The exploitationn of salt of Villafáfila

Thanks to the excavation of Santioste we know the techniques and procedures of salt extraction by those settlers of the Bronze Age. However, the medieval documentary sources do not give us details of the extractive systems used by the salt workers of the time and we must approach their knowledge through indications or indirect citations, since the excavation of the medieval uninhabited area of Terrones in 1989, although it provides the presence of numerous ashes inside the tasting, does not allow us to confirm that it was a medieval salt factory.

The first document that mentions the existence of salt pans dates back to the year 917:

The pauses or inns were the places where the brackish water was deposited to favor its evaporation, that is to say, it posed or rested. In the first half of the 10th century, abundant pauses are documented , which implies an early and intensive exploitation of the salt mines by multiple owners who must have known the extraction techniques transmitted generationally since ancient times.

“terra in the Lamprean territory, on the eastern side, the terminus of the Salinas Islands and on the northern part, the terminum of the Sancto Facundo friars” [2] .

The peak of production must have been in the 12th-13th centuries if we consider the abundance of documentation referring to cabins, inns and salt rentals and the abundance of ceramic remains from this time in the surroundings of the salt flats; As of the 14th century, the number of documentary citations decreases, possibly coinciding with a decrease in extraction, which lasted until the middle of the 16th century, since in 1543 the last three active cabins are cited [3], maintaining the cabin of the lord of the town, the Marquis of Távara until after 1560 as a residual activity. The promulgation of a Royal Decree by Felipe II, in 1564, incorporating all the salt mines of Castile into the Crown, compensating their former owners "we order and command... do not work or make salt in the salt mines, nor in the wells, but in those that by our mandate, order and hand and license are carved and made” [4] , made disappear from these lands an activity to which its inhabitants had dedicated themselves for millennia.

The origin of the salt comes from the high concentration of sodium salts in the waters of the Lagunas de Villafáfila. These salts come from the dissolution caused by the rainwater in the surrounding cliffs and their drag towards the lagoons, where they settle and accumulate due to the annual evaporation of water, in addition to the existence of a previous salt formation, origin of the great richness in salts of the land and of the subterranean waters.

We do not have direct references of the techniques and resources that would be used for the production of salt, but rather we have indications from certain terminology of the exploitations when the purchases or sales are documented that allow us to get a vague idea. Likewise, an approximation to the prehistoric techniques used in these salt flats can be made, thanks to the excavation of Santioste, which would possibly be maintained over the centuries.

In the documentation, a series of main terms that refer to salt farms are cited, such as pauses or inns, cabins and graters, which I will try to define, in addition to others such as eras, wells, cisterns and holes, which are part of those.

In the oldest diplomas we are told many times about the "paunatas" , which seem to be the basic unit of exploitation. They have precise territorial limits, they are very diverse in terms of their value, which would be given by their extension or salt wealth; and, sometimes, they include other minor elements such as wells or threshing floors. They would receive the name of inns or pauses because they are places where brackish water settles or rests before evaporating due to the action of the sun's heat, at which time salt crusts would form, mainly sodium chloride, which would later be grated to its grinding or storage, as can be deduced from the mention of "certain inns for grating salt" [5]; hence the name of ralladeros that is used as a synonym for inn in the documentation of the 16th century, "inns that are understood to be salt rayaderos" [6] , applying to the places from which the salty earth was extracted. The equivalence between Pautata and Salina is deduced from the use of both expressions indistinctly to refer to one of them, such as that of Madornil, cited in 964:

The inns and gralladeros were distributed along the shores of the current lagoons, above all, next to "Lacuna Maiore" , current Salina Grande, all around it, from San Fagunde and Coreses, at its southwestern end, to Madornil in the northeast, even within the same "intra ipsa lacuna", along the banks of the Salina de Barillos "posada a la Salina de Vayllo" , in the surroundings of the small lagoons from near the center of Villafáfila "rayadero a la Carrerina" , to the Rual lagoon, and along the Riego stream: “this witness has leased a salt grater called al Riego”, in all the lowlands reaching the terms of San Agustín; Thus, next to this stream near the current Raya de San Agustín, some inns and old threshing floors are documented at the beginning of the 16th century, in the municipality of San Clemente, surely vestiges of an old salt exploitation:

“a pradiçal that they call the old heras and through the said heras forward by ditch that you make in the said heras and through there they were fasta do they say the inns fastas to reach a stream that is called Irrigation” .

