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This article looks at woad cultivation (using seeds from Toulouse) in New Spain during the 1530s. This was a time when the Spanish conquest was not yet over and exchanges between Europe and America were just beginning. By looking at its different modalities, we study how this European crop was transported to America, and the way that Emperor Charles V and a group of capitalists used it to dominate a new time-space continuum, in order to extend their authority overseas. Analyzing a contract ( asiento) allows us to observe the human components of this public-private partnership in the New World and the reaction of native peoples to the introduction of a new crop. This work also examines how global cooperation and competition forces led to the breakdown of the enterprise.