Transplantation of Asian Spices in the Spanish Empire 1518-1640: Entrepreneurship, Empiricism, and the Crown Omri Bassewitch Frenkel Department of History and Classical Studies Faculty of Arts McGill University Montreal January 2017 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Omri Bassewitch Frenkel 2017 ii Abstract This dissertation focuses on the way in which Crown-sponsored attempts to transplant or domesticate commercially valuable Asian spices throughout the Spanish empire generated production, circulation and institutionalization of empirical knowledge throughout Spain’s imperial domains. Although largely unsuccessful, Spaniards perceived spice transplantations as an important component of Spain’s imperial expansion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ventures for the introduction or domestication of spices were often initiated and run by networks of settlers, entrepreneurs, officials, friars, and natural historians, who, through empirical observation and experimentation, acquired specific expertise in that field. Successful spice transplantations attracted the attention of Spain’s imperial establishments, namely the Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contratación [known also as the “House of Trade”], which, in turn, engaged colonial administrators in Spanish America and the Philippines to call upon relevant experts for information regarding spice cultivation and processing. Consequently, experiments in the introduction and cultivation of spices were conducted in private and Crown estates in Spanish America, the Philippines and Spain, and the results thereof helped formulate Crown policies regulating spice cultivation and trade. It is maintained here that spice transplantation projects reflect an organizational culture in which policies were formed and decisions were made based on expert opinions obtained through empirical observations and experiments. Essentially, the Crown has adopted a scientific approach to direct its policies. Therefore, this study argues that as early as the 1570s, Crown establishments assessed and analyzed complex empirical evidence in variable economic, political, and diplomatic contexts, to form decisions which were perceived to bear critical consequences to Spain’s economy and its imperial expansion. iii Résumé Cette thèse examine la manière dont la transplantation et domestication des épices asiatiques ayant une valeur commerciale dans l'empire espagnol a contribué à la production, circulation et institutionnalisation de connaissances empiriques à travers les colonies impériales de l'Espagne Couronne-parrainée. Bien qu’éventuellement échoués, les projets de transplantation d'épices étaient perçus par les Espagnols comme étant une composante importante de l'expansion impériale au cours des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Les entreprises d'introduction ou de domestication des épices ont souvent été initiées et gérées par des réseaux de colons, entrepreneurs, fonctionnaires, moines et historiens naturels, qui, par l'observation empirique et l'expérimentation acquéraient une expertise dans le domaine impliqué. Les projets de transplantations d'épices réussis ont attiré l'attention des établissements impériaux de l'Espagne, notamment, le Conseil des Indes et la Casa de Contratación, qui à leur tour, ont engagé les administrateurs des colonies de l’Amérique espagnole et des Philippines à faire appel aux experts compétents dans le domaine de la culture et du développement des épices. Par conséquent, des expérimentations dans l'introduction et la culture des épices ont été menées dans les propriétés privées et les propriétés de la Couronne espagnole dans l’Amérique, les Philippines et l'Espagne, et les résultats de celles-ci ont aidé à formuler les politiques de la Couronne régissant la culture et le commerce des épices. Il est proposé ici que les projets de la transplantation des épices reflètent une culture organisationnelle où les stratégies gouvernementales étaient basées sur les opinions des experts dérivés des observations empiriques et des expérimentations. En essentiel, la Couronne a adopté une approche scientifique pour guider ces politiques. Par conséquent, cette étude soutient que, dès les années 1570, les établissements de la Couronne espagnole évaluaient et analysaient les données empiriques complexes sous des contextes économiques, politiques, et diplomatiques variables, pour former iv les décisions aux conséquences perçues critiques pour l'économie de l'Espagne et pour son expansion impériale. v Acknowledgments I would like to express my deep gratitude to Prof. Gwyn Campbell. Thank you for taking me under your supervision, for encouraging and guiding me through this journey, especially during the difficult moments when I was straying in the dark. I appreciate your efforts and the long hours you spent striving to improve my dissertation. Many thanks to Prof. Nicolas Dew, for whom I repeatedly had the pleasure to work as a teaching assistant. Thank you for taking part in my advisory committee, and for providing kind advice throughout my doctoral research. Thanks as well to Prof. Brian Cowan for taking part in my advisory committee, and for keeping your office door open whenever I wanted to brainstorm or needed to complain. Additionally, special thanks to Prof. Paula De Vos from San Diego State University, whose scholarship inspired my dissertation and who agreed to be on my advisory committee. Thank you for your encouragement and for your valuable comments on my chapters. I would like to express my gratefulness to Prof. Gershon Hundert, who as a graduate advisor went out of his way to personally let me know that I was accepted into the program, and who continued to care for me ever since. This long and logistically complicated project would not have been possible without the financial assistance from McGill’s Department of History, The Peter Cundill Fellowship in History, Abner Kingman Fellowship in Arts, and the Wolfe Fellowship in Scientific and Technological Literacy. Special thanks to Professors Jason Opal, Brian Lewis. Griet Vankeerberghen, and Lorenz Lüthi, and again Nicolas Dew for helping me secure additional financial awards. I would like to thank Mitali Das, the Department’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Coordinator, that helped me navigate the University’s bureaucratic maze. vi Dr. Anna Winterbottom, I am indebted to you for spending precious time proofreading and commenting on all my dissertation chapters! I can’t imagine completing it without your tremendous help. Thank you very much, María Eugenia Osorio Oliveros, for teaching me the secrets of manuscript transcription, for helping me transcribe the untranscribable, and for being a good friend. Thank you, Geoff Wallace, for taking the trouble to obtain for me missing documents from Seville, and for being a great friend throughout the last five and a half years of a roller- coaster. It has been a privilege to be a part of the Indian Ocean World Centre community. I want to thank my fellow PhD students and the Centre’s postdocs for your support throughout the years. I would like to thank my family: my parents, sister, and brother, who, overcoming our geographical distance, were always there for me with virtual hugs and kind words of love and support. Thank you Ima, Aba, Naama, and Idan, I miss you. Vika, Tolia, and Zhenia, my mother, father, and sister in law, thank you for accepting me into your family with open arms, and for encouraging me and believing in me. Last but not least, Liya, my partner, my friend, my love, thank you for being there for me and never doubting me. Without you this moment would never have come. vii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ ii Résumé ................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... v Table of Content .................................................................................................................. vii Table of Figures .................................................................................................................. ix Source Abbreviations - Archives and Sections ................................................................... x Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Relevant Literature Review .................................................................................... 8 Chapter by Chapter ................................................................................................. 15 Note on Sources ...................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1: On Empire and Spices ....................................................................................... 21 The Iberian Age of Exploration and the Search for Spices .................................... 21 Running an Empire ................................................................................................. 27 The Casa de Contratación de Indias .................................................................. 27 The Casa de la Especiería ...............................................................................