Abstract
When in 1808 Napoleon replaced the unfortunate Bourbon King, Charles IV, by his own brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain, he undoubtedly was not unmindful of the Spanish possessions in America. Without them Spain would be no more than a second rate power. Mexican silver must have lured the French Emperor, who like all conquerors was in constant need of money. The wealth of the Indies was one of the arguments he used in order to convince Joseph to give up the Crown of Naples for that of Spáin. Furthermore, it had been for many years the dream of French merchants to trade with the distant and wealthy lands which the poorly documented work of the Abbé de Raynal, Histoire Philosophique … had made quite popular in Europe by the end of the eighteenth century.
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