Carlos Alberto González Sánchez, "El comercio de libros entre Europa y América en la Sevilla del siglo XVI: Impresores, libreros y mercaderes"
Carlos Alberto González Sánchez is a Historian based at the Universidad de Sevilla and focuses on the diffusion of European culture in the Americas during the the sixteenth through seventeenth centuries. In this article he focuses on the role of printers, book sellers, and merchants in Seville’s book trade. As the Spanish epicenter of trade and commerce with the Americas during the sixteenth century, Seville played a crucial role in dictating the development of the trans-Atlantic book trade. By describing the operations of various printers and merchants based in Seville, González Sánchez provides a foundation for understanding the economic atmosphere that spurred the birth and progressive development of the book trade between Spain and the Americas. González Sánchez argues that from the very beginning, the role of print in the Americas was mediated and dictated by commercial and economic interests of Spanish merchants. He also emphasizes the importance of notarial documentation in reconstructing the book trade and print industry in Spain and its colonies.
Even though González Sánchez’s analysis of the trans-Atlantic book trade is limited to the particular role of Seville’s print industry, he provides essential historical context for understanding the economic systems that deemed what would be printed and shipped to Spanish America. The dissemination of print culture in the Americas was directly influenced by European trade networks and commercial interests and these phenomena must be understood in order to study the establishment and competing interests of printing houses and trade networks within New Spain. Also, this article contributes to traditional methods and concerns of book historians that emphasize the study of commercial networks and economic practices. Since I have not had much exposure to the field of book history in Latin America, I need to understand the dominant themes within the literature and González Sánchez’s economic analysis of the trans-Atlantic book trade provides necessary context regarding the traditional concerns of the field.
