The year 2017 marked the tercentennial of the Consulado de Cargadores a Indias' historic transfer from Seville to Cádiz, an anniversary that occasioned abundant commemorative activity, including the two volumes under review. Their authors are Enriqueta Vila Vilar, whose long, distinguished service in the Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos has led to her incorporation into both the Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras and the Real Academia de la Historia, and Manuel Bustos Rodríguez of the University of Cádiz, director of the Hispano-American Academy of Cádiz and the standing authority on the eighteenth-century consulado and Cádiz.
Vila Vilar, who has previously addressed multiple aspects of the consulado's experience, undertakes an overview of the Hapsburg period. The work has three sections, which cover the consulado's establishment, its members' characteristics and social influence, and the guild's workings, particularly its financial and legal powers. Three appendixes list the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century officers and the...
