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Some Business Activities of Cortés

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

I.E. Cadenhead Jr.  and
C.L. Strout
I.E. Cadenhead Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma
C.L. Strout
Affiliation:
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma
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Extract

In 1540 Hernán Cortés arrived in Spain to continue his fruitless efforts to clear up the matter of his estate in the New World and his position in the eyes of the Spanish monarch. His activities in Spain along with the ill-fated voyage of Antonio de Ulloa up the coast of California in 1539 caused some drain on his financial resources. The many and varied business activities of Cortés, however, supplied him with income during the remainder of his life and set the stage for legal action over his estate.

Type
Documents
Information
The Americas , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , July 1961 , pp. 71 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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References

1 These manuscripts are in a folder designated C-104. See Cadenhead, Ivie E. Jr., “The G.R.G. Conway Collection in the Gilcrease Institute: A Checklist,” HAHR, 38 (1958), pp. 373–382.Google Scholar

2 Use was made of a portion of these in Cadenhead, Ivie E. Jr., “Some Mining Operations of Cortés in Tehuantepec, 1538–1547,” The Americas, 16 (January, 1960), pp. 283–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Berthe, Jean-Pierre, “Las minas de oro del Marques del Valle en Tehuantepec, 1540–1547,” Historia Mexicana, 8 (July-September, 1958), pp. 122–131.Google Scholar

3 The basic unit of monetary weight was the mark, divisible in several ways depending upon the metal. For gold the mark was divided into fifty castellanos each of eight tomines. The tomin was twelve grains. Settlers used an uncoined gold unit of value approximating the castellano. It weighed 1/50 of a mark. This was the peso de oro de minas, less fine than the castellano and valued at 450 maravedis. See Haring, Clarence H., The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947), p. 307 Google Scholar; Stampa, Manuel Carrera, “The Evolution of Weights and Measures in New Spain,” HAHR, 29 (1949), 2–24.Google Scholar

4 The mark of silver was equal to eight ounces. According to cédula of May, 1535, silver was to be coined into pieces of 1, 2, 3, ½ and ¼ reales. The real was equal to thirty-four maravedis. Haring, p. 308.

5 The peso de oro de Tepuzque was a copper money of little value.