"The reader´s Information" and Norte de la Contratación: The Translation and Circulation of Commercial Information Between Seville and London Around 1700

Abstract

This work studies the British circulation and reception of José de Veitia Linaje’s Norte de la Contratación (1672). Norte de la Contratación was, in fact, translated twice into English and published as The Spanish Rule of Trade to the West Indies (1702) and The Rule Establish´d in Spain for the Trade in the West Indies (1711). Even if it appears difficult to elucidate the precise details of the text’s circulation and reception, the two London editions appear to have depended upon the efforts of the merchant and politician William Hodges, the bookseller Nathaniel Crouch and the translator John Stevens, engaged in this activity because of the existence of a remarkable market for such literature and the title’s possible relevance to British interests.