The fact of making the Atlantic Slave trade a monopoly business rested on the asiento, the license issued by the Spanish crown, that were included in some peace treaties, and by which a set of merchants received a monopoly on a trade route or product. An example of this was the payment of a fee, granting legal permission to sell a fixed number of African slaves in the Spanish colonies. This license was usually sold to foreigners, mainly Portuguese, and for them to engage in this trade. Essentially, it was predominantly about generating revenue, and was considered a tangible asset, comparable to tax farming, and a source of profit for the Spanish crown.
The asiento system was established following Spanish settlement in the Caribbean, when the indigenous population was in critical decline and the Spanish needed another source of human labour. Initially a few Christian African slaves born in Iberia were transported to the Caribbean. However, as the depletion of the indigenous population was ongoing and while criticism of the Spanish exploitation of the indigenous population grew (including that of Bartolomé de Las Casas), the king allowed for the direct importation of slaves from Africa to the Caribbean.
The first asiento for selling slaves was drawn up in 1518, granting a Flemish favorite of Charles, one Laurent de Gouvenot, giving him a monopoly on importing African slaves over a period of eight years to a maximum total of 4,000. Business is business and so Gouvenot promptly sold his license to Genoese merchants in Andalusia for 25,000 ducats.
It was Laurent de Gouvenot's social position that provided him with opportunity to become a slave trader. As a Burgundian/Flemish aristocrat and thanks to his high position in the court of the Habsburgs , he acquired the right to import African slaves to America and Portugal on the 18th August 1518. The granting of this type of discretionary favour to ambitious foreigners, was resented by the Castilians who might have aspired to these privileges themselves, helped foment the main causes of the so-called 'Revolt of the Communities', an armed uprising of the so-called comuneros, that took place in Castile from 1520 to 1522, at the beginning of the reign of Carlos I.
His license provided for the traffic of four thousand slaves and slaves to be obtained "from the islands of Guinea and other customary parts", and, although it was specified that the shipment should be made in the port of Seville, he was exempted from the obligation to register them in the Casa de Contratación (institution that monopolized trade with America ), guaranteeing that no more licenses would be granted over the following eight years. Nevertheless, such a monopoly was violated on at least one occasion that same year, for the benefit of the Marquis of Astorga , who obtained a license for one hundred slaves.
Gouvenot obtained twenty-five thousand ducats for the resale of the license to four Genoese merchants that had settled in Seville (Domingo de Forne, Agustín de Ribaldo and Fernando Vázquez), who in turn passed their rights to other traffickers, providing them with great benefits.
In the places where these slaves were delivered for sale (Yucatan, Cuba, Puerto Rico and La Española) the resulting prices were exorbitant, making it impossible for many of the initial petitioners to access these licenses.
The Spanish crown controlled both trade and immigration to the New World, including a policy of excluding Jews, conversos, Muslims, and ordinary foreigners. The African slaves were considered merchandise, and the importation of the slaves regulated by the crown. Spain had neither direct access to the African sources of slaves nor the ability to transport them, so the asiento system was a way to ensure a legal supply of Africans to the New World, and at the same time generating revenue that went to the Spanish crown.
In 1528, Charles V forbade the transportation of Native Americans to Europe, even on their own will, in a further effort to curtail their enslavement.
In 1536 the Welser family is dispossessed of the Asiento monopoly (granted in 1528) following complaints about their treatment of Native American workers in Venezuela.
The Welser family were German bankers and merchants, originally a patrician family from Augsburg, that rose to great prominence in international high finance in the 16th century as financiers of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled large sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas.
Bartholomeus V. Welser lent the Emperor Charles V a great sum of money for which in 1528 he received as security the Province of Venezuela, developing it as Klein-Venedig (little Venice) but in consequence of their rapacious acts the Welsers were deprived of their rule before the Emperor's reign was over in 1556.
By the early Age of Discovery, the Welser family had established trading posts in Antwerp, Lyon, Madrid, Nuremberg, Sevilla, Lisbon, Venice, Rome and Santo Domingo. The Welsers financed not only the Emperor, but also other European monarchs. After the Reformation, both the Welser and Fugger families remained in the Roman Catholic Church.
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