{
  "id": "derechos-de-esclavos-en-la-recopilacion",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "The slave-duty título of the law of the Indies: eleven laws in which the Spanish code taxes the Atlantic trade by the head, exempts the slavers' provisions, funds the hunting of maroons from the import duty, and counts the cargo by who was landed alive",
  "summary": "Libro VIII, título XVIII of the Recopilación is the fiscal law of the Spanish slave trade. Its eleven laws license entry, count every person landed, charge four hundred reales a head at Acapulco and six at Cartagena to pay the parties hunting maroons, exempt the slave ships' stores from duty, and assess the penalty for over-lading on those who reached the Indies alive. No clause protects, frees or compensates anyone. Folios 539-542.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "colonial-law",
    "law-of-the-indies",
    "legislation",
    "legal-history",
    "recopilacion",
    "governance",
    "slavery",
    "atlantic-slave-trade",
    "taxation",
    "real-hacienda",
    "trade",
    "afro-descendants",
    "cartagena",
    "cuba",
    "new-spain",
    "philippines",
    "rio-de-la-plata",
    "angola",
    "spanish-empire",
    "americas",
    "sixteenth-century",
    "seventeenth-century"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "sandoval-naturaleza-policia-1627"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "mercado-summa-de-tratos-y-contratos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "morenos-libres-y-rancheadores-en-la-recopilacion"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "instruccion-sobre-el-trato-de-esclavos-1789"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "reglamento-de-esclavos-de-cuba-1842"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "san-lorenzo-de-los-negros"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "negros-fugitivos-de-colonias-estrangeras"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "tributo-de-los-negros-y-mulatos-libres"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "casa-de-contratacion"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "veitia-norte-de-la-contratacion-1672"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "flotas-y-galeones-de-la-carrera-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "escribanos-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "alcabala-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "administracion-de-minas-y-alcrevite-en-la-recopilacion"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "almonedas-de-la-real-hacienda-en-la-recopilacion"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "How did Spanish law tax the Atlantic slave trade?",
    "What was the asiento de negros in the Recopilación de Leyes de Indias?",
    "Did Spanish colonial law count the Africans who died in the Middle Passage?",
    "Who paid for the armed parties that hunted maroons in Cartagena?",
    "Were slaves brought to Mexico from the Philippines, and what duty was charged?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "The code of the Spanish Indies devotes a título of eleven laws to the duties payable on slaves. In the fourth impression, printed at Madrid in 1791 by the widow of Joaquín Ibarra for the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, the heading \"TÍTULO DIEZ Y OCHO. DE LOS DERECHOS DE ESCLAVOS.\" stands in the lower half of the leaf printing folio 539, below the close of the preceding título, whose running head on that leaf reads \"De los Descaminos.\", and the título runs to the fourth line of folio 542, where the heading TÍTULO DIEZ Y NUEVE, DE LA MEDIA ANATA follows with no closing cross-references between them. It contains leyes j to xj. The running heads read \"Libro VIII. Título XVIII.\" and \"De los derechos de Esclavos.\", and the law numbering was read at band magnification and checked in sequence.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The first law makes the trade a licensed monopoly and gives the private contractor an action against the king's own judge. Ley j (Philip II at Madrid, 21 June 1595) orders that anyone arriving at a port of the Indies with one or more enslaved Africans \"sin permision, ni licencia nuestra, ó del Asentista, conforme se hallare pactado en el asiento, incurra en las penas de él, sin arbitrio, ni moderacion\" — the penalties are those stipulated in the asiento contract, and no judge may temper them — and then: \"y el Juez que contraviniere, ó tuviere omision, ó negligencia, será castigado, y satisfará al Asentista los daños, é intereses que de sus procedimientos resultaren\". A negligent royal magistrate owes damages to the holder of the slave-trade contract.