Magnates, credit, and dispossession in Vélez-Málaga (1487-1523): a preliminary approach

Abstract

Debt and dispossession are two defining features of economic relationships in late-medieval Europe. This paper focusses on Vélez-Málaga (Málaga province) between 1487–1523, that is, the first years of the colonies founded after the Christian conquest. It studies the dispossessions enacted by the third count of Cabra during two periods of high inflation and the effects of his actions on the different social strata of Vélez’s settlers. Analysing both published (the repartimientos) and unpublished (that mainly proceed from the section of the House of Luque at the Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza from Toledo) documents, it concludes that, in the first years of its existence, the colonial society of Vélez-Málaga suffered a process of proletarianization that destroyed the community of small- and medium-scale landholders that had been created from the original distribution of indigenous property.