many royalist refugees from Venezuela began arriving in Puerto Rico. The island also served as a point of departure for troops on their way to Venezuela, such as those under Domingo de Monteverde and Pablo Morillo. As the government in opposition to the French began to take shape in the form of a Supreme Central Junta, it recognized the overseas possessions as integral parts of the Spanish nation. In 1809 it invited them to send delegates to the Junta. This initiated a period of elections in the Captaincy General which were of ever-increasing representation, culminating in the constitutional periods of 1812-1814 and 1820-1823. The first elections were to be carried out by the cabildos, of which there were five on the island by this time: San Juan, San Germán, Aguada, Arecibo and Coamo. They elected as Puerto Rico's representative, the native Criollo Ramón Power y Giralt, but before he could leave for Spain, the Supreme Junta had dissolved itself. Before it had done so, the Junta had sent the call out to convene the Cortes of Cádizwhich served as a parliamentary Regency after Ferdinand VII was deposed. The cabildos elected Power as the island's representative in the Cortes. Power had a very active term in the Cortes. He quickly had the Cortes suspend the governor of Puerto Rico's extraordinary powers, and he also secured separation of the office of the intendant from that of the governor-captain general. The highlight of his legislative activity was the Ley Power (the Power Act), which introduced many administrative and economic reforms in Puerto Rico, many of which survived Ferdinand VII's abolition of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and the Cortes. The Spanish Constitution also introduced local government to Puerto Rico. Many more popularly elected cabildos were introduced to the island. A local administrative and legislative board was also elected, the Diputación Provincial. After the King of Spain restored traditional government, he sought to maintain and reward the loyalty of Puerto Ricans by granting the island a limited form of the long-sought free trade. The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 granted many of the economic requests that Power and the island cabildos had requested since 1810. In the long term, the Decree had very beneficial economic effects. It encouraged the immigration of Europeans who were not of Spanish origin to the island, started the growth of the sugar industry (although this resulted in increasing