Culture & History Digital Journal (Dec 2015)

Maritime post routes between Corunna and the Caribbean as a Geographic Information System (Gis) model

  • María Baudot Monroy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2015.021
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 2
pp. e021 – e021

Abstract

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In 1764, the Secretariat of State created the Maritime Post in order to establish regular, reliable communications with the colonies in the Americas. This was the first in a series of decisive measures which advanced the spread of free trade. The new state service, which came under the Royal Treasury, was designed like a trade route in order to make it self-sufficient. It entailed sending a monthly packet boat to Havana, and from there, documents were distributed throughout the Americas. The logbooks kept by packet boat pilots provide a range of valuable data which make it possible to create a historical GIS.

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