chose to disregard the injunction in view of the pressing need for money at the court, as he pleads. Soto reached the Azores in safety, and receiving news of French cruisers off the coast he resolved to stay there awhile, together with half a dozen other vessels, some bringing valuable collections of pearls. Great was the alarm in Spain among the traders, whose shipments of merchandise to and from the Indies were gradually assuming large proportions. Convoys had been provided for several years to protect their fleets, but owing to trouble in collecting the convoy tax, and other causes, the protection had been withheld for some time. Strong efforts were made to reëstablish the convoy, which were successful, and a regular board was formed to assume the management of this department, known as the Contaduría de Avería: to collect the avería tax from the merchant-vessels, and attend to its distribution for the benefit of the ships-of-war.[1]
The first fleet under the new arrangement consisted
- ↑ The officials of the department consisted in course of time of four contadores de avería, or accountants, appointed for life, two being proprietary, a contador mayor, equivalent to superintendent, a receptor, or receiver, and a few sub-officials. 'The office was situated in the Casa de Contratacion, and subject to its president and judges, who assigned much of the work, and decided in cases of dispute. One of the officials of the Casa, termed juez oficial, who attended at the departure of the fleets, together with visitadores, or inspectors, to watch over their outfit and despatch, gave also a certain supervision in the interest of the avería department. The veedores and pagadores, inspectors and paymasters, and other officials of the fleets, attended to the collection of the tax, and rendered account to the avería office. The levy was at first not regular, but on the formal establishment of the office it was fixed at one per cent. In 1528 this was increased to five per cent, and subsequently to a higher figure, reaching at times 14 per cent, according to the risk and loss involved. This was collected from every part of the cargo, including the royal treasures, and in course of time also from every passenger, without exception. The fund was increased by certain fines, seizures, and prizes, and kept in a strong box under three keys. All warrants for disbursements must be drawn by the president and judges of the Casa de Contratacion. With the beginning of the eighteenth century the avería tax proper appears to have ceased, and the expenses of the convoys were covered by the public treasury; but in 1732 the government was so pressed as to accept an offer of the merchants to convert the former avería into a contribution of four per cent on gold, silver, and first-class cochineal. Yet one per cent of avería continued to be collected till 1778 to pay the expenses of mail and despatch boats to the Indies. After this, only a half per cent was collected. For details of the laws governing the office, see Recop. de Indias, iii. 89-120; Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., i. 490-7; Montemayor, Svmarios de Cedulas, 143; also Herrera, dec. iii. lib. vii. cap. i., and Hist. Cent. Am., i. 282-3, this series.