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "The second law requires that the people landed be counted, and the count is a customs count. Ley ij (Charles V and the Princess Governor at Valladolid, 17 March 1557) forbids any African to be put ashore, \"varon, ó hembra\", at any port without licence of the governor or alcalde mayor and of the royal officers resident there, \"los quales cuenten los Negros que salieren en cada Barca, para ver si van algunos sin licencia, ó registro\". The sanction falls on the boatman: whoever lands a man or woman without that licence \"por el mismo caso pierda la Barca, y sea preso por término de treinta dias\". What the count is for is stated in the law itself — to see whether any are unlicensed or unregistered — and the penalty is loss of a boat.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The third law closes the Buenos Aires route into Peru and treats the people moved as contraband. Ley iij (Philip IV at Cádiz, 2 May 1624) prohibits the passage to Peru of any enslaved man or woman held in the provinces of the Río de la Plata, Paraguay and the port of Buenos Aires, directing that proceedings be taken \"contra ellos, y sus administradores, y dueños, y las demas personas que los pasaren\", in the form used for everything else forbidden to pass the dry ports of Córdoba de Tucumán, \"pena de comiso, y las demas estatuidas\". The prohibition holds \"aunque los dichos Esclavos, Negros, ó Negras pasen con sus amos, ó sean para su servicio, ó afiancen de volverlos á la Provincia de donde saliéron\". Only the vecinos of the Río de la Plata are excepted, and only for \"un Esclavo, y una Esclava cada uno, y no mas\", on a bond given before the customs officers that they will be brought back.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The fourth law shows the Pacific side of the traffic and prices it. Ley iiij (Philip IV at Madrid, 16 October 1626) recites that by the instructions of the government of New Spain the treasury officers of Acapulco are to collect \"quatrocientos reales de cada un Esclavo, que viniere de Filipinas\", and, because many are brought unregistered, orders \"que ningun Escribano haga Escritura de venta de Esclavo en la Nueva España, si no le constare por Certificacion de nuestros Oficiales de Acapulco, ó de la Ciudad de México, haber pagado los derechos que á Nos pertenecen, pena de perdimiento de bienes\". The duty is to be noted in notaries' títulos when they are examined, and notaries are empowered to denounce unregistered slaves. A documentary control on the sale of human beings exists in this code, and it exists to protect a customs duty.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "Two laws of the título are favours to the traders. Ley v (Philip II, 14 April 1598) orders that the factors, procurators and agents of the slave contractors attending the despatch of their ships in the ports of the Indies \"se dé breve, y buen Despacho\", and that in everything touching their asientos they \"sean ayudados, y favorecidos en quanto fuere necesario\". Ley vj (Philip III, 12 December 1619) forbids the alcaldes de sacas, dezmeros, portazgueros and guards of the Spanish ports and passes to charge the owners or masters of ships sailing with register and despatch of the Casa de Contratación \"á los Rios de Angola, y otras partes, á rescatar Esclavos Negros\" any duty at all on \"el bizcocho, bastimentos, y pertrechos, que llevan para su servicio, y apresto de sus Navíos\". The treasury gives up revenue to cheapen the outward voyage.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "One law makes the trade pay for its own repression. Ley vij (Philip IV at Madrid, 3 September 1624) reads in its entirety: \"MAndamos que en la Ciudad de Cartagena de las Indias se cobren para la paga de las quadrillas de gente armada, que andan en campaña en busca de Negros Cimarrones, seis reales de cada esclavo, y que su procedido se gaste, y distribuya con mucha cuenta, y razon.\" The heading puts it as a charge on \"cada Negro, que entrare\": six reales on every person brought into Cartagena de las Indias, hypothecated to the armed parties that hunt those who escape, and the only safeguard the law attaches is an accounting one.