transport negroes to America was granted to a person named Chevris, who ceded this right to a company of Genoese merchants for the sum of 23,000 ducats. The first negroes dispatched under this privilege were one thousand sent to San Domingo, in 1517.*

After the recommendation of Las Casas concerning the importation of negro slaves had been adopted, it was thought that four thousand would be adequate to meet the immediate demands. By the asiento of 1517, Charles V. extended the privilege of this trade to De Dresa, a Fleming, under the assurance of a monopoly for eight years, which had the effect of increasing the price of negroes. In the last years of the sixteenth century, Philip II. had great need of money, and he sought to procure it by granting for a consideration the exclusive privilege of the slave trade with America. Gomez Reinel held this privilege from 1595 to 1600, when it was granted to a Portuguese named Juan Rodriguez Contineo, who agreed to furnish to the Indies annually 4,250 slaves, and to pay to the crown 160,000 ducats. On the death of Rodriguez Contineo, his privilege and obligations under this contract fell to his brother, and at the time of the transfer the annual payment to the crown was reduced 22,000 ducats. A few years later, in 1615, the asiento was granted to Antonio Fernandez Delvas, for the period of eight years. Delvas was a Portuguese, and under his contract he was obliged to introduce into America each year 3,500 slaves, and to pay 115,000 ducats to the crown. At the expiration of the period of this grant, the asiento was assigned for another eight years to another Portuguese, Manuel Rodriguez Lamego, who agreed to introduce the same number of slaves, 3,500, but to increase by 5,000 ducats the annual payment. During the eight years following 1631, the contract called for a payment to the crown of 95,000 ducats, and the introduction of 2,500 slaves. After this period there was an interruption of this form of the slave trade till 1662. In this year the asiento was granted

*"Present State of Peru," p. 89.

to Domingo Grillo and Ambrosio Lomelin, for a term of seven years, during which they were required to introduce 24,500 negroes, and pay the king 2,100,000 dollars. In 1674, the privilege of this trade passed to Antonio Garcia and Sebastian de Siliceo, who were required to import annually 4,000 slaves, and pay 450,000 dollars. Owing to a failure on the part of this company to comply with the terms of the grant, it was recalled in 1676, and conferred on a company in Seville. In 1682, the privilege of this trade was granted for five years to Juan Barroso del Pozo and Nicolas Porcio, residents of Cadiz. They had agreed to pay 1,125,000 dollars, but, as they failed in this, the contract was transferred to a Hollander, Baltasar Coimans. Prior to this time the holders of this privilege had been Europeans, but in 1692 it was assigned to Bernardo Francisco Martin de Guzman, of Venezuela, for five years, on the payment of 2,125,000 dollars. He was followed, in 1696, by the Portuguese Company of Guinea, who held the asiento for six years, after which it passed to the French Guinea Company, and finally, by the treaty of 1713, the monopoly of the slave trade with Spanish America fell into the hands of the English.*

The trade in negroes, which was authorized by the treaty of 1713, afforded opportunities for extending the contraband trade, particularly with Buenos Aires. But the confusion engendered by the hostilities between England and Spain, which followed, was even more favorable to this end than the ordered conditions of peace.

The restrictive policy, as it was carried out through the India House, did not realize the magnificent expectations of Spain. At this time Spain had clearly the position of supreme advantage in the world. She was the leading power in Europe, and she owned the larger and better half of this continent. But under the influence of a policy of

*Calvo, "Coleccion Completa de los Tratados de la America Latina," II. pp. 5355; for the Asiento of 1696, see pp. 5-42; for that of 1701, see pp. 60-77; for that of 1713, see pp. 78-101; also "The Asiento; or Contract for allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the Liberty of importing Negroes into the Spanish America." London. Printed by John Baskett, 1713.

commercial jealousy, "her population declined, her manufactories were ruined, her merchant marine ceased to exist except in name, her capital was diminished, foreigners carried on her commerce by means of contraband, and all the gold and silver of the New World found its way to other countries than Spain."*

But when the opportunities of two centuries had been thrown away, the king of Spain was compelled to acknowledge that the system which had been wrought out with such astonishing care and diligence and upheld by a marvelous administration, was a disappointment and a failure. He accepted the actual condition of things into which the trade with America had drifted in spite of the law, and even extended the privileges of trade to ports which had hitherto been closed. In 1764, ships for America were allowed to depart from Corunna for all the principal ports of the Spanish colonies, and to return thither with their cargoes of colonial produce. Ten years later, in 1774, the several Spanish colonies were permitted to trade with one another. In 1778, there was promulgated a new commercial code for the Indies, which enlarged the freedom of trade between Spain and her American possessions, but did not extend this freedom to other nations. According to the king's view, as expressed in the introduction to this law, to grant freedom was the only means of re-establishing in their ancient vigor the agriculture, industry, and population of his dominions. Moved by this consideration, he opened various ports of Spain to the American trade, and a little later, in February, 1778, made concessions to the provinces of Buenos Aires, and to the kingdoms of Chili and Peru. Finally, in October of this year, the new code was established; and it was provided that it should contain all the points of the earlier concessions which had not been revoked.

Ships engaged in this trade had to belong entirely to the king's subjects, and be manned by sailors, two-thirds *Mitre, "Historia de Belgrano," I, p. 23.

of whom at least were Spaniards either by birth or naturalization. And all the principal ports, both in Spain and Spanish America, were open to this trade.

Although this law professes to establish "the free commerce of Spain with the Indies," the term here involved is not to be taken in the sense which attaches to it in current discussion. Ships might not sail without a license, and the wares which they carried were not all exempt from the payment of duties, although the duties, when imposed, were low, and varied according to the importance of the port of destination. Shipments to the smaller ports paid one and one-half per cent. on goods produced by Spaniards, and four per cent. on all foreign manufactures, besides the amounts these may have paid on their introduction into Spain. Goods shipped to the more important ports paid three per cent., if they were Spanish products, and seven per cent., if produced in other countries, unless entirely exempt from duty. For a period of ten years, Spanish manufactures of wool and cotton and certain other articles were admitted without payment. Notwithstanding these merely nominal duties, the new commercial code was essentially a code of freedom. It was clearly a violation of all that Spain had stood for for centuries; but it was for the advantage of both Spain and Spanish America. It called into action creative forces that had slept for centuries, and it gave indications of the beginning of a new economic life. But relief through freedom came too late. By centuries of unreasonable discrimination and unjust restriction, Spain had forfeited her parental rights; and emancipation was the logical and inevitable step forward.

PHYSICS DEDUCTIVE vs. PHYSICS
INDUCTIVE.*

By FREDERICK SLATE.

Your "Science Round Table" offers me a valuable opportunity, which I should be glad to avail myself of, if my duties did not detain me at Berkeley almost inexorably. As it is, I cannot refrain from taking the chance to make a few general remarks on your topic, even though they must be written and not spoken, so far as I am concerned.

The suggestions coming from the form of your subject, "Physics Deductive vs. Physics Inductive," are numerous enough to promise a fruitful discussion. It would be best to follow the leadings of the remarks made, and to adapt myself to them. At the present time I can only forecast what may prove to be in any way useful, and say what lies in my mind.

We have all had experience which goes to show that the actual logic of elementary teaching in physics was not at first very firmly grasped. In fact, in so far as this logic has become apparent, it has been through the practical use of methods; and the logic has followed rather than preceded in time. In this case as in others similar to it, the most effective clarification for the thought has resulted from sympathetic occupation with the subject-matter.

The accumulated experience of the last ten years has done much to steady the judgment in these matters, which

*Read at the Science Round Table, Southern California Teachers' Association, March 31, 1898.