A person who enters into an assiento, a historical contract for trading goods or slaves, particularly between European powers and Spanish America.
From Spanish 'asiento' (agreement, contract) combined with the agent suffix '-ist'. The term emerged during the colonial period when European merchants sought contracts to supply goods to Spanish American colonies.
The assientist represents one of history's darkest business arrangements—wealthy merchants who literally traded in human beings under legal contract. The British South Sea Company infamously held an asiento, which led to a financial bubble that nearly bankrupted Britain and spawned the term 'bubble' for economic crashes.
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