Research:2005-01-01/Journal article/el-cáñamo-y-la-corona-española-en-ultramar-américa-y-filipinas-siglos-xvi-xvii

ResearchJournal article1 January 2005

El cáñamo y la Corona española en Ultramar: América y Filipinas (siglos XVI–XVII)

Manuel Díaz Ordóñez

Revista de Historia Naval

Historical study of the Spanish Crown's efforts to supply cordage and sailcloth to its ships in the Americas and the Philippines, drawing on documents in the Archivo General de Indias and on published histories of colonial Chile. Díaz Ordóñez traces a move from shipping cordage and raw hemp out of Spain to royal orders, from 1537 onwards, to promote the crop in New Spain and Peru. In his account only Chile proved suited to the Spanish hemp sown in 17th-century America, where it was grown and made into rope on estates around Quillota and La Ligua; two tables give the cordage output that the Quillota landowner Martín de Espinosa projected for central Chile in 1644 and the cordage exports recorded at Valparaíso between 1622 and 1655. He cites Erich Forster's suggestion that the seed sent from Spain came from southern European hemps that did poorly in tropical America. The Philippine section finds the islands' ships still dependent on European hemp cordage, with occasional Chilean lots arriving through Acapulco; its "cáñamo de Manila" is abacá (Musa textilis), not cannabis. The article concerns hemp grown for fibre and does not discuss psychoactive use.

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CountryChile

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2005-01-01 2026-10-04 El cáñamo y la Corona española en Ultramar: América y Filipinas (siglos XVI–XVII) Journal article Manuel Díaz Ordóñez Revista de Historia Naval 2005 https://hdl.handle.net/11441/182908 https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/es/catalogo imagenes/grupo.do?path=329017 Historical study of the Spanish Crown's efforts to supply cordage and sailcloth to its ships in the Americas and the Philippines, drawing on documents in the Archivo General de Indias and on published histories of colonial Chile. Díaz Ordóñez traces a move from shipping cordage and raw hemp out of Spain to royal orders, from 1537 onwards, to promote the crop in New Spain and Peru. In his account only Chile proved suited to the Spanish hemp sown in 17th-century America, where it was grown and made into rope on estates around Quillota and La Ligua; two tables give the cordage output that the Quillota landowner Martín de Espinosa projected for central Chile in 1644 and the cordage exports recorded at Valparaíso between 1622 and 1655. He cites Erich Forster's suggestion that the seed sent from Spain came from southern European hemps that did poorly in tropical America. The Philippine section finds the islands' ships still dependent on European hemp cordage, with occasional Chilean lots arriving through Acapulco; its "cáñamo de Manila" is abacá (Musa textilis), not cannabis. The article concerns hemp grown for fibre and does not discuss psychoactive use. Chile