La sal del Reino de Granada: documentos para su estudio

Abstract

We publish here some documents for the study of the monopoly of the salt in the reign of the Catholics King. These documents deal with the land of Malaga where a great deal of salt was consumed in the industry of salt-fish and tanning feathers. The most important text that we publish, is an open inquiry, in 1499, about the bad conditions of the salt that the renters of the monopoly sold in Malaga. This salt was mixed with earthy sand and saltpetre as thick as alum, so it was not salty; then, the meat and fish was spoilt, the people sickened. There are some witnesses that do not remember such bad salt in all their lives; it could not be dissolved even in mills of sumach. It seemed like salt of conpas or salt from Guinea, and, if they spread it over the fish, then, it formed a bitumen like chalk or lime. The leather is cut and burned when the salt touches it. Other aspects appear in the documents: the tax of "alforinaje", the institution of the "puja del quarto", auctions, leases and subleases, the prices of the salt, the institution of executive-mayors and the internal regime, inherited from the well known salt mines of Atienza, the continuity of prices, taxes, and customs of the epoch of the Moorish Kings, together with the concession of salt mines of Granada to "mudejares" personalities. In the introduction we point out the bibliography, documentation and the problems of the salt in the Realm of Granada, beginning with the Nasri epoch. The installing of the monopoly is attributed to Hernando de Zafra, royal secretary, hastened by the economical necessities of his epoch. Document number two seems to mark the difference between the regimen of rent of the salt mines (for the "Mudejar" consumption) and the monopoly for all the realm.