Els Burgès, una família de mercaders a la recerca de l'ascens social

Abstract

The main characters of the present article are the members of the extensive Burgès family, lords of Viladecans and Gava (in the Baix Llobregat area) from the middle of the 13th century. This family stands for many others, since its evolution over the years mirrors similar wishes and fights for thriving in the Barcelona of the Low Middle Ages. The study of this process is of special interest because it allows for the analysis of different devices used in gaining more economic benefit and better social consideration. Traders at the beginning, the Bulges family soon combined trade and the managing of rural state properties, under the shelter of the Crown. This shelter would become permanent from the moment in which the whole family —in spite of being scattered all over the lands belonging to the Crown of Aragon— supported the monarchy during the war which confronted Joan II with the Generalitat.