Demografía - History Lab

Valencian Cortes of 1626

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

The Alfonsine charter originated in the 14th century, when it was institutionalised by Alfonso II of Valencia. The aim of the Alfonsine charter was to encourage repopulation in the context of the Christian conquest, so that anyone who managed to gather 15 Christian houses with a criminal discharge (Primitivo Pla Alberola) was encouraged to do so. With this privilege, many territories in the Valencian area were populated, and it was also an opportunity for a person who had not been a nobleman to become a lord of that territory. The expulsion of the Moors in 1609 posed a major problem, mainly because in many cases, the lords no longer had 15 houses, so they could no longer formally enjoy the advantages of the Alfonsino privilege. To this end, during the Valencian courts of 1626, the lords asked for the privilege to be maintained as an exception to the drastic demographic decline caused by the Moorish expulsion.

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Idea of a Christian-Political Prince

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

Diego de Saavedra Fajardo wrote his work “Idea de un príncipe político-cristiano” in a truly decisive context in the struggle for European hegemony. His experience in the main European courts allowed him to come into contact with the high politics of the old continent and, consequently, he wrote this work with an instructive character for the young kings of the Hispanic Monarchy. In this particular fragment, Fajardo seems to refer to the population problem suffered by the peninsula due to demographic shortages. Already at the end of the 16th century, the extraordinary efforts to maintain the empire had caused a demographic recession in Castile, which was compounded by other factors arising from the complicated 17th century. The population count was indeed one of the most important muscles of the monarchies, because in addition to ensuring tax collection, it allowed armies to be enrolled in accordance with the population’s capacity. Faced with this precarious population situation, the France of Louis XIV, which was a kingdom, had 20 million inhabitants, which enabled the Sun King to build the largest armies in Europe. The demographic problem in Spain would be tackled by the Bourbon dynasty in the 18th century, facilitating new repopulation projects both by state initiative and by private individuals (nobility).

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First sheet of the register of inhabitants of the parish of Santiago de Toledo in 1769.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:16 +0000

Since the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the local churches had been keeping a register of the sacraments (baptism, marriage and burial), as well as a control of parishioners’ registration in each parish: the Libros de Matrícula (Registration Books). In the absence of reliable registers in the pre-census period, the Libros de Matrícula, mainly at the beginning of the modern period, provided the most exhaustive control of the population. In them, with variable information, the head of the family, the members of the household, their age and even the specific address of the house could appear. With the passage of time, the civil authority would deepen the systems of human control in order to establish greater fiscal supervision to increase the Treasury, and new ways of counting the population were established: the systematic censuses and censuses of the 19th century.

The post First sheet of the register of inhabitants of the parish of Santiago de Toledo in 1769. first appeared on History Lab.