It was not until the late part of the 17th century that the trading of humans for goods would surpass the trading of goods for gold. Progressively, over time the forts built for the purpose of trading gold, became compartments where slaves were held to await being sale, shipments, or death. Many slaves were held in captive for up to a year before boarded onto a European ship.
It is stated that the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus marked the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Spanish conquistadors set out hoping to trade goods for riches, but quickly enslaved the Native American people to make them search for gold and silver. Millions of Native Americans died either from disease, malnutrition, or Spanish torment. Searching for a new labor source, several tests were conducted to seek out the most efficient source of labor. .
Through out the earliest periods of the slave trade, the state played a major role. Since slavery was viewed as unchristian and illegal in the early years of the Spanish colonies, special permission for slavery had to be granted (called the asiento). This allowed the crown to rigidly control the trafficking of slaves. This permission could be revoked if the traders did not make accurate reports of how many slaves were being brought in, or if the slaves were unhealthy or incompetent to work. In 1501 the government in Madrid authorized the introduction of Africans as a substitution for the decline in Native American population. Slaveholders were subject to pay a tax on each slave that was brought in. The early 1520s marks the first transatlantic slave voyage from Africa to the Americas, and continued to increase in the mid-1500s. Mining silver Peru, Africans worked alongside with Native Americans. In 1791, the number of blacks was 40,000 and constituted 25 percent of the population in Lima, Peru. Ships sailed from Columbia to Panama where African captives were transported to South America.
