The Fiscal Machinery of the Papacy of Avignon in the Crown of Aragon: The Collectorate of Berenguer Ribalta (1400-1402)

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of one collectorate record of the Vatican Archive, from which it is possible to count all the incomes and the expenses made along two exercises by Berenguer Ribalta, prior of the convent of Santa Anna of Barcelona, since his nomination as taxman of the Crown of Aragon in September of 1400. In relation to the incomes, the tenths represent the main entry: they are quite or very above other apostolic taxes (annates, procurations, fruits during vacancies, spoils...), although all this would be distorted by the important entry corresponding to the bishopric of Lleida, which rents totally reverted in favour of the Apostolic Chamber. In the chapter of the expenses, it is possible to rebuild the flows of money transfers between Barcelona and Avignon through several bankers, not only Italians, and their respective partners from the Catalan capital. The collection from both exercises amounts to 31 thousand pounds (in money from Barcelona), of which almost 27 thousand were transferred to Avignon, leaving the rest for expenses of management. The results obtained from this collectorate seem to ratify the thesis according to which the Crown of Aragon constituted, behind France, the main financial support of the papacy of Avignon.