The Assiento
The Assiento, or, Contract for Allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the Liberty of Importing Negroes into the Spanish America
London: Printed by J. Baskett, Printer to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty and by the Assigns of T. Newcomb, and H. Hills, deceas’d, 1713
Throughout much of its history, the Spanish Empire contracted with foreign governments to supply its American colonies with enslaved Africans. In 1713, Spain bestowed upon England the monopoly contract known by its shorthand Spanish title: Assiento de Negros. With its powerful navy and preeminence in the cruel, speculative venture that was the transatlantic slave trade, England anticipated receipt of the contract when it chartered the South Sea Company in 1711 to oversee commerce in the Spanish Americas. Authorizing the annual delivery of 4,800 Africans for a 30-year period, the Assiento drove investor enthusiasm for the South Sea Company and other slave-based commercial ventures.
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