From a survey in 1528 of the inns belonging to the Moreruela monastery, we know that they were located, following the shore of the Salina Grande in a counterclockwise direction, in the Las Cabañas payments, on the shore northwest of the Salina Grande, the Otero road next to the Prado de San Fagunde, past the town of Otero in Requexo, Madornil, Papahuevos, Puente de Villarigo. Continuing towards the Salina de Barillos in Ribas Royas, on the banks of the same Salina de Barillos, and along the Riego stream to Los Llamares. Between Los Llamares, Carrerina and La Rabiosa: in Santa Olaya, La Cabaña Blanca, Eras San Roque, between the paths from Villarigo to La Magdalena and from Villarigo to the Rabiosa eras.paused mentioned between the 10th and 12th centuries [10] .

The delimitations between the terms of the inns were marked with milestones and stone milestones to avoid interference:

“...a stone marker” or “they made another marker and from there they were marking another ten markers until they ended up in a ravine and inn ” ;

"from a stone phyto that was there until reaching a cairn that failed of four stones that they said was old" , or "according to what is indicated of ancient stone cairns".

The minor elements that constitute the pauses are the eras and eiratos , and they would be divisions within the pause with somewhat raised edges, to avoid the mixing of the waters in the different phases of evaporation; the wells or excavations to obtain water with higher saline concentrations than those of the lagoons, possibly were artesian springs such as those that have persisted around the Salina Grande until now, which on occasions would be nothing more than small holes, since subsequent documentation refers to the "foyos" located in some inns; and cisterns, which would be containers, sometimes covered with stone where the water would be stored before proceeding to its evaporation [11]. Still in the eighteenth century, when an investigation was carried out on the ground with the aim of putting the salt mines in Villafáfila back into operation, it is said that:

“in addition to the many wells and pits that were made in the year 1768 on behalf of the Royal Treasury, there are other indications that in ancient times there could have been a factory in these lagoons, since the terrain and division of the eras are perceived and, among others, a rectangular pond 120 paces long by 50 wide, at noon and on the Otero side with its ditches to collect the water, all quite artfully, although during the day full of reeds, reeds and silt, but it is perceived that everything was done on purpose and not for another destination” [12] .

And in the term of Villarrín in 1796 remains of the old salt mines were preserved, among which are:

“reservoirs, presses, cookers and threshing floors, all made of earth” [13] .

This procedure for obtaining salt by allowing the water to rest required hot weather to facilitate evaporation, and dry weather to prevent rainwater from re-dissolving the already formed salt: "Ansi, to make salt, the çielo sereno e no turbado” [14] , which would mean an intensification of work and production in the spring and summer months, which is also deduced because the delivery of income or tithes of salt was made between San Juan (June 24) and San Miguel (September 29), mainly around Santa María de Agosto (15) and San Agustín (August 28).

That is why the cathedral of León tries to get hold of the transit tax or portazgo of those days that must have been the ones that would register the most salt traffic from Villafáfila to the consumer centers:

“et in Lampreana de illo portatico de illo sale, in singulis annis, duos dies quod est veespera Sancti Agustini et ipso die” [15] , in the year 922;

and the collection of tithes of salt belonging to the church of Astorga was carried out since 1235:

“annually from the feast of Saint John to the feast of Saint Mary in August...if I find the collected salt” ;

and the priest of Santa María must deliver the salt from the tithes of his parish to the monastery of Eslonza before September 8:

The same thing happened with the delivery of the rents to the owners of the salt flats by the tenants: the monastery of Sahagún receives for its inheritance in Muélledes the sixteen ochavas of salt that they have to deliver annually, on the day of the Virgin August, and the rest of the income: bread, wine, rams, for San Martín (November 11), and from his estates in Villafáfila he receives the salt in September and the rent in money for San Martín [17] ; of the income received by the monastery of San Pedro de las Dueñas from his estates in Lampreana and Esla, the salt is delivered before San Miguel and the fish by San Martín [18] .

