British pressure on Spain is linked to the South Sea Company's financial troubles after its investment bubble burst. Robert Walpole's response moved the company's debt through share sales to the Bank of England and East India Company, exposing how weak its underlying ventures had become. Its single annual trading ship to Spanish colonies could be highly profitable, but that narrow concession could not offset wider losses in fisheries and slave trading. Spain refused to grant greater access because colonial trade generated valuable revenue for the crown. The restriction helped make expansion by force attractive, while the discussion explicitly rejects the company's treatment of enslaved people as commercial goods.
Notable Point · 14:08-17:17
South Sea Company pressure for wider trade
The South Sea Company's constrained access to Spanish America helps explain why commercial frustration fed into war.