El artesanado en los fueros del reino de Murcia

Abstract

The essay analyses the legal framework of the kingdom of Murcia while it was under occupation and looks at the laws and decrees drawn up and the commercial and artisanal activities they covered. Among other aspects of this legal codes covered here are their origin, the legal families they came from and the reasons for them being conceded in accordance with the need for repopulation, the level o f danger to which the arca was exposed, the economic developed envisaged and political aims. As such, the Cuenca legal family with jurisdiction over Cuenca, Alcaraz and Alarcón, which favoured wool-based activities, adapted more easily to the unsafe frontier arcas to the North and those of the Order of Santiago. The Toledo family with jurisdiction over Toledo, Sevilla and Córdoba was more restrictive in its laws which were aplied in the more affluent and heavily populated southern cities. By taxing commercial and artisanal activities, it obtained higher levels of tax-derived income. However, some communities received up to three different families and jurisdictions meaning that their economic activities were given unequal treatment.