Editing Piracy in the Caribbean (section)

=====Spanish ports=====
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2015}}
{{History of New Spain}}

In the early 17th century, the Spanish colonies of [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]], [[Havana]], [[Panamá Viejo]], [[Portobelo, Colón|Porto Bello]], [[Santiago de Cuba]], [[Santo Domingo]], and [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]] were among the most important settlements of the [[Spanish West Indies]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1867/treasure-ports-of-the-spanish-main/ |title=Treasure Ports of the Spanish Main |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |publisher=World History Foundation – World History Publishing}}</ref> Each possessed a large population and a self-sustaining economy, and was well-protected by Spanish defenders. These Spanish settlements were generally unwilling to deal with traders from the other European states because of the strict enforcement of Spain's mercantilist laws pursued by the large Spanish garrisons. In these cities European manufactured goods could command premium prices for sale to the colonists, while the trade goods of the New World—tobacco, cocoa and other [[Raw material|raw materials]], were shipped back to Europe.

By 1600, Porto Bello had replaced [[Nombre de Dios, Colón|Nombre de Dios]] (where [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]] had first attacked a Spanish settlement) as the Isthmus of Panama's Caribbean port for the Spanish Silver Train and the annual treasure fleet. [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]], the only port city open to trans-Atlantic trade in New Spain, continued to serve the vast interior of New Spain as its window on the Caribbean. By the 17th century, the majority of the towns along the Spanish Main and in Central America had become self-sustaining. The smaller towns of the Main grew tobacco and also welcomed foreign smugglers who avoided the Spanish mercantilist laws. The underpopulated inland regions of Hispaniola and Venezuela were another area where tobacco smugglers in particular were welcome to ply their trade.

The Spanish-ruled island of [[Trinidad]] was already a wide-open port open to the ships and seamen of every nation in the region at the start of the 17th century, and was a particular favorite for smugglers who dealt in tobacco and European manufactured goods. Local Caribbean smugglers sold their tobacco or sugar for decent prices and then bought manufactured goods from the trans-Atlantic traders in large quantities to be dispersed among the colonists of the West Indies and the Spanish Main who were eager for a little touch of home. The Spanish governor of Trinidad, who both lacked strong harbor fortifications and possessed only a laughably small garrison of Spanish troops, could do little but take lucrative bribes from English, French and Dutch smugglers and look the other way—or risk being overthrown and replaced by his own people with a more pliable administrator.