Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/518

492 492 SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY. PART II. Casa de Uontra- tacion. ■ Important papal con- cessions. advice of two jurists, maintained bj a regular sal- ary from the government.^ Such were the extensive powers intrusted to the famous Casa de Contratacion, or House of Trade, on this its first definite organization ; and, although its authority w^as subsequently somewhat circum- scribed by the appellate jurisdiction of the Council of the Indies, it has always continued the great organ by which the commercial transactions with the colonies have been conducted and controlled. The Spanish government, while thus securing to itself the more easy and exclusive management of the colonial trade, by confining it within one nar- row channel, discovered the most admirable fore- sight in providing for its absolute supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, where alone it could be con- tested. By a bull of Alexander the Sixth, dated November 16th, 1501, the sovereigns were em- powered to receive all the tithes in the colonial dominions. ^° Another bull, of Pope Julius the Second, July 28th, 1508, granted them the right of collating to all benefices, of whatever descrip- tion, in the colonies, subject only to the approba- tion of the Holy See. By these two concessions, the Spanish crown was placed at once at the head cf the church in its transatlantic dominions, 9 Navarrete, Coleccion de Via- ges, torn, ii., Doc. Dipl.,no. 148. — Solorznno y Pereyra, Poli'tica In- diana, (Madrid, 177G,) lib. 6, cap. 17. — Linage de Veitia, Norte de la Contratacion de las Iiidias Occi- dentales, (Sevilla, 1672,) lib. 1, cap. I. — Zuuiga, Annalcs de Se- villa, aHo 1503. — Herrera, Indias Oecidentalcs, lib. 5, cap. 12. — Navagicro, A''iagfrio, fol. 15. ^^ See the original bull, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, torn. ii. apend. 14, and a Spanish version of it, in Solorzano, Polilica Indiana, lib. 4, cap. I, sec. 7.