Jews canaries pirates? Commercial connections between Jews in the Canary Islands, London, America and elsewhere.

Recently I received an article by Rabbi Nissan Ben Avraham about Jewish pirates in the Caribbean very interesting. In the Canary Islands there weren't too many Jews canaries pirates.

 But the canaries jews  had allied between them for to make contraband without Spanish government
control and in this form participating in the economy of other countries of Europe and America.
Since 1601 they get done with the administration of the real incomes of the islands of the Crown : the tithes , the "almojarifazgo", etc .


 But what really interested them was this last, "Almojarifazgo" (customs control) , because of customs control implied the possibility of smuggle , which was really his goal. Between earlier date and 1610 , rents were in the hands of the peoples of Lisbon, Diego and Andres Suarez , and its administrator in Madrid other Portuguese  known as Antonio Rodriguez Lamego , who was responsible for the control and payment of the lease. From 1611-1639 will administer an islander , the Councilman Luis Lorenzo , along with his brother Louis and his cousin Cristobal de Aponte, but in reality they were partners with other Jewish men , as the brothers Diego and Thomas Pereira de Castro .

Real Street in La Laguna on this street lived the brothers Pereira de Castro

 A group of aldermen of Tenerife them acknowledge that: " In four years have been made of all the land and in this form bliss average income has to be masters of this island ports to load and unload their will without anyone control him".

 In addition: "Have a league made among islands and Seville, Rochelle, England and Flanders , because they get into these kingdoms each year a large sum and be among the letters and papers that will be notified to such Vitoria and Domingo López Pereyra" . In short,  what  municipal counselors  denounced in Tenerife , was that the business was not in the benefit to be obtained from the administration of income, but of additional contraband read, was possible thanks to its control of customs.

 Control that maintained until 1670 , then between 1640 and 1650 were in Henriquez Alvarez Duarte's hands and the two decades following Diego Pereira de Castro . Henríquez was supported at least by powerful portugueses converts in Madrid as Diego Gomez de Salazar and Luis Fernández Pato, who would support him in the same and that would likely benefit from the presence of Henriquez in front of customs.

 One of his employees said that in the ten year lease  He obtained 140,000 ducats of benefits, while Captain General estimated that in thirteen entered Pereyra 400,000 ducats . Although revenue by 6% exports and imports had to be important, as we are at the height of wine exports to Europe and India , smuggling of American products should be even more profitable .

 In 1608 , the ship Villa of Q° from the Indies brought one shipment of silver bars , gold, coin carved pearls, scarlet, indigo and leather that was re-exported to Europe. In 1616 , the merchant Lope Garcia and Juan de Pineda clerk reported to the Commissioner the Holy Office of the merchant Thomas Nunez Pina, one of many Portuguese converts for ten years had settled in Holland, because Juan sent to the almojarife ( tax controller ) Texeira ships returning with American products and canary wines, sugar, etc.

 Furthermore, many of the goods they brought was re-exported to Brazil in canaries boats traded with the colony. Also accused of have lived in Amsterdam and Lisbon as a jewish was Texeira but the Inquisition dismiss the indictment with a terse " not business of the Inquisition" .

 In 1631 , it is denounced Antonio Rodriguez de Fonseca , a native of Porto and domiciled from seven years before in San Cristobal de La Laguna( Tenerife) with his wife and sons and a brother. In the census of 1626 on the Portuguese , is described as 46 years old, " bald, small and white, and red face". Witnesses say that live with his wife and two young children, he has a brother Thomas Fonseca in Brazil , and has dealings with Portugal and Hamburg , from where had recently gotten a ship with goods. Other deponent says was "merchant the largest treatment that there now".  In fact his middle name was Pina , hiding because several of their relatives who had been judged, reconciled and relaxed in Coimbra for the inquisition, while the same , the wife and brother had been sambenitados (marked as Jews).  Also seems the latter were fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition.

Petition to Oliver Cromwell where we can see the name of Abraham Israel Carvajal.

 In the witnessings states that had a large family divided between Europe and America: a brother in Pernambuco , one in Nantes , a third in Lisbon and a cousin in the Netherlands, with all which maintained trade relations with false names to that the goods were not intercepted by the Inquisition . Proof of prosperity is that in the first three months of 1631 had come to Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) three ships sent by relatives loaded with clothes and other goods , taking in exchange wine, sugar and jengibre .

The inquisitorial process against the Portuguese Lorenzo Rodriguez Lindo , his wife Perpetua Lopez, his aunt Lucinda Rodriguez Arias and her husband, Gonzalo Rodriguez Baez all of them were residents of La Orotava ( Tenerife ), accused for their slaves to Judaize, also reveals his extensive relations with Europe and its colonies.

 Lorenzo Rodriguez Lindo had an uncle in Dunkirk , a brother in London who traded with Barbados, an aunt married to Simon de Sosa , known Jewish of London , and another aunt with the wealthiest Jew in London,  Antonio Fernandez Carvajal  .

 Antonio Fernandez Carvajal ( Abraham Israel Carvajal) and Simon de Sosa had resided in the Canaries and Carvajal when requesting permission to export 2,000 pounds of silver to the East, the  Cromwell government presented a merit having entered England 200,000 pounds of silver from the Canary Islands .

 Other similar characters that appear in the island Inquisition documents, are the brothers Domingo and Jorge Rodriguez Francia, which had been exiled from Malaga to London in 1655 , being relaxed in effigy by the Inquisition in Granada ten years later. Maintained close commercial relations with Cadiz where they bought emeralds re-exported India and until 1704  buy large quantities of  wine from the Canary Islands .

In the islands used  fake names as Thomas and George Hooper, and some of his correspondents in  Tenerife belonged to the higher social strata, as the Marquis Don Tomas de Nava and Don Baltasar de Vergara, who bought significant amounts of Malvasia grape. Suffice it to mention the first eight hundred pipes exported annually between 1660-1666 .

 The silver and American goods were brought from the Indies and exchanged worse canary wine quality and with European goods, which in turn is paid to the Indian and the Canary Islands wines: the more quality Malvasia wine to England and other countries. The system worked acceptably to the islands until the end of the 18th century, when the Islanders wines were disinherited by the madeiran, Portuguese wine. While in America suffered competition from Levant and Andalusia, ushering in a period of economic crisis that would extend over the next century, and that would cause the great Canarian emigration to the Indies an even the south of USA.