What is the Simón Ruiz Archive?

In this bill of exchange, the drawee and the beneficiary are the same person, so the operation is reduced to a mere transfer from one account to another, looking more like a loan than an ordinary change.

Accounting is carried out in double entry: the 'must' (left) and the 'must have' (right) are entered in opposing entries. In the note we see the account of Pedro de Tamayo -a resident of Seville- with interests in the Antillean sugar business, trading with Simón Ruiz.

The commander of the order of San Juan, Cristóbal Briceño de Valderrábano, sends Simón Ruiz a letter that includes the news of the victory at Lepanto with the list of ships sunk, casualties, prisoners taken, galleys captured and redeemed Christian captives.

The main books in the accounting entry are: draft, journal (or 'manual') and ledger (or 'caxa'). In this example we see the same entry recorded in the three books: the purchase of a barrel of anise at the May fair in Medina del Campo to be sold in Lisbon.

By virtue of a asiento or credit with the Royal Treasury for 100,000 escudos, Simón Ruiz issues a letter to the Bonvisi for the value of 50,000 escudos to be paid to Francisco de Sagastizábal and to send that amount to the Prince of Parma Alexander Farnese.

The letter served to offset the cost of ransoming the sugar seized by the English. For the most part, the Brazilian sugar trade was controlled by New Christians of Portuguese origin, such as the Ximenes Nunes, originally from Madeira and established in Antwerp.

Fair notebooks are auxiliary accounting books whose purpose is to record payments through an invoice clearing system at the time of the fair.

This letter warns of the arrival of luxurious pieces from the East, a table and a 'cloth quilt' from China. Oriental merchandise arrived in Spain both by the Manila Galleon route and by the Portuguese route or “Carreira da Índia”.

Simão Rodrigues de Évora, belonging to a powerful Jewish convert family established in Antwerp, entered the business of asientos or credits with the Spanish crown. This letter reports on the few investments made after Farnese's death.