In 1577, Caracas became the capital of the Spanish Empire's Venezuela Province under the province's new governor, Juan de Pimentel (1576–1583). In the 1580s, Caraqueños started selling food to the Spanish soldiers in Cartagena, who often docked in the coastal city when collecting products from the empire in South America. Wheat was growing increasingly expensive in the Iberian Peninsula, and the Spanish profited from buying it from Caracas farmers. This cemented the city in the empire's trade circuit.