Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: The Spanish Entrada and Northern New Spain - Another Time in This Place |
The Spanish Entrada and Northern New Spain.
Just to get you started, below are a couple brief excerpts from a good article about the early explorations by the Spanish into Northern New Spain, including parts of the United States.
The first European to enter the Upper Rio Grande area and Sangre de Cristo Mountains was probably Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. In 1540 he started from Mexico City on his journey of exploration to the Pacific Ocean and through what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. A member of his army, Hernandao de Alvarado is credited with discovering Taos Pueblo, which he called Braba (19). He described the pueblo as having three stories of adobe and then another two to three stories made of wood. He estimated the population at 15,000, an exaggeration! Braba was visited by another contingent from Coronado’s army a few months later and these soldiers described two pueblos, one on each side of the river...
The first Spanish colonizers of New Mexico came with the Oñate conquest in 1598. Don Juan de Onate brought 130 soldiers and their families with him that year (a total of 400 men, women, and children, 83 wagons and carts, and 7000 head of cattle (21) and 80 more soldiers in 1600. According to Fray Angelico Chavez, only 40 of these soldiers established permanent residence in this new land. At this point, the “Kingdom of New Mexico” (22) stretched from Taos Pueblo in the north to Guadalupe del Paso (Ciudad Juarez) in the south, west to the Hopi pueblos and east to Pecos, the Galisteo Basin, and the Manzanos Mountains...
Here is the link for much more about that.The Spanish Entrada and Northern New Spain - Another Time in This Place
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And below are a couple excerpts from an article about the Manila galleons and trade.
After the Manila galleon trade began, merchants from New Spain and other viceroyalties of the Spanish Americas acquired all sort of luxury products from Asia, especially silks. Chinese silks became popular because they cost less than Spanish-made silks and were fancier than locally made clothes. A letter written by a Spanish official in Lima to Philip II around the end of the sixteenth century noted, “A man can clothe his wife in Chinese silks for two hundred reals [which is worth 25 pesos], whereas he could not provide her clothing of Spanish silks with two hundred pesos.”...
Though local merchants and residents of New Spain usually welcomed the Manila galleon trade, the Spanish government was too remote to benefit from the trade directly. Instead, authorities back in Spain were concerned about silver draining out of their colonies. The crown sought to prevent colonists in New Spain and Peru from importing Chinese merchandise. Philip II’s decree on October 17th, 1585 stated that, “Inasmuch as the trade in Chinese materials has increased to excessive proportions …we order and command the viceroys of Peru and New Spain to prohibit and suppress, without fail, this commerce and trade between both kingdoms, by all the ways and means possible…this prohibition shall be kept strictly and shall continue to be so kept.” Philip’s concerns were not baseless. The amount of silver sent from New Spain to China reached approximately one million pesos by 1600; this number doubled by 1700 and may have reached three to four million pesos during the eighteenth century....
And here is the link for much more about that.
Silk-Trade-4.1-Reading-4-The-Manila-Galleon-Trade.pdf
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If you've ever made the mistake of correlating crudeness with the age of an item, as I have done, these 17th Century items prove how great a mistake that can be.
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| Fine Silver Works From Centuries Ago. The Galleon and Ostrich are 17th Century. |
If you've ever wondered about the quality of workmanship from centuries ago, below is a link to a video showing some very fine examples.
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| Source: SurfGuru.com. |