The term "capuana" or cabin appears for the first time in 1049 related to the salt activity:

At first it seems to refer to a building where the salt and the tools necessary for its production would be stored, possibly to proceed with cooking sheltered from the rain. But this denomination is the one that persists in the Late Middle Ages to refer to the production unit or salt factory, encompassing the other elements of the exploitation such as the inns, rayaderos and holes:

“there was a salt fazer hut that has inherited inns and graters and landfills for its flats”; or “the inns and raiaderos of the Moreruela cabin” .

But from late references we know that it was not just a mere storage or shelter building, but that they were small factories where a forced extraction of the salt contained in the brackish water was carried out by means of a boiling process, applying fire on ceramic containers to obtain "bread" or "cheese" from salt; such as: “two dozen salt cheeses” received by the monastery of San Pedro de Eslonza through the patronage of the church of Santa María de Villafáfila [20] . This active extraction process was used in the Asturian and Cantabrian salt pans that used ovens and required the abundant firewood from the forests of those northern regions [21].. This system was also used in Villafáfila, at least since the Bronze Age, and has been archaeologically documented at the site of Santioste de Otero de Sariegos, referred to above [22] . In 1543 it is said “there are also three cabins in the said town where salt is made” [23] , which leaves no doubt that the manufacture of salt is done in the cabins.

The application of the brackish water boiling procedure to obtain salt in the Villafáfila salt flats can be deduced from indirect references:

1- of the need for abundant quantities of firewood used for billing, as testified in a 1528 lawsuit by several witnesses from Villafáfila, who had been salt producers, referring to the situation in the second half of the fifteenth century: Bernaldo Ribera tells that:

“When this witness was twelve years old [in 1468] while he was with his father in Villafáfila, he began to try and go to the mountains of Távara to fetch firewood for a salt fazer cabin that the said father had in the said village... and he used to go every year many times to the said mountains to bring firewood from them for the said salt cabin”; o Salvador Facera says that: “when this witness got married he may have been sixty years old [ around 1465 ] he leased with other people from Villafáfila who worked on the Távara mountain to bring firewood from it”, and the priest of San Pedro remembers that: “ He made his servants pass through the boat with carts of firewood to make the salt” [24] .

2- of the mention in 1508 to the dunghill of the cabins where the ashes were deposited:

“That they were given it for a piece of dunghill along with the order's hut where they throw the ash they take out of said hut” [25] .

3- among the vestiges of the old salt pans in the municipality of Villarrín in 1796, “cocederos” [26] are mentioned .

Although these references are late, since the 10th century, firewood had to be a fundamental element for the production of salt, since the donation of a mountain in Montenegro, on the banks of the Esla at the height of the current Quintos Bridge, to the monastery of Sahagún by King Ordoño IV in the year 951 is linked for its use in the Lampreana pauses:

“Similmodo adicimus vobis ibidem deserviendum a illas vestras Pautas de Lampreana illo monte Nigro in amnis Estula” (in the same way we add you there so that it is at the service of your inns in Lampreana, Monte Negro next to the river Esla),

Probably to use the firewood from these mountains in the manufacture of salt, since in addition to these mountains, it adds the donation of another nearby in Magretes, in the current municipality of Bretó, but bordering on Montenegro, of which it specifies that it is for the pasture for their flocks or any other use they want to give it:

“ad pastum pecoribus vestris vel ad operandum quidquid vobis necessarium fuerit” [27] .

On the other hand, the abundant ashes exhumed throughout the excavation of the early medieval site of Prado de los Llamares [28] , corresponding to the medieval village of Terrones, where pauses have been documented since 954, could come from a medieval salt factory, more that of a place of habitation.

This need for firewood for the production of salt must have been the cause of the early deforestation around the lagoons and contributed, together with the increase in the cattle herd, to the repeated lawsuits that the council had with the monastery throughout the Middle Ages. of Moreruela for the use of the mounts located between the Esla river, and the terms of Villafáfila.

