Cochineal, the Little Bug that Sparked Piracy, Smuggling, and Espionage
By Kate Avalos

The white substance on the prickly pear is the cocoon of the cochineal bug.

When Hernán Cortés arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1521, he observed the city’s markets were filled with vibrant red textiles. The red dye came from the cochineal bug, a small insect, found on prickly pear cactus. Europeans had struggled to produce a good red dye, more often getting corals and russets instead of vivid reds. Cochineal was so valuable the Aztec empire required it as a tribute and its production became one of Spain’s most closely guarded secrets.

This scarf was dyed with cochineal by a Presidio volunteer.

Carlos III, the King of Spain, saw the economic opportunity and the Spanish created a monopoly. By the middle of the 16th century, cochineal was being used all over Europe, although Europeans still had no idea how the dye was produced. Cochineal had become Spain’s second most valuable export with only silver ahead of it. Europeans mainly used cochineal dye on textiles, but artists including Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rubens, and Renoir used it to create red paint.

Protecting their monopoly, Spain fiercely kept the secret of the source of the red dye and how it was produced. This resulted in cochineal becoming the target of pirates, especially the privateers of England’s Queen Elizabeth I. In 1597, favorites of Elizabeth I, Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex), and Sir Walter Raleigh captured three Spanish galleons coming from Havana carrying twenty-seven tons of cochineal. It was estimated to be worth £80,000 in 1597 (over $20 million US dollars in 2025). Ships carrying cochineal remained the target of privateers and pirates through the 1600s.

The Capture of the Cacafuego engraving by Friedrich van Hulsen, 1626. This engraving depicts the Golden Hind, the flagship of Queen Elizabeth’s privateers, capturing the Spanish galleon Cacafuego.

The cochineal trade also attracted spies and smugglers. Merchants sent spies to find out when the shipments would be arriving in Europe to be able to buy all the product and control the market. It was also a target of smugglers as others tried to break Spain’s monopoly. In the early 1700s French spies successfully smuggled cochineal out of Mexico but the insects died before they made it to French Martinique, taking the secret of its production with them. The punishment for smuggling cochineal out of Mexico was death. It wasn’t until the early 18th century that Spain’s secret was out and in the 19th century artificial dyes became a more popular option.

To learn more about how cochineal dye is harvested, made, and used today visit the Presidio Museum’s exhibit on cochineal.