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "Three further laws govern the money once collected. Ley viij (Philip II at El Pardo, 12 February 1579) declares that when the crown grants ministers and others going out to serve in the Indies the right to take slaves free of duty, the grant covers only the licence and duties \"que se nos deben, y causan en las Indias, y no en los de la Ciudad de Sevilla\". Ley viiij (Philip III, 1610 and 1611) forbids the audiencias to draw on or make use of the money arising from slave duties and the royal officers to hand them any of it, \"porque es nuestra voluntad, que estos efectos se traygan á la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla, sin tocar en ellos, y por cuenta aparte\". Ley x (Philip II at Madrid, 24 April 1595) licenses the contractors to make whatever pacts and contracts they wish with their factors and agents over securities, payment of the duties in the Indies, insurance and convoy averages, valid so long as they are not against what is capitulated in their asientos.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c9",
      "text": "The last law of the título is the one that states what the code was counting. Ley xj (Philip II, 28 August 1571) provides that Africans loaded at Cabo Verde or elsewhere in greater number than the registers of the royal officers of Seville allow \"deben ser perdidos, y tomados en la misma cantidad, y número de los que quedaren vivos\", and then that the rule is to be applied to those who entered and enter the Indies over the registered number \"y no en los que se hubieren cargado en Cabo Verde, ó en otras partes, aunque sea en mas cantidad, y número, si se averiguare, que los que faltaren, demas de los cargados, son muertos en la Mar, y no se han llevado, ni vendido en otra parte de las Indias\". The forfeiture is measured on the survivors; proof that the missing died at sea defeats the charge, the crown's interest being in smuggling and not in mortality. The law closes by subordinating itself to each asiento: \"guardándose primero, y ante todas cosas lo capitulado, y declarado en cada asiento, que se hiciere, y otorgare\".",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c10",
      "text": "Read whole, the título confers nothing on the people it taxes. Its eleven laws are addressed to the treasury, the contractor, the contractor's factors, the shipmaster, the boatman, the notary, the customs guard and the judge; not one of them grants an enslaved person a right, a protection, a remedy, a hearing or a route to freedom, and none limits what may be done to anyone aboard or ashore. This is a reading of what these four leaves contain and is offered as a reading: the título states no such rule and also disclaims none, and the código's provisions on the treatment of enslaved people, if any, stand in other books that were not opened here. Within this título the only persons the laws protect are the asentista, whose damages a negligent judge must pay, and the royal treasury.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c11",
      "text": "What this entry establishes is the text of eleven printed laws in the 1791 fourth impression, read from four leaves, and not what was done under them. No asiento de negros was opened, although leyes j, v, x and xj all make the asiento the controlling instrument and ley xj expressly subordinates itself to it; no register of a slave ship, no account of the four hundred reales levied at Acapulco or the six levied at Cartagena, no proceeding under ley xj over a discrepancy between lading and landing, and no record of any person named, freed, compensated or heard under any of these laws appears anywhere in this corpus. The law of libro VIII título XVII to which ley iiij refers was not opened, and nothing here was collated against the 1681 first impression, which this corpus also holds.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-xviii-derechos-de-esclavos"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": true,
  "winning_edge": "English-language accounts of the Spanish slave trade are told through the asiento contracts and the companies that held them, and the Recopilación is cited, where it is cited at all, for its laws on Indians. Its own slave-duty título is quoted nowhere this corpus has been able to check, and reading all eleven laws from the leaf puts the fiscal machinery of the traffic on the record in the code's own words: a licensed monopoly whose penalties no judge may temper and whose contractor can sue a negligent magistrate for damages; a head count taken at the boat for customs purposes, enforced against the boatman; four hundred reales a head on the Manila route, collected at Acapulco and secured