The salt production unit is known in 1235 with the name of torva , when the amount of the tithe that is given to the bishop in 1235 is fixed:

“de singulis torvis quas habente vel habuerint de cetero quinque yminas de unaquaque torva” ,

from what seems to be deduced an equivalence between torva and cabin. But the meaning of the word grim was not accessible to me, until, reading a reference made by several witnesses to the salt shack that the commander of Castrotorafe, as lord of the town, had in Villafáfila in 1541, it is said:

“The cabin, if it were better dressed and repaired than it is now, could be worth two thousand more than it is now, because those who currently rent it are poor people and do not have the power to repair and dress it, as Whoever would do it and could do it and dress the wells and dimples and put another peat, with which the aforementioned two thousand more each year would yield well . ”

In the margin of the responses of the neighbors is noted, referring to the content of the statements: "the boiler of the cabin" or "put another peat" . It seems that with the term torva or peat, a reference is being made to a boiler where the brackish waters would be subjected to boiling to obtain the salt.

It is possible that both procedures were complementary, using evaporation by the sun in the summer and boiling in the winter months, or mixed, proceeding to boil the brines previously exposed to the action of the sun for their concentration until reaching a point close to saturation.

The buildings of the cabins were grouped around the current lagoons, and bordered each other, in addition to adjoining gralladeros or land that was farmed. Those that remained until the 16th century were located mainly between the town and the Salina Grande, in the payment still known as Las Cabañas, located to the northwest of it, where the so-called Palace or Commander's cabin of the town was located, next to Alonso González's cabin and that of Mr. Figueroa; Somewhat further away, in the direction of the Prado de los Llamares, were the Moreruela monastery that bordered the Montamarta monastery cabin and that of Francisco de Osorno; Between that of Moreruela and that of the commander was the hut of Gómez del Prado; Next to the Carrerina lagoon was the Pedro Martínez lagoon, and that of Juan de Villagómez was in the Riego stream. To the west of the Salina Grande, near the Zamora road, the cabins of Luis de Barrio and Alonso de Villacorta are documented.

Less well known are the locations of the cabins in the other towns in the region, for having stopped producing before the 16th century and not having been able to locate them in old surveys.

“La Cabaña Grande three hundred steps away” and in “el teso de la Cabaña... Lagunillas path” or “a land that is close to La Cabaña... Vidayanes path... and meadow of the council” .

In Villarrín, a survey from the 17th century mentions the payment of "La Cabaña a la salina de San Pedro " and currently there is a payment of Las Cabañas to the northwest of the gas station; both may refer to old salt factories. At the end of the 18th century, some vestiges of the Villarrín salt flats still remained:

"which consisted of twenty-five salt pans and some of them are known as vestiges such as deposits, presses, cookers and threshing floors, all made of earth" ,

"whose vestiges are manifested from the place of Villarrín to this town" [30] .

“Others and woe in the villa onze salinas without those of the commander who give each one, each year an income called alvelerias, which is 1500 mrs. each” [31] ,

“in the said town there are twelve or thirteen cabins made of salt” [32] .

“Palacio's cabin with its cigoñal fountain and two tubs inside and its holes, very well roofed and decorated”, gabled “on the edge of the cabin's summit” .

The cabins consisted of one or several sources from which the salt water would be drawn:

“the limits of the Moreruela cabin from the cape of the source of the said cabin”...”to the source of the said Montamarta cabin”, “two foyos or sources that are from the said Moreruela cabin ... the foyos of Traslacabaña” ,

some of these sources were intubated, such as the so-called Caño del Obispo, in Madornil; of some stripes and adjoining salt flats:

“a fazer sal cabin that has inherited inns and graters and landfills from its rasas” ; of meadow "a meadow that belongs to the said Moreruela cabin", "which used to be the meadow and wall of the said cabin" ,

All of them were connected by footpaths or paths between them and with other main roads, and with the mountains from which the firewood was brought, and they are thus mentioned in the surveys:

“the path that the woodcutters take to the cabin of Luis de Barrio”, the “down the path that goes from the cabin of Luis de Barrio to that of Alonso de Villacorta” or “the path to the cabin of Alº Gonçalez”, and “a path that goes from the town to the said cabin [that of Luis de Barrio].

Due to the lack of performance and the decrease in production, the cabins deteriorated and were abandoned or leased to people with few resources who could barely keep them standing. This is how it is told in 1541, when information was collected from the neighbors to know the value of the commander's income:

Since 1538, only three cabins were in operation, which maintained a residual production of salt for a few more years.

