British Trade with the Spanish Colonies: Pedro Ajequiezcane's Letter on Commercial Matters (1806)
In this short letter, first published in a little-known Veracruz gazette in July 1806, Pedro Ajequiezcane sets out to discuss the defects plaguing Spain's system of trade with its American empire. In doing so, he presents an unusually broad-based and insightful analysis of the chief factors fuelling the growth of trade between Great Britain and the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean in the final decades of the colonial era.