by forbidding any notary to draw a bill of sale without a customs certificate; six reales a head at Cartagena hypothecated to the armed parties hunting maroons, so that the import duty paid for the recapture of those who escaped; a duty exemption on the slave ships' own biscuit and tackle outward to the rivers of Angola; and, in the last law, the rule that over-lading is punished by reference to those landed alive, with those who died in the Middle Passage deducted once the death is proved. This corpus exists to document Spanish contributions that are undertold, and it prints this título for the same reason: the case is only credible if the accounts are complete, and a corpus built on this code that left this título unprinted would be worth nothing.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-10-10",
  "media": [],
  "x": {},
  "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/derechos-de-esclavos-en-la-recopilacion",
  "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/derechos-de-esclavos-en-la-recopilacion.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "The slave-duty título of the law of the Indies: eleven laws in which the Spanish code taxes the Atlantic trade by the head, exempts the slavers' provisions, funds the hunting of maroons from the import duty, and counts the cargo by who was landed alive",
    "description": "Libro VIII, título XVIII of the Recopilación is the fiscal law of the Spanish slave trade. Its eleven laws license entry, count every person landed, charge four hundred reales a head at Acapulco and six at Cartagena to pay the parties hunting maroons, exempt the slave ships' stores from duty, and assess the penalty for over-lading on those who reached the Indies alive. No clause protects, frees or compensates anyone. Folios 539-542.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/derechos-de-esclavos-en-la-recopilacion",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-10-10",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, libro VIII título XVIII 'De los derechos de Esclavos' complete — leyes j to xj, opening in the lower half of the printed folio 539 below the close of título XVII and ending four lines into folio 542: ley j 'Que no se introduzgan Esclavos en las Indias sin licencia del Rey, ó Asentista' (margin 'D. Felipe II en Madrid á 21 de Junio de 1595'), whose whole text reads 'ORdenamos y mandamos, que si alguna persona llegare á qualquier Puerto de nuestras Indias, y llevare uno, ó mas Esclavos Negros, sin permision, ni licencia nuestra, ó del Asentista, conforme se hallare pactado en el asiento, incurra en las penas de él, sin arbitrio, ni moderacion; y el Juez que contraviniere, ó tuviere omision, ó negligencia, será castigado, y satisfará al Asentista los daños, é intereses que de sus procedimientos resultaren, por no haber cumplido lo mandado por esta nuestra ley'; ley ij 'Que no se desembarquen Negros en las Indias sin licencia de la Justicia, y Oficiales Reales' (margin 'El mismo y la Princesa Gobernadora en Valladolid á 17 de Marzo de 1557. cap. 10'), whose whole text reads 'DE ningun Navío en que se llevaren Esclavos Negros á las Indias, de qualquier parte que sea, se pueda desembarcar ningun Negro, varon, ó hembra, en tierra de ningun Puerto, sin licencia del Gobernador, ó Alcalde mayor, y de nuestros Oficiales Reales, que en él residieren, los quales cuenten los Negros que salieren en cada Barca, para ver si van algunos sin licencia, ó registro, pena de que el Barquero que echare en tierra Negro, ó Negra, sin licencia de los susodichos, por el mismo caso pierda la Barca, y sea preso por término de treinta dias'; ley iij 'Que del Rio de la Plata, Paraguay, y Tucuman no puedan pasar Esclavos al Perú' (margin 'D. Felipe IIII allí, cap. 14. En Cádiz á 2 de Mayo de 1624'), which prohibits the transit absolutely, 'pena de comiso, y las demas estatuidas, lo qual sea, y se entienda, aunque los dichos Esclavos, Negros, ó Negras pasen con sus amos, ó sean para su servicio, ó afiancen de volverlos á la Provincia de donde saliéron', and then permits the vecinos of the Río de la Plata, 'y no otra persona alguna', to take 'un Esclavo, y una Esclava cada uno, y no mas' on a bond given before the officers of the Aduana that they will be brought back; ley iiij 'Que se registren, y paguen los derechos de Esclavos traidos de Filipinas á la Nueva España' (margin 'D. Felipe IIII en Madrid á 16 de Octubre de 1626'), which recites that the instructions to the treasury officers of Acapulco order them to collect 'quatrocientos reales de cada un