The Transplantation of Wheat in Sixteenth-Century Hispaniola: Royal Institutions, Colonization, and Agronomic Testing

Abstract This article describes the attempts to adapt wheat in Hispaniola in the sixteenth century. Based on existing practices and the emerging field of agronomy, transatlantic agricultural tests called experiencias were organized by the Council of the Indies and the House of Trade. The repeated attempts to transplant wheat to Hispaniola entailed significant resources, which suggests a strong connection between plants and colonization in the settlements there. Despite evidence that wheat could not grow well in Hispaniola, policies to transplant wheat in the island continued across the century. This was due to the difficulty of circulating information within the Spanish Empire: the crown regularly received inaccurate reports claiming the success of such transplants, as royal officers often invoked experiencias as a means of career promotion. This article offers thus a new perspective on both agricultural practices in the early Spanish Empire and the transatlantic circulation of knowledge.