Fiscalidad - History Lab

Expansion of San Luis Potosí at the end of the 17th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the city councils were the agents in charge of controlling and regulating different territories in New Spain, controlling income, expenses and the territory itself from the figure of the viceroy. San Luis Potosí was one of the most important nuclei in this organisation, instructing new officials in governmental matters in order to manage the finances of different cities.
Traditionally, the government of these cities was the responsibility of the aldermen, who were granted goods and lands in exchange for obtaining resources to satisfy the different public needs of the citizens registered in their territory thanks to their administration. Theoretically, this was not a problem until the Ordenanza de Intendentes stated that a fundamental task of the intendants was to ask the town councils for a report on their own property and taxes, with special emphasis on expenses and surpluses. With the results, the Council of the Indies could regulate the goods in order to minimise the surplus and obtain the remaining amount for the crown.
The tension between the regidores and the guidelines of the newly arrived intendants was more than evident. Until the second half of the 18th century, the surpluses in the cities served to legitimise the certain independence they enjoyed, but the intendants soon saw this wealth as another element to defend their power in the territories. Both applied regulations that gave them legitimacy to control these resources, so that conflict was practically assured if they could not reach an equitable agreement.
In this situation, the city council of San Luis Potosí undertook a northern expansion project that sought to regulate and integrate the agricultural and livestock production of the region, as well as the mining centres and the entire population that settled in its jurisdiction. The trade route to Mexico City and the corridor to Veracruz served as an articulator of the territory, a point for territorial pacification, and San Luis also managed to extend its influence to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Distribution of foreign textiles through the port of Bilbao between 1710-1714

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

The resource deals with the distribution of foreign fabrics imported from the port of Bilbao during 1710 and 1714, the years in which the War of the Spanish Succession took place. Fabrics destined for Madrid and Toledo paid customs duties in Valmaseda, Orduña, while those bound for the Cantabrian mountain range did so in Vitoria. Taxes were directly proportional to the quality of the fabric: the higher the quality, the higher the tax. From the port of Bilbao they were distributed to wide areas of the peninsular monarchy: the Upper Ebro Valley, the Duero Valley, the Iberian System, Logroño, Soria and Toledo as its extreme points. Where did most of the textiles come from? In the years prior to the war, Holland and England were the two largest exporters (90% of the linen came from Holland). The Royal Order of 3 December 1710 prohibited the importation of Dutch fabrics, thus favouring the British. In the distribution network, Madrid, Toledo, Segovia and Valladolid were the provinces with the highest import ratio, followed by Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Soria and Logroño. The authors warn us that, due to the war situation, the distribution could have altered with respect to previous years. The Royal Treasury tried to reduce some costs by suspending the payment of pensions, subsidies and other benefits, or by delaying the payment of bureaucratic salaries; this meant that certain privileged groups saw their incomes reduced. At the same time, in Castilian territory, the tax burden on the population was increased. The high taxes and reduced purchasing power led to a lower demand for foreign fabrics.

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Taxation of Vera (Almería) in the apiary and sheep market (1531-1592)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:03 +0000

One of the tools of fiscal control exercised as a measure of social control in the 16th century was that imposed by the councils on the transhumance of beehives, carried out almost exclusively by the Moorish population. The practice of this type of transhumance was common in the Kingdom of Granada, mainly due to a tradition rooted in the Muslim period.
The taxation imposed by the councils was usually much higher than that imposed on other species and transhumant livestock, fixed on the consumption of “grass”, which was often higher for beekeeping than for the consumption of animals, at least when it came to paying certain taxes. As can be seen in the resource, the price of beehives is always higher than that of sheep and goats, except at three key moments, the years 1557-1558, 1562-1568 and after the Moorish period.
However, the equalisations are not due to a decrease in the price of beehives, but rather to the occasional increase in the price of grass for sheep, indicating that this tax burden had more of a social control function than a proportional tax on this economic activity.

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Payment of the guards in Castile (1523-1524)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:03 +0000

From the end of the medieval period, the power accumulated by the monarch allowed him to create a series of armies that were far removed from institutional channels but always loyal to his orders. These troops were loyal to the monarch, but they also required an extra cost to sustain themselves, which in practice materialised in an increase in the tax burden on the population, in an attempt to balance the always complex balance between monetary income and expenditure.
For the Castilian Hispanic Monarchy, this particular army was the guards of Castile, paid for thanks to the role of international banking and the extraordinary rents obtained by the crown. From the end of the 15th century, the army was essentially paid through obligados, people who advanced a large sum of money in exchange for a continuous salary, until the amount was paid off. This financial tool was of great use to the crown, but at the same time it meant that credit had to be kept in constant movement. Thanks to the resource, we can see the monthly fluctuation in the king’s liquidity, and therefore, of credit in Castile. The figures are more or less stable, but suffer large ups and downs in the central summer months and from September to November.

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Baptisms and deaths in Villafáfila (Zamora), 1575-1599

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:03 +0000

Coinciding with the last years of the reign of Philip II, Zamora experienced a period of demographic and economic crisis, linked to the excessive fiscal pressure of the monarch and a series of bad harvests that condemned the population of Zamora to a marked increase in mortality and a general impoverishment of the population. Through the censuses, censuses, neighbourhoods and lists of trades, a chronological evolution can be established for the inhabitants of Villafáfila, showing a progressive increase in mortality during practically the last quarter of the 16th century, until 1599, when the plague epidemic marked the peak in the mortality rate for the whole period.
With regard to baptisms and births, until 1586 the town managed to maintain a positive vegetative balance, but from this year onwards the balance became negative. This situation was to continue in the last years of the century – between 1593 and 1597 – in which the number of baptisms did not exceed 7 children a year, with between 2 and 3 being baptised during these years. This situation is the clear cause of a great loss of residents and would mark the socio-economic level of the town for the following generations.

