Unas cuentas en Cádiz (1485-1486)

Abstract

This is a commentary about the accounts of Lope Diaz de Palma, who was tax-collector of the accounts of Cadiz in 1485-1486; which belonged to Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, Marquis of that city. The quantitative importance of the people of Cadiz accounts are made clear with the help of other documental facts. These accounts were not very important in relationship to those of other cities of Andalusia. The most essential were "almojarifazgo" or customs tax and "alcabalas", both of them about home and foreign commerce. We analize the relationship here between the "almojarifazgo" of Cadiz and Seville, and, also, the seigniorial efforts for making of it an independent rent. The commerce with North Africa —Berberia— predominated in Cadiz, and it was controlled by a colony of merchants from 'Geneve, who lived in the city. The accounts give us a nominal relation of thirty people and report the annual arrival of a Venetian fleet of commerce. Another activity, common among the sailors from Cadiz in the years of the wars against Granada, was the vigilance of the Strait of Gibraltar to avoid the arrival of help from Africa and to collect booty where a 2.0% was for the Marquis. Because of these circunstances a detailed mention appears about some naval expeditions and auctions of spoils and slaves which took place on the return. There are some facts about the prices of slaves and their buyers Cadiz shared important activities of the fishing of tuna and saltmine production, with another places of the atlantic coast of Andalusia. The Marquis of Cadiz kept his right of creating "almadrabas" in spite of a long dispute with the Duke of Medina Sidonia; according to the accounts, the fishing of tunny fish took place every year, in May and June, and, different kinds of people worked here. Later on the Marquis sold the tunny fish giving, generally, a year to paying it in. The three hundred pages of the accounts of Diaz de Palma tell us, too, the price of about a hundred products or services. This is a very important aspect because there is not much information about prices and wages in Castille during the XVth century. The work finishs with four documents about the purchases of tunny fish, the arrival of the Venetian fleet in 1485, the situation of the Genoese in Cadiz in the year 1493 and the "almojarifazgo".