But according to the optimistic opinion of some neighbors, other cabins could be put into production again:

“In the said town and land there are parts and places and provision to build salt huts, wells and rigs to make more salt than what is currently available, oh...the said uses have not been ordered or dated because the happiness is villa in the power of the commanders who did not care about making the said cabins and other things” ;

but the obstacle was the ownership of adequate land to obtain and grate the salt:

“In the terms of this town, he does not know what could be achieved or rig in the terms of this town where another cabin could be built because the land from which the said salt is made is divided into three cabins that currently exist and the said encomienda does not have land more than for the said cabin that it has”.

It is possible that in the 16th century, what was grated, rather than crusts of salt already formed, was the earth impregnated with brackish water, possibly to subject it to filtration before boiling. Thus Pedro Martínez, one of the residents of Villafáfila who had a cabin, recounts a dispute he had with another cabin owner in 1518:

“That being mayor, this deposer insulted him, being in the cabins of the salt flats collecting land, a son of the said wife of Luys de Barrio and gave him a garachón with a stick and had a sword in his hand and forcibly threw him out where he was taking the said land” [33] .

In 1560, the old Palace cabin that now belonged to the Marquis of Távara was still producing:

"Juan Gorjón brings it leased and it has its cigoñal fountain and two tubs inside and its holes, very well roofed and dressed ." However, he had not been able to put into operation " a salt hazer cabin with its source and its oyuelos and its inns, which are understood to be salt hatches " that he had bought in 1558 for 100 reais, since two years later it is reported in a felling that is “ without rigging or roofing, all fallen and broken. It has its source and its holes” [34] .

The inns of the Palace were abandoned and lost, as happened with those of other cabins, and in the survey of 1560 of the properties of the Order of Santiago, now belonging to the Marquis of Távara, only 18 of the 35 that were delimited were listed. in 1522. And in subsequent fellings, such as those carried out for the preparation of the Ensenada Cadastre in 1751, it is specified that some land dedicated to barley cultivation was grated land.

The plots of the two cabins that the Marquis of Távara had, one that of the commander, and the one that he bought from the heirs of Mr. Figueroa in 1558, and its annexes, became the property of the town itself, being reduced to land of labor, and in a survey of the Marquis's assets in 1680 it is said:

“The old felling huts are enjoyed by the town and its neighbors and they sow them with bread, they don't know if by purchase or some old instrument... and they reach the Escambrón de Movilla” .

Once the production process was finished, the salt prepared for sale was presented to the consumer in two ways, in the form of small salt, which would be obtained by grinding the salt crusts extracted from the inns, either in manual or wind mills, the remains of one are preserved near Las Bodegas, and the toponym of another: the Molino de Sanchón; and the “pedrés” salt, so called because it is sold in stones or balls, probably obtained by boiling it in boilers inside the cabins. This is how it was sold in Zamora in the 15th century:

“From each sack or sacks of salt from Villa Fáfila that comes to be sold to this city that are six ochavas and from above that whoever sells them pays the council, from each sack of small salt four mrs. And from each fanega of salt I ask for a maravedi of the currency that runs and from each I use a white of the said currency that is a maravedi and no more” [35] .

Another earlier reference to salt in blocks is from 1291 and refers to the two dozen "salt cheeses" that the priest of Santa María must deliver to the Eslonza Monastery due to the patronage of that church.

The production and trade of salt, being a staple product, were subjected to strict regulation by the medieval monarchs, leading to the formation of the salt monopoly.

Reina Pastor's classic study on "Salt in Castilla y León" establishes the stages followed by the process of regulating salt production:

1- a first phase in the High Middle Ages, 9th and 10th centuries of free production in which the salt mines were directly exploited by small owners.

2- a second stage from the 10th century to the middle of the 12th century (time of Alfonso VII, The Emperor) in which a process of absorption of the small owner by the large property and the introduction of royal taxes is carried out. There is a change from lay private property, very parceled out, to large ecclesiastical, noble and kingly property, which in principle do not claim any special right over the salt pans, and those that do consider them to be their own patrimonial asset. In the 11th century, the monarchs of the Navarrese dynasty (Fernando I) introduced taxes on salt: tollage or general transit tax, and alvará or specific production tax.

