Peasants and feudal duties in a colonial society under construction. The Region of Tortosa (1148-1212)

Abstract

The conquest and colonisation of Catalunya Nova –the territories of Tortosa and Lleida– in the twelfth century entailed the settlement in that area of thousands of Christian colonists coming from the northern feudal regions. Historians have insisted on distinguishing between a peasantry subjected to serfdom, typical of Catalunya Vella –the northern regions–, and a free peasantry that was born in the new frontier with al-Andalus. However, this juridical distinction disregards the actual scope of feudal duties, which were mainly applied indirectly through the exactions included in farming contracts (i.e., emphyteusis). This study focuses on the area of Tortosa in the decades following its conquest in 1148, and it analyses in depth the information contained within the documents produced by such farming contracts. The main objective is to discern between the parties involved in the transactions in order to determine who the peasants were, as well as to gauge the weight of the feudal duties they had to fulfil. The studied data demonstrates that the fiscal burden endured by the peasantry of the colonial society that was being constructed in Tortosa was equivalent to that prevalent in the more feudalised regions of the North.