13.1.60 to 13.1.63

Immediately Philip's government set up a ministry of the Navy and the Indies (1714) and created first a Honduras Company (1714), a Caracas Company (1728),—the only one destined to thrive—a Havana Company (1740). In 1717�1718 the structures for governing the Indies, the Consejo de Indias and the Casa dela contrataci�n that governed investments in the cumbersome escorted fleets were transferred from Seville to Cadiz, which became the one port for all Indies trading. Individual sailings at regular intervals were slow to displace the old habit of armed convoys, but by the 1760s there were regular packet ships plying the Atlantic between Cadiz Havana and Puerto Rico, and at longer intervals to the Rio de la Plata, where an additional viceroyalty was creqated in 1776. The contraband trade that was the lifeblood of the Habsburg empire declined in proportion to registered shipping (a shipping registry having been ewstablished in 1735). Two upheavals registered unease within Spanish America and at the same time demonstrated the renewed resiliency of a reformed system: the Tupac Amaru uprising in Peru in 1780 and the rebellion of the communidades of Venezuela, both in part reactions to tighter, more efficient control. As a result, in the 18th century Spain was basically a client state of France, and hardly a superpower. Their sizable empire in America made them relevant, but it is difficult—even in light of Floridablanca's reforms—to say that they were anywhere near the ranks of Austria or Russia, let alone France or England. Spain never would recover Gibraltar. However, the 18th century was a century of prosperity for the overseas Spanish Empire and Spain would recover of fast and effective form. The California mission planning was begun in 1769. The Nootka Convention (1791) resolved the dispute between Spain and Great Britain about the British settlement in Oregon to British Columbia. In 1791 the king of Spain gave Alessandro Malaspina an order to search for Northwest Passage.