=206. Restriction of trade to appointed fleets.=—Ships could not sail to America as might suit the convenience of merchants, but had to sail from a given port (Seville or Cadiz), at a given time, to a given port in America (Porto Bello near the modern Colon, or Vera Cruz). The government by this restriction made it easier to protect the ships at sea, and to collect taxes from their cargoes, but it bound the arms of merchants so fast with its official red tape that they were weak and helpless. In theory two fleets left Spain each year, one for Central America and one for South America; in fact there were years together, especially in the eighteenth century, when fleets did not sail, and when the colonial possessions might have been entirely non-existent so far as regarded benefit to the mother-country. =207. Restriction of the market by the discouragement of emigration.=—On arrival in America a cargo was sold sometimes for a tremendous advance over cost. Sometimes, however, and more and more frequently as time went on, a fleet would find on arrival that there was no market for its goods, and they would be sacrificed or brought back to Spain unsold. A special reason for this will appear later, when we refer to the growth of smuggling. One general cause, however, for the weakness of Spanish colonial commerce must be noticed in this place. In contrast to the English, who stimulated emigration and so built up a market for their wares in the colonies, the Spanish kings kept emigration under a system of regulation which was almost inconceivably strict. Colonists were discouraged from settling in the New World not only by the difficulty of getting permission to go out, but also by the poor chances for making a living when they arrived. They were strictly forbidden to engage in any industry which could threaten to compete with a Spanish industry; they were tied down to residence in some particular province; and they were prevented from developing the resources about them by restrictions which applied not only to trade with the mother-country but also to intercolonial trade. Trade with the Philippines, for instance, was closely restricted or even prohibited. Districts in the southern part of South America were subject to similar burdensome restrictions. A settler on the La Plata might have to get his European wares by a trip across the Continent to Lima, then up the west coast, and across the isthmus to Porto Bello. When the privilege of receiving two ships a year was granted to Buenos Ayres a customs frontier was established in the interior to prevent goods from reaching Peru by this route.