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Revenues of the Holy Brotherhood between 1478 and 1498

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

Shortly after the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Castilian throne in 1474, a process of restructuring and reform of the institutional structures of the State began, especially those dedicated to taxation and tax practice in order to cope with the new expenses that the crown would have to bear. The Royal Treasury had to face these circumstances by creating and establishing the “extraordinary” revenue as an additional tax category.
The establishment of the General Brotherhood in 1476 was justified as a means of restoring peace throughout the kingdom, but the intention of creating an army under the direct authority of the throne without putting too much strain on the weak Royal Treasury, which was in the process of reconstruction, could not be concealed for long.
This movement was prompted by the need for large sums of money in a short space of time, as a result of pressing needs such as the war in Granada at the end of the 15th century or the wars in Naples between 1494 and 1504. Revenues, therefore, were calculated in accordance with expected expenditure and not the other way round, denying the redistributive nature of the taxation practice that has presided over most tax systems.
The key to understanding the extraordinary revenues of the crown were the loans, understood at this time as the issuing of a small debt in exchange for financing. Since it was not considered as just another tax on the population, all subjects were eligible to pay loans without being limited by the directives of the General Brotherhood.

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Collection of the Bolla Tax in Barcelona (1599-1695)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

The so-called “derecho de bolla” was an indirect tax applied to all goods sold in Catalonia during the 16th century until 1769. Within the Catalan market, the textile industry was an important sector. The graph shows a decrease in the collection of the bolla tax from 1599 to 1695. Undoubtedly, as the author points out, the decline of the Catalan textile sector meant lower revenues. The industry of this product lost competitiveness as a result of the counterfeiting that took place, both in the fabric and in the dyes. This was compounded by the massive influx of fabrics from central and northern Europe. Even with margins for modernisation of the sector, the “War of Separation or the War of the Reapers” between 1640 and 1659, with the incorporation of Catalonia into French sovereignty after the betrayal of the Catalan elites to the Spanish Monarchy, led to the numerous imports of French products into this territory, increasing the level of tax collection of the bolla duty despite the detriment of the local product. The demographic decline also led to lower consumption and production; nevertheless, the level of tax collection was bicephalic. Thus, the level of consumption was just as important as the effective collection capacity of the authorities, a capacity that led to collection problems due to political and social instability.

The post Collection of the Bolla Tax in Barcelona (1599-1695) first appeared on History Lab.

Ordinary revenues of the Peninsula and the Indies for the Spanish Monarchy, 1763-1811

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

During the Modern Age the Hispanic Monarchy was financed by its subjects settled in the Iberian Peninsula and in the imperial provinces overseas. From 1763 to 1811, the territories that contributed most to the General Treasury of Spain showed an inversion: while the peninsular crowns were the main sources of financing in ordinary revenues, the French invasion that triggered the War of Independence caused the contribution of these territories to fall sharply; for their part, revenues from the Americas were maintained and only surpassed the peninsular contribution because of this situation. However, as the author points out, ordinary revenue to the General Treasury from the Americas did not include revenue in kind. Thus, if we add ordinary income to extraordinary income, the aforementioned reversal of contributions occurred in the 1790s, when the transfer of silver from New Spain accounted for 80% of total American remittances.

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Ecclesiastical contribution to the royal treasury (1519-1555)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:31 +0000

From the mid-16th century onwards, the clergy lost one of their most precious privileges: exemption from paying taxes to the royal treasury. Payments had to be made through the Subsidio and the Excusado, which soon led to protests about having to contribute to both taxes, and so an agreement was reached to unify both payments by means of an approximation, which in the long term would benefit the Church.
The clergy tried to assert their rights through the General Congregations, who, using their moral authority, wanted to maintain the tax exemption, but it was not enough.
The clergy’s main hostility was because they saw that these extraordinary payments would become permanent, which led to a tug of war between the two sides in search of a negotiated understanding, reflected in the 16th century through the appeal. Thus, for each concession, a negotiated amount was promoted to the royal treasury, which usually accepted after a period of dispute.

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Taxation of Christians and Moriscos in Ávila (1503-1610)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

In Ávila there are documents that confirm the existence of Mudejars as early as the end of the 12th century, with up to three aljamas in the 15th century. This Moorish minority was the second highest paying minority in the whole of the Crown of Castile after the town of Hornachos in Badajoz. To this situation must be added the tension caused by the long war in Granada at the end of the 15th century, giving the constant feeling that this population was permanently in enemy territory, and even more so after the forced conversion of 1502.
However, this adverse situation, although it led to the emigration of many of them, allowed them to arrive at the beginning of the 16th century, making up 10% of the city’s population, mainly employed in trade and metalwork. Thanks to the information contained in the resource, it can be seen that the Moriscos paid a much higher per capita tax than the Old Christians, mainly because after their conversion they ceased to have a tax regime similar to that of the Old Christians and added several extra burdens that they had to face.

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