The fourth printing press in the New World was established in Santiago de los Caballeros, the capital city, in 1660. The archives of the Museo del Libro Antiguo in Antigua, Guatemala, is a microcosm of this press. The Museum's collection contains 354 documentos printed in Guatemala between 1663 and 1883. This study examines the watermarks found in those documents to determine the origin of the paper that supplied this press and begins to define the paper trade between Europe and Guatemala.
Of the 90 watermarks that have been identified and that are found in the museum's collection, the majority, 61.1% are from Catalonia, 30% are from Italy, 5.5% are from Valencia, and 1.1% are from Alicante, Aragon, and Lisbon. Given these figures, it is clear that Italy and Catalonia dominate the paper industry and, for this reason, this presentation will focus primarily on these two suppliers. As an attempt to explain this phenomenon, I will explain the interplay between Spain and Italy with regard to the American market. Moreover, I will discuss the laws and privileges extended to the Catalan papermakers by the Spanish government which, by the end of the eighteenth century, resulted in a New World Monopoly.
In addition to identifying the papermakers whose wares reached Guatemala, this study concludes that the paper market is closely tied to the politics of the respective eras. The lack of protectionism by the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in an Italian domination of the market. This situation changes dramatically at the end of the sixteenth century when the Spanish government begins to support the domestic paper industry. This legislative change ensures that the Spanish papermakers flourish by denying the Italian papermakers direct access to the American market. The watermarks found in the Guatemalan books testify to the intimate relationship that existed between Italy, Spain, and Guatemala.