3 - from Alfonso VII to Alfonso X there is a process of regulation of income and the establishment of real law. The courts, meeting in Nájera, apparently under the reign of Alfonso VII, are the starting point of the royal right to the salt flats. In them, the reserve of the salt mines is established, and the yield of their income, for the king. At the time of Fernando III, the price of salt at origin was set at one gold maravedí for each cahíz of salt. Alfonso X establishes in the Partidas that the income from the salt mines, among others, belongs to the kings. Finally, the process culminated in 1338 when Alfonso XI, in the order of Burgos, regulated the operation of the royal monopoly of the salt mines of his kingdom.

The application of these norms and the chronology of their establishment in the Villafáfila salt flats must be considered with reservations, as Martínez Sopena (1985) already points out.

The documentation traces the presence of small landowners in the 10th century who freely sell or donate their pauses to different ecclesiastical institutions, which are the ones that preserve the oldest documentation, along with the existence of medium and large landowners who do the same. The process of absorption of the small owner by the great ecclesiastical property continued until the beginning of the 13th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries we still find some owners of salt flats, some who would maintain their inheritance from ancient times and others who had been taking over the effective possession of the salt flats through long-term appraisals that in practice allowed them to take over the property. the salt flats

In the specific section on the ownership of the salt mines I will analyze the process in more detail.

In the 11th century, salt taxes were introduced, specific to production : the alvará, which was charged proportionally to the amount of salt that was removed from the salt pan, is first documented in Añana. It was charged directly in the salt pans or in certain places determined by the Alvareros, royal officials who were suppressed in 1338, by order of Alfonso XI. In the salt pans of Villafáfila the alvará is documented in 1465 when Enrique IV granted the grant of the alvalerías of the salt pans of Villafáfila to his elder huntsman, Don Pedro de Ledesma, commander of Castrotorafe. The value of alvalerías at the end of the 15th century was 1,500 mrs. for each salt cabin per year, and were part of the income received by the commander:

“Others and woe in the villa onze salinas without those of the commander who give each year an income called alvelerias that are 1500 mrs. each” [36] .

“which said salt flats owe and pay to your highness alvalerias and alcabala” [37] .

The portazgo was a transit tax that was levied on the traffic of all merchandise, including salt, through the roads, towns and cities of the kingdoms. It was paid at the exit or entrance of the cities and towns and used to consist of a part of the load, sometimes the tenth. Exemption from this tax was frequently granted to certain ecclesiastical institutions, monasteries, councils, etc., which could move their products freely through the kingdoms.

Thus, in 945, Ramiro II exempted from toll the paupers that he donated to the monastery of Sahagún:

“et duodezi posatas cum suis adiazensis unde nobis ex inde portatico non preendant” [38] ,

but in the period of war and alterations that preceded the establishment of the Navarrese dynasty in León, some nobles appropriated these tolls of Sahagún salt, of which they complained to King Ferdinand I in 1049:

“aprendebant honores et portaicos de sale de ipsius fratibus” and he restores their rights and orders “non faciant vobis ullam disturbationem in omnes vestras pauseas, neque our cabannas, vel in omnes villas de Lampredana, seu de Campos” [39] .

In 1201 Alfonso IX exempted the canons of Astorga from the toll of the productions of their estates, including salt [40] .

The income generated by the toll of salt must have been substantial because they were donated by the kings, including forgeries with the purpose of attributing rights over it. Thus, dated 922, there is a document by Ordoño II by which he grants the cathedral of León the toll of salt from all the towns of Lampreana on the eve and day of Saint Augustine, but it was possibly forged in the 11th century. .

Certain is the donation made by Alfonso VI to that seat, of the tithe of the salt coming both from the portazgo and from the king's own salt pans in the town of Lampreana in 1073:

“I grant autem omnen decimam salis in ipsa villa iam dicta de universis que ad partem regis pertinent, tam de portatico quam de salinis ipsius regis” ,

to help the needs of the canons and of the Leonese see itself. The perception was in kind and the cathedral of León receives at the same time the power to establish in the town an exempt man in charge of collecting the salt:

"Insuper adicimus unum hominem quem decimus excusetum per huius manum tota illa decima colligatur" .

In March it was the donation and in November they already had a kind of landlord in the town:

to collect the salt and defend their rights against possible contradictions from the merinos or other income recipients. The amount of it should not have been scarce, because of that salt the Bishop of León, in turn, grants a tenth to the hospital that he founded at the doors of the cathedral in 1084:

“et de illa sale que dedit rex dominus Adefonsus in Lampreana suum decimum ad sedem Sancta Maria, de illo decimo damus alium decimum ad ipsu hospitum” ,

and another tenth to the monastery of San Marcelo in the city of León in 1096 [41] .

