Control público, hacienda municipal y mercado agrario en el reino de Aragón durante los siglos XVI Y XVII

Abstract

This paper studies the connected evolution of municipal finances and the agrarian market in Aragon during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Increasing public intervention in the market and the drop in municipal incomes influenced the supply and demand of food, as well trying to halt price inflation in order to promote economic activity. However, economic and demographic decline in the kingdom reorganized the agrarian market during the seventeenth century. Growing competition led to consolidated farming which specialized production in certain areas and led to a more efficient operation of the market. Expanding demand for raw materials coming from France, Catalonia and Valencia help to develop complementary transactions between Aragon and neighboring regions. Finally, this evolution in the agrarian market partially modified the framework and administration of municipal finances. Raising municipal indebtedness led to a negotiation between local elites and creditors and others social groups in order to increase municipal taxation. In this process, urban elites preferred a indirect way of taxing through foodstuff which could be accommodated according to the degree of commercialization of these raw materials. Opposition coming from privileged groups as well as commoners could sometimes modify both fiscal pressure and municipal control of the market.