Embarcaciones - History Lab

Cadastre of the Ensenada

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

Between 1750 and 1754 all the towns in “las Castillas” were subjected to an interrogation consisting of the following 40 questions: Name of the town (question 1); jurisdiction (2); extension and limits (3); types of land (4, 5); trees (6, 7, 8 and 13); measures of surface and capacity used (9, 10); species, quantity and value of fruits (11, 12, 14 and 16); tithes and first fruits (15); mines, salt mines, mills and other “artefacts” (17); livestock (18, 19 and 20); census of population, with neighbours, labourers, solemnly poor (21, 35 and 36), census of clerics (38) and convents (39); houses and other buildings (22); goods belonging to the commons (23), sisas and arbitrios (24), expenses of the commons, such as salaries, festivals, paving, fountains (25), taxes (26 and 27); industrial and commercial activities, with the utility of the goods or services produced: taverns, inns, shops, bakeries, butchers, bridges, boats on rivers, markets and fairs (29), hospitals (30), money changers and merchants (31), shopkeepers, doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, notaries, muleteers etc. (32); masons, stonemasons, masons, stonemasons, blacksmiths, cobblers etc. (33, 34); ships (37); alienated goods (28) and the King’s own revenues (40); the answers to these questions are obtained following a previously regulated process. This panoramic view of the Kingdom is a small part of a larger survey, the so-called Cadastre of the Marquis de la Ensenada, set in motion by Royal Decree of Ferdinand VI on 10 October 1749, as a preliminary step to fiscal reform, replacing the complicated and unjust provincial revenues with a single tax, the so-called Contribution. The Single Tax was never implemented, but it has left an important volume of documentation in our archives, the General Answers are kept in various State Archives. The General Archive of Simancas holds the complete certified copy of the replies of the 13,000 localities of the Crown of Castile. Preservation reasons led to the initiation of the microfilming process. In the 1980s, the 545 books of General Answers kept in Simancas were microfilmed. The frequent consultation of these collections and the need to facilitate access made digitisation advisable, which was carried out by the Document Reproduction Service (SRDAE) from microfilm during 2004 and 2005. The result is 350,000 images of documents with very neat calligraphic handwriting, easy to read and with hardly any abbreviations; very few pages have legibility problems, such as faded inks or ink transfer from the back. These images are now available on this page.

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La Concha de Artedo Beach (Cudillero, Asturias) in 1786

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000

With the analysis of coastal projects aimed at optimising the natural conditions of the ports, we can see the efforts to adapt these characteristics to those of 18th century vessels. In the case of La Concha de Artedo, a technically simple project was carried out, but it even established the plan of a city, since, due to the characteristics of the orography and the terrain, the Cantabrian Ocean would be the main adversary.
Although many projects were never executed due to lack of time and means, they serve as a very close theoretical approximation of the Crown’s awareness of the importance of an excellent network of ports in a country like Spain, with an overseas empire to maintain and ports in a poor state of conservation and operation. It would be in the 19th century when state financing and the new steam and dredging machines would allow these plans of the previous century to be put into practice.

The post La Concha de Artedo Beach (Cudillero, Asturias) in 1786 first appeared on History Lab.

Total number of vessels chartered in the port of Alicante to Sicily (1718)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:20 +0000

The arrival of the Bourbon dynasty to power in Spain was accompanied by an extensive programme of military reforms. Among these, the need to reform the fleet was imperative. In this regard, the efforts of José Patiño were particularly noteworthy. The need for a powerful fleet was also consubstantial with the monarchy’s strategy of recovering some of the territories lost as a result of the treaties signed in 1700, which dismembered Hispanic territorial unity. In order to achieve this objective, the monarchy resorted to forced contracts with the private owners of merchant ships that crossed the Mediterranean and specifically its ports. In this sense, they were obliged to take their ships to strategic ports such as Cartagena, Barcelona and Alicante (with the penalty of 2,000 pesos if they did not do so) where they were placed under the orders of the competent military. English ships were the most predominant given their active trade with the Mediterranean, with French ships in second place. According to Armando Alberola Roma, this type of measure became necessary due to the delicate situation of the Spanish navy and was an effective way of transferring troops and supplies to the Italian territories they wanted to take over, such as Sicily and Corsica. This experience would later enable Philip V to assemble an extraordinary fleet to take the city of Oran in 1732.

The post Total number of vessels chartered in the port of Alicante to Sicily (1718) first appeared on History Lab.