In addition to these two taxes, the alcabala was paid, at least since the generalization, from the fourteenth century, of this tax of Arab origin, which taxed sales in an amount of around 10%. We have news of the payment of the same for the cabins in 1518 and 1543. The alcabala paid by the three cabins that produced salt in the period 1538-1543:

Taking into account the salt produced, they should pay a little more for this tax, since an investigation from 1544 shows that:

“it is made every year in the salt shacks of the said village myll hanegas and they are sold for four and three and a half reales, which comes to the alcabala eleven mill and nine hundred mrs counted at three and a half reales” [42] .

During the fifteenth century the kings, in order to have money, leased their rents both alcabalas, thirds and other royalties, including those of the salt mines of Villafáfila for certain periods of years to the highest bidder, who paid a fixed amount each. the years that the lease lasted and was in charge of directly collecting the real rights in the salt flats. The income from the Villafáfila salt flats in some years of the fifteenth century is as follows:

“This rent was worth the year that passed from I.CCCCºXVI years XVII.CCCXC mrs.IIIIºesº”

- in 1417, "this rent was rented for three years that began on the first day of January of this year of I.CCCCºXVII years and will be completed at the end of the month of dissolution of the year of I.CCCCºXIX years with the conditions and saved from past years" . The final auction was made for 15,010 mrs. and 2 pesos each year, to a certain Alfonso Rodríguez de Oviedo, "neighbor to the city of Çamora to the collaçion of Sancta María la Nueva" , which he gave as guarantor to Gómez Fernández de Sevilla. Juan Sánchez de Valladolid, servant of Diego López de Zamora, major collector of the Burgos merindad, had participated in the auction, surely as figurehead of his master, whom he also presented as guarantor.

-in 1439 they were leased for four years to Alfonso de Mayorga for a value of 13,421 mrs and a half and their guarantor was García Gómez de Sevilla, receiver of income from the bishopric of Zamora;

-in 1443 the tenant for six years was Pedro Alonso de Aguilar, court clerk of Juan II and chamber secretary of Mr. Infante Don Enrique, master of Santiago, for 10,500 mrs., and gave Ruy García de Palacio as guarantor. of Madrigal;

“Andrés de la Carrera, a resident of Toro, is the major landlord of the Villafáfila salt flats that the said Lord King commanded to lease for three years that began on the first day of January that passed from said year of one thousand and four hundred and forty-nine years and will be fulfilled. at the end of the month of disengagement of the year that will come from one thousand four hundred and fifty one years... in 10,182 and 7 pesos in each year... one half in money and the other half in bonds of rents and grants” .

Accountants older than our Lord the King, you well know how the Rent of the Villafáfila salt flats that the said Lord King commanded to lease for three years is walking in the auction before you... it was auctioned off at the first auction in Alvaro de Valderas vassal of the King in IX V. mrs. in each of the said three years closed of frames and chancery with the conditions and saved from the past years with other certain conditions that are established in the books of the income of said Mr. King” .

Later, certain bids and half bids were made by Aº de Oviedo, clerk of said Mr. Rey, by Alfonso García de Dueñas, a resident of Cisneros. It was awarded to Alfonso de Oviedo for ten thousand one hundred eighty-two maravedís and seven pesos. East:

“I signed the transfer of the said rent for the said three years by the said price and conditions in Pedro de Bivero, accountant of the said Mr. Rey, who, being present before me, said notary public, received the said transfer and was obliged to hire of fianças according to the ordinance of the said Mr. King, which Pedro de Bivero, before me, the said notary public signed the transfer of the said income from the said salt mines of Villafáfila for the said three years for the same price and conditions in Andrés de la Carrera, neighbor of Toro...which he owned as the largest landlord of the said Villafáfila salt flats” . This made the obligation before the notary public and gave the accountant Pedro de Vivero as guarantor, of whom he would surely be a figurehead.

