Consulado effectively manipulated the government and the citizenry of both Spain and the Indies colonies, and grew richer and more powerful every day because of it. Statistics In 1520, twenty-three years before the Merchant Guild was founded in 1543, the total silver export of Spanish America was valued at around 500,000 pesos, with the royal family getting 400,000 pesos of the silver profit. In 1550, the total silver export was valued at around 1,000,000 pesos, with the royal family receiving 500,000 pesos of profit, while the rest went to the Consulado and the Casa de Contratación. In 1596, the peak year of silver production in Spanish America, the total silver export was valued at around 7,000,000 pesos, of which the royal family gained only 1,550,000, the rest going to the Casa de Contratación and the Consulado. See also Casa de Contratación Spanish Empire Spanish treasure fleet References Further reading Brading, D.A. Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763-1810. New York: Cambridge University Press 1971. Clayton, Lawrence A. "Sourcesin Lima for the Study of the Colonial Consulado of Peru," The Americas 33(1977):457-469. Hoberman, Louisa Schell. Mexico's Merchant Elite, 1590-1660. 1991. Kicza, John E. Colonial Entrepreneurs: Families and Business in Bourbon Mexico City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1983 Meltzer, John. Bastion of Commerce in the City of Kings: The Consulado de Comercio of Lima, 1593-1887. (1991) Nunes Dias, Manuel. El real consulado de Caracas (1793-1810) (1971. Pike, Ruth. Aristocrats and Traders: Sevillean Society in the Sixteenth Century. 1972. Smith, Robert Sidney. The Spanish Merchant: A History of the Consulado, 1250-1700 (1940, repr. 1972). Smith, Robert S. "The Consulado de Santa Fe de Bogotá," Hispanic American Historical Review 45, no. 3 (1965):442-451. Socolow, Susan Migden. The Merchants of Buenos Aires, 1778-1810. (1978) Woodward, Ralph Lee, Jr. Class Privilege and Economic Development: The Consulado de Comercio of Guatemala, 1793-1871. (1966) Woodward, Ralph Lee, Jr. "Consulado" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture'', vol. 2, pp. 254–256. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996. Economic history of Spain Silver History of Seville