When the period for submitting the income tax return arrives, the calculators go up in smoke, the Tax Agency website crashes, the Treasury offices look like ticket offices to get a ticket for the Champions League final, the advisors do their August and everyone they wonder what to do to make it come out to return. If we now complain about the taxes that we have to pay (direct such as personal income tax or indirect such as VAT), they had more reasons to complain in the Middle Ages, since taxes passed almost exclusively on the people and benefited the Crown, the nobility and the clergy. Here are some…
- Alfarda :payment for the use of water (ditches, canalizations...)
- Herbage :payment for the use of pastures
- Montezgo :tax on cattle and owed for the transit they make through any territory in favor of the King.
- Tithe :tax corresponding to a tenth of the crops collected by the Church and used to support the clergy.
- Alhondigaje :tax for the deposit of goods.
- Abbey or mourning :right that the priests had to receive on the death of their parishioners a certain tribute from their property that they left behind.
- Alcabala :Castilian tax levied on merchandise trade. Its collection was done by lease or by heading:the municipalities undertook to collect an amount, collected from their neighbors, and in exchange they received political compensation from the monarchs.
- Cuatropea :tax on the sale of livestock.
- Banalities :payment in kind for the use of the lord's "facilities", such as the mill or the oven.
- Royal trips :they were an income granted by the Church to the Crown consisting of two ninths of the ecclesiastical tithes collected.
- Terrace :rent paid to the lord of a land who works it.
- Excused :introduced by Felipe II, it taxed a house/hacienda chosen by the Crown from among those of a certain parish —normally, the one that paid the most to the Church—. The obligation consisted in paying the tithes that the hacienda would assign to the Church to the king, with which the hacienda owner was excused to do it to the Church.
- Firstfruits :consisting of the fortieth and sixtieth part of the first fruits of the earth and the cattle that were to be given to the Church.
- Portazgos :tax that was required at the gates of the main cities and towns of the kingdom and that was levied on the merchandise that outsiders brought into them for sale.
- Pontazgos :similar to the previous one, but you pay when crossing bridges.
- Armholes :indirect tax implemented in Aragon and then in Castile. It consisted of deducting at the time of purchase an amount in the weight of certain products (bread, meat, wine, flour...); the difference between the price paid and the price received was the “sisa”. Since it taxed essential goods, it was very unpopular.
- Millions :extraordinary tax set by the Cortes de Castilla, which reserved control of its administration through a Commission of Millions and committed the Crown to allocate the proceeds to a specific expense (the first was granted to Philip II in 1590 to replenish the losses of the Invincible Armada).
- Sextaferia :neighborhood benefit for the repair of roads, which is attended on Fridays at certain times of the year. It was a tax in the form of work.
- Fonsadera :to finance the expenses of the kings caused by the wars.
- Dinner: tribute that involves hosting and feeding the monarch, as well as his entire retinue, during travels through his kingdom. When the Court settled in a stable way in a city, it began to be paid in money (absence dinner ).
- Chapín of the queen or wedding service :it was occasionally collected among the people to defray the expenses of royal weddings.
- Almojarifazgo :customs tax that was paid for the transfer of merchandise that entered or left the kingdom of Spain or that transited between the various ports (peninsular or American), equivalent to the current tariffs.
- Infurcation :it was a tribute that was paid to the lord of a place for the plot of the houses…
Furthermore, all these medieval taxes were indirect:they were applied regardless of economic capacity and were levied on production, trade or consumption. And now, who is the handsome man complaining about personal income tax or VAT?
With the arrival of the French Revolution, most of these taxes disappeared and the nobles began to have to pay the Public Treasury, although neither peasants nor artisans saw their expectations of being able to achieve a fair tax system fulfilled.