Tributos - History Lab

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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Tributes and lags in the viceroyalty of Peru by the Court of accounts in 1630.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:57 +0000

Much of the interest in the administration of the Viceroyalty of Peru has focused on Francisco de Toledo (1569-1582), the principal architect of the kingdom’s administrative, labour and fiscal system during the formative years of the 16th century, who increased the power of the state in pursuit of a restructuring between Spaniards and Amerindians by channelling the flow of surplus economic wealth to Spain. The efforts of the viceroy and the Madrid government to prevent abuses fell on deaf ears once he left the viceroyalty, as the main criticism was directed at the corregidores, who were said to have disregarded the laws, abused their authority and enriched themselves at the expense of the Crown and the Indians. Such malfeasance did not go unnoticed, and in 1604-1626 Crown officials seriously contemplated abolishing the corregimiento system in the Indies. The general corruption and incompetence of the corregidores is the most plausible explanation for the absence of a significant correlation between tribute revenues and the number of indigenous tributaries. Revenue fluctuations between 1580 and 1630 were excessively pronounced. The transitory rise in tribute revenues in 1624-1627 was simply the result of a large remittance by the corregidores of the capital. Treasury officials based in Lima could not contain the administration among corregidores who were nominally under their jurisdiction. The system of fees and administrative procedures, carefully devised by Francisco de Toledo, was in ruins by the early 17th century. Corruption of the corregidores and loss of tax revenues were widespread in the provinces far from the viceregal capital. According to Francisco López de Caravantes, in 1630, tax debts or arrears had reached 1,654,057 pesos in the viceroyalty. In this sense, the highland provinces of Potosí, Cuzco and La Paz were the ones that had accumulated the largest arrears.

The post Tributes and lags in the viceroyalty of Peru by the Court of accounts in 1630. first appeared on History Lab.

Collection of municipal taxes on wine to finance the expenses of the Council and the Crown, Madrid 1606-1700

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

Throughout the 17th century, the costly wars between the Spanish Empire and the European territories led to increased spending by the Treasury. One way to alleviate the budgetary imbalance was to increase the tax burden on citizens and on the products they consumed. Although the new taxation sparked numerous revolts and riots, the tax burden settled down: in Castile, between 1577 and 1666, the Crown’s tax revenue rose from 2.6 million ducats to 5.7 million ducats. In this context, wine, popularly used, was a source of tax revenue. In Madrid, in addition to nourishing the Crown’s treasury, the Conejo added a parallel increase for its municipal benefit. The resource shows the evolution of the collection of wine according to the purpose of the collection and the amount in millions of maravedís obtained. Between 1607 and 1640, the municipal tax payments were used to pay the town’s expenses; it was the introduction of wine from Olivenza in 1644 when part of this collection was destined for the Crown. From that moment on, the tax burden on wine served to cover more and more of the Crown’s needs, rising from 7% in 1644 to 64% in 1700. This rise was paralleled by a steady increase in taxes on the litre of wine: while in 1606-1610 the taxes represented 27% of the price of a litre, between 16666 and 1670 they rose to 65%. Why did the authorities tax wine with special interest? Its wide distribution and inelastic demand made it favourable for securing a constant income. Such was its importance that at the end of the 17th century, wine taxes accounted for 40-45% of the total tax revenues collected in Madrid.

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