Caribbean Exchanges and Colonial Economy, 1492-1510

Elvira Vilches

This study focuses on a close reading of Columbus's writings on his four voyages through the parameters dictated by the contrast existing between the transactions described in the Journal of the First Voyage and the documents of discovery. I argue that Columbus's writing translates the transactions taking place between Caribbean peoples and Spaniards into an ideation of a holy gift that only Columbus himself, as the royal envoy, can retrieve for Ferdinand and Isabella. This conversion runs through Columbus's career and pursuits and serves as the ideological basis of colonial enterprise: gold for God. I suggest that Columbus unifies two-way exchanges sought by both groups into the absolute ideation of the holy gift so that he can justify his error and fulfill the colonial expectations of his sponsors. Thus the holy gift of free gold stands as a conceptual measure of boundless wealth to compensate for what this resilient mariner hopes will be just a brief obstacle to extraordinary gains.

[WP # 99005]