On the Origins of the Taxation System in an Aragonese Jewish Aljama: Calatayud, Fourteenth Century

The objective of this study is the analysis of the evolution of the taxation system established between 1285 and 1356 in an Aragonese Jewish community, Calatayud, the second in size and wealth in the kingdom, necessary to collect monetary resources to pay debts and fund ordinary and extraordinary charges requested by the King. This is a barely studied period, of transformation of the tax system and of development of economic institutions of the aljama. For that purpose, we make use of unpublished documents from the Chancery records of the ACA and Saragossan notarial protocols. New techniques of distribution and collection of the old tax (pecha), originally charged on the contributor estate, and later on his annual gains were employed. Taxes were distributed through tallas, elaborated either by a community appointed commission (a system preferred by the rich), or through a personal statement of the contributor (preferred by the less rich), systems that are in the origin of internal tensions within the community. Facing the unfeasibility to pay community debts as well as the mounting monetary demands by the Crown, the community of Calatayud (as well as other communities in the kingdom) decided, in the 1320s, once granted royal permission, to introduce a new indirect taxation system, the so-called sisas (excise, a system similar to our VAT), that charged manufactured or alimentary articles of consumption, as well as trade transactions, and were regulated through very detailed ordinances, accepted and confirmed by the king. Very soon, though, Christian municipal councils tried to abrogate these ordinances, fearing that they could affect them, and they were sometimes successful, since some Jewish requests to establish new sisas were not always accepted. Even so in communities such as Calatayud, where Jews tried to obtain a license to establish an excise on two products, Kosher meat and wine, that, because of religious reasons, could apparently only be consumed by them.