This scheme was assisted by the organization of the galleon
fleets, which, guarded by warships, united themselves into a single
convoy once or twice a year. Portobello (with Panama on the other
side of the narrow isthmus) was the sole commercial harbour of
South America. Merchandise introduced here was sent across the
isthmus and down the Pacific coast, and eventually penetrated
inland as far as Potosi. To this place the colonists of the south
and of the Atlantic coast were obliged to come in order to effect
their negotiations, and to supply themselves with necessities at a
cost of from 500 to 600 per cent. above the original price. These
absurd regulations, violating natural laws and the rules of good
government, as well as the colonial monopoly, could only have
emanated from the madness of an absolute power supported by the
inertia of an enslaved people.... When Spain, enlightened by
experience, wished to alter her disastrous system of exploitation,
and actually did so with sufficient intelligence and generosity, it
was already too late. She had lost her place as a motherland, and
with it America as a colony.
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