high as 40 % to provide naval protection for the trading ships or as low as 10 % during financial turmoil to encourage investment and economic growth in the colonies . Each ship was required to employ a clerk to keep detailed logs of all goods carried and all transactions . The " Casa de Contratación " produced and managed the " Padrón Real " , the official and secret Spanish map used as a template for the maps carried by every Spanish ship during the 16th century . It was constantly improved from its first version in 1508 , and was the counterpart of the Portuguese map , the " Padrão Real " . The " Casa " also ran a navigation school ; new pilots , or navigators , were trained for ocean voyages here . Spain employed the then standard mercantilist model , governed ( at least in theory ) by the " Casa " in Seville . Trade with the overseas possessions was handled by a merchants ' guild based in Seville , the " Consulado de mercaderes " , which worked in conjunction with the " Casa de Contratación " . Trade was physically controlled in well - regulated trade fleets , the famous " Flota de Indias " and the Manila galleon s . Reductions . By the late 17th century , the " Casa de Contratación " had fallen into bureaucratic gridlock , and the empire as a whole was failing , due primarily to Spain ' s inability to finance both war on the Continent and a global empire . More often than not , the riches transported from Manila and Acapulco to Spain were officially signed over to Spain ' s creditors before the Manila galleon made port . In the 18th century , the new Bourbon kings reduced the power of Seville and the " Casa de Contratacion " . In 1717 they moved the " Casa " from Seville to Cádiz , diminishing Seville ' s importance in international trade . Charles III further limited the powers of the Casa and his son , Charles IV , abolished it altogether in 1790 . Mapmakers . The mapmaking enterprise at the " Casa de Contratación " was a huge undertaking , and critical to the success of the voyages of discovery . Without good navigational aids , the ability of Spain to exploit and profit from its discoveries would have been limited . The " Casa " had a large number of cartographers and navigators ( pilots ) , archivists , record keepers , administrators and others involved in producing and managing the " Padrón Real " . The famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci , who made at least two voyages to the New World , was a pilot working at the " Casa de Contratación " until his death in 1512 . A special position was created for Vespucci , the " pilot major " ( chief of navigation ) in 1508 ; he trained new pilots for ocean voyages . His nephew Juan Vespucci inherited his famous uncle ' s maps , charts , and nautical instruments , and was appointed to Amerigo ' s former position as official Spanish government pilot at Seville . In 1524 , Juan Vespucci was appointed Examiner of Pilots , replacing Sebastian Cabot who was then leading an expedition in Brazil . In the 1530s and 1540s , the principal mapmakers ( known as " cosmographers " ) in the " Casa de Contratación " working on the " Padrón Real " included Alonso de Santa Cruz , Sebastian Cabot , and Pedro de Medina . The mapmaker Diego Gutiérrez was appointed as cosmographer in the " Casa " on October 22 , 1554 , after the death of his father Diego in January 1554 ; he also worked on the Padrón Real . In 1562 Gutierrez published the map entitled " Americae . . . Descriptio " in Antwerp . It was published in Antwerp instead of Spain because the Spanish engravers did not have the necessary skill to print such a complicated document . Other cosmographers included Alonso de Chaves , Francisco Falero , Jerónimo de Chaves , Sancho Gutiérrez ( Diego ' s brother ) . In the late 16th century , Juan Lopez de Velasco was cosmographer major in Seville . He produced a master map and twelve subsidiary maps portraying the worldwide Spanish empire in cartographic form . This feat surpassed anything done by the other European powers at that time ; his work was the last in which Spain was supreme in mapmaking . The English , Dutch and French improved their mapmaking skills and became superior in organizing and presenting geographic information .