Feeding St. Augustine: Hunger, Profit, and Pushing the Limits of Trade

For much of the first half of the 18th century, the people of Spanish St. Augustine experienced food scarcity and intense hunger for reasons outside their control. Thus far, the literature that exists on this food supply issues focuses largely on one of the causes of the problem – the delay and mismanagement of the situado or subsidy– and sidelines the efforts on the part of governors and royal officials to alleviate their “miserable state.” One recent exception is Diana Reigelsperger, who has looked at general Anglo-Spanish commerce networks in Florida. This paper explores the role of hunger in the governor’s decision to engage openly in food commerce with Carolina merchants during a period of near-starvation in 1745, and the result of this act of autonomy in the face of explicit royal prohibition. The governor was not acting of his own initiative, instead, he was following the example of the Royal Havana Company (RHC), who at the time was responsible for St. Augustine’s food supply. The RHC was also engaged in questionable trade; they had subcontracted other Carolina merchants to fulfill the company’s duty to St. Augustine. Neither the RHC nor the Florida governor had the crown’s approval, but both based their decisions to engage in this illicit commerce on pre-existing trade agreements, which, this paper argues, was the basis for their legitimization of a trade that although illicit had long been practiced in St. Augustine. Through the use of testimonies, letters, and other documents generated during a drawn-out dispute between the RHC, various Florida governors, and the Council of the Indies, this paper places St. Augustine at the center of a hunger and profit-fueled trans-imperial trade triangle of dubious legality, and the boldness of governors as key forces of change in trade practices in the Anglo-Spanish American Southeast.