Spanish Galleon Trade Deepens

1551

Spanish authorities in New Spain and Peru began systematizing the convoy sailings of silver fleets to Seville. Two fleets each year, the flota from Veracruz and the galeones from Portobelo, would rendezvous in Havana before recrossing the Atlantic in formation. American silver was becoming the bloodstream of global commerce. The convoy system, though expensive and vulnerable, transported billions of pesos to Seville over two centuries, financing Spain's European wars.