Following the Discovery of America, commercial activity became the driving force of economic development in the Bay of Cadiz, a fact later recognised with the transfer of the headquarters of the fleet to the Indies in 1680 and in 1717 of the Casa de Contratación from Seville to Cadiz.
It was the growing and prosperous colonial trade that attracted rich merchants, mainly from Cantabria, Navarre, the Basque Country and foreign Italians and Flemish, among others, known as Cargadores a Indias (Shippers to the Indies). A powerful economic, social and, in some cases, political group, whose presence and commercial activity promoted a change in the urban landscape.
With them, El Puerto would become an important port and commercial city, contributing, thanks to their social status, wealth and political power, to the ennoblement of the city and to the profound urban transformation that El Puerto experienced between the 17th and 18th centuries and which left its mark on the unique Palace Houses, known as Cargadores a Indias.
A model of Palace House that has transcended over time for its architecture, decoration and proliferation in the urban fabric, to the point of becoming El Puerto popularly knownas "The City of a hundred palaces".
Distribution, structure and functions:
- The houses of the shippers to the Indies were distributed around a central porticoed courtyard and were structured on three floors, plus a mezzanine.
Distinguished by their triple function: housing, warehouse and office
- On the ground floor: warehouses, access of carriages and other rooms.
- Mezzanine: offices and storage area.
- Second floor: family home.
- Third floor or attic: service area
- Many palaces also had: chapell, lookout tower, jetty, oil mil, wine cellar…