El préstamo a la gruesa ventura y la usura náutica: cómo los créditos marítimos financiaron la carrera de Indias haciendo caso omiso de las restricciones canónicas (siglos xvi-xix)

Religious prohibitions on charging interest on money loans have been partly blamed for the underdevelopment of the credit market in pre-industrial societies. Usury was condemned since Antiquity, and this practice was reproached by the Catholic Church, leading to moneylenders being regarded as sinners. During the Ancien Régime, and during the colonial rule, Spain adopted these doctrines, applying them in its American territories for over three hundred years. However, there is evidence that merchants devised methods to circumvent these prohibitions, rendering them an inconvenience but not an obstacle to the development of mercantile capitalism. This study examines the case of maritime loans—also known as bottomry loans—transactions in which exorbitant interest rates were effectively charged, creating nautical usury without triggering the canonical and civil sanctions to the participants. These loans significantly financed the commercial ventures of yhe Metropolis in America.