Economic Problems of Florida Governors 1700-1763

Economic Problems of Florida Governors, 1700-1763
By John J. Tepaske

Part 4 of 4

THE REFORM OF 1740

The multitude of complaints and suggestions about the evils of the subsidy system brought about only one change after 1702. Late in 1740 the king ordered that the entire subsidy be remitted to Cuba in hard money. Here the newly formed Royal Company of Havana would contract for supplies required by the Florida garrison, obtain the necessary money from the subsidy, and send on the remaining specie to Saint Augustine.

A similar company, established in Caracas in 1728, had eliminated the need for a subsidy in that area, and undoubtedly the King and the Council hoped the same thing might occur in Florida.

Such hopes were unfounded. The new Havana Company still required the subsidy from Puebla to buy supplies for Florida. Unless it received the money, the company refused to send on the needed goods. During the company’s first years, the governor of Florida engaged its directors in a perpetual argument over the price of goods and over specific articles of the agreement to supply his colony.

But in the main, it was the recurrence of the same difficulty-procrastination in New Spain which lay at the root of these arguments.

After 1748, however, complaints of the Florida governor about non-delivery of the annual grant diminished. From the documents it is difficult to ascertain why, but it appears that the Havana Company began to make contracts with English traders in New York and South Carolina to furnish Florida with its annual needs. As Montiano had pointed out in 1746, English prices were lower; their supplies were in good condition; and there were no risks involved in transporting them. These advantages were not lost on the Havana Company. The governor still had his problems, it is true, for the Havana Company retained more of the subsidy than he believed justified, but the problem of maintaining those serving under him eased to a considerable extent. With a profitable naval stores industry a very real possibility by the late 175O’s, hopes for an economic awakening in Florida were high. Unfortunately, a diplomat’s treaty turned the colony over to Great Britain in 1763 before these hopes were realized.

CONCLUSION

From this hasty analysis of the economic problems of the eighteenth-century governor of Florida, it is apparent that his position was not secure.

Delays and shortages in the subsidy, capture of supply ships by foreign pirates and warships, inferior quality of foodstuffs, and their extremely high cost, all contributed to the complexity of his tasks. Reforms instituted in Spain or innovations proposed by the governor of Florida failed to revive the struggling colony.

With maladministration of the subsidy at the root of its economic problems, Florida was unable to develop despite the suggestions of various governors for improvement. In the end, too much depended upon the annual grant from New Spain.

The most outstanding fact of all, however, is that the Spaniards were able to maintain their foothold in Florida in the face of these almost insurmountable economic difficulties.

Perennially short of food and money and without an income from trade, mining, or farming to supplement aid from Cuba and New Spain, the Spanish governor and his soldiers managed to withstand two attacks by superior forces and ultimately to retain their precarious position in Florida. It is a tribute to Spanish enterprise and endurance that the colony survived at all.