Trade competition along with international politics became rough during the War of Spanish Succession/Queen Anne's War (1702-1713).  By the Close of 17th Century the English of South Carolina were in notable competition with French Louisiana for Indian trade and were in almost constant conflict with Spanish West Florida.  

The English armed their Indian allies and sent them on slave hunts into the lands of the Indian allies under Spanish control-gaining profitable assets (slaves) and weakening the Spanish control in the process.1  By the onset of the War the English had already undermanned foreign control through the Indian trade system for not only the Spanish controlled lands but also for the newly started French Louisiana.2  

In the 1704 Apalachee expedition South Carolina governors send 1000 friendly Indians and 50 whites to capture the Spanish frontier Apalachee.  This had the effect of taking away the Spanish retaliatory base. In 1708 Pensacola town was burned, the fort barely escaped capture.3

Spain placed restraints on trade making it illegal for the colonies to conduct trade with anyone but Spain, but Spain could not meet the demand of the colonies so the colonies were forced to find goods elsewhere (England, France, Holland, and Portugal).4  
  
By the War between France and Spain in 1718 Pensacola's was still structured as a military town with some settlement as opposed to Louisiana, which was more of a settlement with military support.   At the end of the first Spanish Period of Pensacola the population was quite small-approximately 800 and the land mass was only about a circumference of 90 miles. In 65 years of existence Pensacola was still just a military port.  Its main noteworthy was its illicit trade with the French.5
    
In 1718 the French captured St. Joseph's Bay and between 1719 and 1721 French Mobile captured the battery at Punta de Siguenza on Santa Rosa Island and Fort San Carlos de Austria at Santa Maria de Galve.  In August of 1719 Spanish re-captured Pensacola, but by September the French attacked again and took Pensacola and burned down the Fort.6  The Spanish would not reclaim Pensacola until the Articles of Peace were agreed upon at the end of the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1723.7 
 
At the time that Louisiana was monopolizing the Lower Mississippi trade and expanding exports, Britain had taken over the Spanish Pensacola and with this change of masters quite a few Spanish citizens left the colony.8
1Verner W. Crane. The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne's War (1919), 381.

2 Ibid, 387-388.
3 Ibid, 389.
4 Ibid, 135-155.
5 Leonard. Colonial Pensacola,  189-199.
6 Johnson. Santa Maria de Galve,  132.
7 Ibid, 134.
8 Fabel, Robin F. A. The Economy of British West Florida, 1763-1783  (1988), 6.