In A Dissimulated Trade, Germán Jiménez-Montes interweaves economic, political, and material history to reassess the role of Northern European merchants, flamencos, in the late sixteenth-century Spanish timber trade. The book draws primarily upon notarial documents from the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Sevilla, as well as material from additional general and local archives, to examine the power and trade dynamics between the flamencos, Seville, the Spanish Crown, and wider trade networks. Jiménez-Montes argues against previous characterizations of the involvement of foreign merchants in the Spanish timber trade as evidence of a weakening Spanish shipping industry. Instead, the author asserts, the growing role of Northern European merchants in Seville demonstrates a polycentric state structure through which the Spanish Crown obtained materials needed for transatlantic trade and naval ventures and Seville, by encouraging the trade of the flamencos, “consolidated a preeminent position in international trade and contributed greatly to the aspirations of the Spanish empire overseas” (210).
Jiménez-Montes explores the work and lives of Flemish and German merchants in Seville along multiple social and spatial scales. Early chapters contextualize the economic and social positions of flamencos in Seville within the trade embargoes of Philip II against the Dutch and the tensions of the Eighty Years’ War. These embargoes, which Jiménez-Montes argues were intended to gain resources to supply the navy rather than act as commercial bans, resulted in a “paradoxical balance” (3) that led to the rise of Flemish and German merchants as key suppliers of timber. Their position in Seville was strengthened by the lobbying of city councilors for their trade roles, which in turn strengthened the economic and political position of Seville itself. Grants to Northern European immigrants to the control over warehouses, Atarazanas, and to the collection of the alcabala timber tax, as well as the ability to use open-access institutions such as notaries, further supported their ability to take part in trade.
The three dynamics of competition, consolidation, and cohesion that are explored in these initial chapters form the backbone of the following analysis as it expands increasingly outward. Jiménez-Montes moves from the business partnerships consolidated through marriages and the domestic sphere to those formed around differing levels of investment or the transference of agency. These arrangements, which themselves often overlapped as business partners frequently had kinship ties, allowed for different types of trade relationships that extended both locally and internationally. Jiménez-Montes argues that such networks allowed the flamencos to participate in the “hierarchical port system” (167) of Spain, in which Seville acted as a center of information and commercial activity while other aspects of shipping took place elsewhere. The final chapter examines how the needs of the Atlantic and naval fleets for timber and logistical support were integral to Seville's rise as a hub for both, and how the flamencos and their trade connections and strategies were, in turn, central to that process.
Jiménez-Montes’ employment of these multiple scales and the ways in which they overlapped is an effective strategy that opens space for the inclusion of a number of individuals in the analysis, including merchants, shipmasters, women, domestic workers, and enslaved people. Jiménez-Montes identifies the constraints of notarial sources when it comes to writing about many parts of society, but interrogates the material to extract what it can offer within those boundaries. This use of the source material is another strength of the book. The author draws upon a number of document types, including marriage records, powers of attorney, notarized partnership documents, voyage registries, and promissory notes. Each category is discussed in terms of limitations and uses, and the book therefore offers a valuable and lively tour of archival document types that highlights both their importance for the current work and their potential for future study.
By following the lives and businesses of various flamenco families throughout the chapters, Jiménez-Montes illuminates broad historical trends through individual lenses. A fascinating wealth of information on timber products and the materials of shipbuilding clearly demonstrates how these commodities supported, often literally, trade networks and commercial relationships. Written in a succinct and engaging style, this book will be of interest to upper-level students and scholars researching Spanish economic history, early modern global trade, immigration, and maritime material history.