Esclavo, que viniere de Filipinas', and, because many are brought unregistered, orders 'que ningun Escribano haga Escritura de venta de Esclavo en la Nueva España, si no le constare por Certificacion de nuestros Oficiales de Acapulco, ó de la Ciudad de México, haber pagado los derechos que á Nos pertenecen, pena de perdimiento de bienes', that the duty be noted in notaries' títulos at their examination, that notaries may denounce unregistered slaves, that the contraband be applied as in ley 11 tít. 17 of the same book, and that masters of ships give bond not to bring slaves without manifesting them; ley v 'Que se dé buen despacho en los Puertos á los Navíos del Asiento de Esclavos' (margin 'D. Felipe II allí á 14 de Abril de 1598'), whose whole text reads 'A Los Factores, Procuradores, y Agentes, que por parte de los Asentistas de Esclavos asistieren en los Puertos de las Indias al despacho de los Navíos en que los llevaren, se dé breve, y buen Despacho, y sobre todo lo que se les ofreciere, tocante á sus asientos, sean ayudados, y favorecidos en quanto fuere necesario'; ley vj 'Que los Alcaldes de sacas, Portazgueros, y Dezmeros no cobren derechos de lo que llevaren los Navíos de Esclavos para bastimentos, y pertrechos' (margin 'D. Felipe III allí á 12 de Diciembre de 1619'), whose whole text reads 'ORdenamos y mandamos á los Alcaldes de sacas, y cosas vedadas, Dezmeros, Portazgueros, Guardas, y otras qualesquier personas, que guardaren los Puertos, y pasos, que hay entre estos nuestros Reynos, y otros, no lleven á los dueños, ó Maestres de Navíos, que van con registro, y Despachos del Presidente, y Jueces de la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla, á los Rios de Angola, y otras partes, á rescatar Esclavos Negros, ningunos derechos del bizcocho, bastimentos, y pertrechos, que llevan para su servicio, y apresto de sus Navíos'; ley vij 'Que en Cartagena se cobren seis reales de cada Negro, que entrare, para la pacificacion de los Cimarrones' (margin 'D. Felipe IIII en Madrid á 3 de Septiembre de 1624'), whose whole text reads 'MAndamos que en la Ciudad de Cartagena de las Indias se cobren para la paga de las quadrillas de gente armada, que andan en campaña en busca de Negros Cimarrones, seis reales de cada esclavo, y que su procedido se gaste, y distribuya con mucha cuenta, y razon'; ley viij 'Que quando el Rey hiciere merced de derechos de esclavos, se entienda de los que se pagan en las Indias' (margin 'D. Felipe II en el Pardo á 12 de Febrero de 1579'); ley viiij 'Que las Audiencias no puedan librar, ni valerse de los derechos de esclavos, y se remitan á España' (margin 'D. Felipe III en Villacastin á 27 de Febrero de 1610. En Madrid á 22 de Diciembre de 1611'), which orders that the proceeds be carried to the Casa de Contratación de Sevilla 'sin tocar en ellos, y por cuenta aparte'; ley x 'Que los Asentistas de esclavos puedan contratar con sus Factores, como no sea contra lo capitulado' (margin 'D. Felipe II en Madrid á 24 de Abril de 1595'); and ley xj 'Que no se atienda al número de esclavos, que se embarcaren en Guinea, sino á los que se desembarcaren en las Indias' (margin 'El mismo allí á 28 de Agosto de 1571'), whose text reads 'LOS esclavos Negros, que se cargan en Cabo Verde, ó en otras partes para las Indias, en mas cantidad, ó número del que se contiene en los registros de nuestros Jueces Oficiales de Sevilla, deben ser perdidos, y tomados en la misma cantidad, y número de los que quedaren vivos; pero se debe tener consideracion con los que hubieren entrado, y entraren en las Indias para guardar, y executar lo ordenado en los que se introduxeren, demas de los contenidos en los registros, y no en los que se hubieren cargado en Cabo Verde, ó en otras partes, aunque sea en mas cantidad, y número, si se averiguare, que los que faltaren, demas de los cargados, son muertos en la Mar, y no se han llevado, ni vendido en otra parte de las Indias. Y ordenamos, que conforme á lo susodicho se haga justicia en los casos, y pleytos, que se ofrecieren, y hubiere de esta calidad, guardándose primero, y ante todas cosas lo capitulado, y declarado en cada asiento, que se hiciere, y otorgare'",
        "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=Lt41mzCz8zEC&pg=PA539"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "The slave-duty título of the law of the Indies: eleven laws in which the Spanish code taxes the Atlantic trade by the head, exempts the slavers' provisions, funds the hunting of maroons from the import duty, and counts the cargo by who was landed alive"
  }
}