A Peça (Portuguese) (also boa peça, peça da India , and pieza de India – Piece of India, Spanish ) was a unit of value  in the slave trade in West Africa through the  Cape Verde Islands during the 16th to 18th centuries. A peca was the value of a 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 . Slaves outside this age range and those infirm were valued lower. The peça was used to establish quotas and tariffs. Background The 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas 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. 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.Schneider, Elena, The Occupation of Havana, University of North Carolina Press, 1977, p.23 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 Asiento  , in which units of slaves to be traded and taxed were not referred to by a simple head-count, but as piezas de India.Schneider, p.39, footnote 36 It is suggested by Scheider that the term originated in the number of cloths from India exchanged for a person in West Africa.Schneider, p.39, footnote 36 Sorsby (1975)Sorsby, Victoria Gardner, British Trade with Spanish America under the Asiento 1713-1740, DPhil thesis, University College London, November 1975 states that one pieza de Indias indicated a measurement of 7 palmos (one palmo  being about 8 inches) or quartas. Sorsby states that the term pieza de Indias 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. During British tenure of the Asiento In 1713 the British obtained the Asiento, the monopoly right to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves, as a term of the Treaty of Utrecht which closed the War of Spanish Succession. It was re-granted by the British government to the South Sea Company  . Previously the Asiento had been held by the Portuguese and by Genoese, Dutch and French slave traders. The Asiento specified that the British would be permitted for the next 30 years to introduce into the Spanish colonies 4,800 piezas de Indias per annum.Sorsby, p.11 It also provided for the imposition by the Spanish of an import tax of 33 1/3 pesos on  the first 4,000 piezas de Indias, the last 800 being duty free.Sorsby, p.11
A Peça (Portuguese) (also boa peça, peça da India ), in Spanish Pieza de India ("piece of India" ) was a unit of value during the 16th to 18th centuries used in the slave trade between the Spanish colonies in the Americas and slave traders operating from West Africa through the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands . 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. Background The 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas 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. 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.Schneider, Elena, The Occupation of Havana, University of North Carolina Press, 1977, p.23 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 Asiento de Negros , in which units of slaves to be traded and taxed were not referred to by a simple head-count, but as piezas de India.Schneider, p.39, footnote 36 It is suggested by Scheider that the term originated in the number of cloths from India exchanged for a person in West Africa.Schneider, p.39, footnote 36 Sorsby (1975)Sorsby, Victoria Gardner, British Trade with Spanish America under the Asiento 1713-1740, DPhil thesis, University College London, November 1975 states that one pieza de Indias indicated a measurement of 7 palmos (one palmo (palm's breadth) being about 8 inches) or quartas. Sorsby states that the term pieza de Indias 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. During British tenure of the Asiento In 1713 the British obtained the Asiento, the monopoly right to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves, as a term of the Treaty of Utrecht which closed the War of Spanish Succession. This apparently profitable monopoly was re-granted by the British government to the South Sea Company , formed in 1711, as an inducement for the Company assuming liability for the public debt of the government . Previously the Asiento had been held by the Portuguese and by Genoese, Dutch and French slave traders. The Asiento specified that the British would be permitted for the next 30 years to introduce into the Spanish colonies 4,800 piezas de Indias per annum.Sorsby, p.11 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 piezas de Indias, the last 800 being duty free.Sorsby, p.11
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