- In the triennium 1452-1454 they continued to be leased for 10,182 mrs. and 5 pesos in the hands of Andrés de la Carrera himself, servant of Pedro de Bivero, accountant of the king, we do not know if by auction or by a renewal of the past lease:

“Leasing this rent for three years that began on the first day of January of last year of 1452 years with the conditions and balance of the past years, among which it is contained that the month be paid in bonds and the other month in counted money and that the Payments of the mrs and giving of the fianças will be at the end of the month of disienbre of each of the said three years.

The value of said rent in each of the said three years was 10,182 mr and 5 dollars and the estate was paid by the largest lessor of Andrés de la Carrera, servant of Pedro de Vivero, accountant of the King” .

- In the year 1455, the rents of the Villafáfila salt flats were put up for bid again for a period of six years, until 1460:

"walking in auction the rent of the salt flats of Villafáfila that said Mr. King commanded to lease for six years that began on the first day of January that happened this year" .

“It was finished off with the first auction in Juan Marbán, vesyno de Villafáfila in XI.C mrs.” .

The bids that followed were fierce and involved Benjamín Odara, a resident of Torrelobatón, Juan de la Fuente, a resident of Fuentesaúco, Alonso González de Fuentidueña, a resident of Segovia, and Don Celemón aben Xuxe, a Jew from Segovia. The auction lasted "a little dora in giving the clock the two hours of midnight" . In the end they were awarded to Don Celemón for 15,578 mrs., but he transferred them to Benjamín Odara, a Jew like himself, who in turn gave a third of the rent to Martín de Tabladillo, a resident of Medina del Campo. We see that during those central years of the century there were many interested in these royal revenues, both Christians and Jews, even a resident of Villafáfila participated in the bids.

- between 1464-1467 they were leased for 15,400 mrs. annual by Diego de Palencia, clerk of the Chamber of King Enrique. In the AGS, both the bid and the king's request to the towns and cities that consumed salt from Villafáfila so that they would go with the rents to the new tenant are preserved:

Leasing this rent for four years that began on the first day of January of this year of 1464 years with the conditions and without the collection and without any salary and with the other conditions that I will say later.

In the town of Medina del Campo, on the twenty-fifth day of August, the year of the birth of our Lord Hyuxpo, one thousand and four hundred and sixty and four years old, Diego Arias, chief accountant of the king and his council, and Pº Ferrándes de Lorca, were present. lieutenant of accountant by Juan de Vivero, another senior accountant of the said Lord King and of his council, in the portal of the church of Sant Antolín of the said town settled in abdiençia, fasiendo and leasing the income of the said Lord King in his dais ; Diego de Palençia appeared before them, chamber clerk of the said lord king, resident of Palençia, and said that for serving the said king that he gave and gave for the said rent of the said Villafáfila salt flats without the collection of it and without salary from this Said present year and other three years to come, which are four years, quinse mill et four hundred mrs. closed in each of the said four years with the following conditions: firstly, with the condition that half of the said mrs. pay each year in cash and the other half in fianças,

and that of the said mrs. that he has to pay in monies counted freely each year to the person who wants to live with the king three thousand mrs. in each year

and that the first auction be from o and in five days and the last auction after three days.

And the said accountants said that they heard it and that they accepted and accepted the said position.

And after this, in the said town of Medina del Campo, thirty days of the said month of September of the said year, before the said accountants in the portal of the said church of Sant Antolin of the said town, Martín de Valladolid, town crier for his errand, I finish the said first auction rent for the price mentioned in the said Diego de Palençia because there did not seem to be a person who would give a higher price for it” .

The following month the king sent a letter to the councils of the town of Villafáfila and of all the cities and towns where Villafáfila salt was consumed, informing them of the new lease and to the people who collected the income from the Villafáfila salt mines so that they would come with the maravedís that belonged to that income to the lessor Diego de Palencia:

"Don Enrique ecª, to the councils, mayors, bailiffs, aldermen, knights, squires, officials and good omens of Villafáfila who are in the bishopric of Çamora, and of all the cities and towns and logars of the my lords and lords where it is customary eat and take and dispose of the salt from the my salt pans of Villafáfila in past years to the landlords and faithful and collectors and any other people who avidly collect and collect and collect and collect and want to collect and collect for rent or in field or in another In any way, the rent of the said Villafáfila salt mines this year from the date of this my letter and the next three years that will come from the Lord of 1466 and 1467 and any or all of you to whom this my character is shown or the transfer of it signed by notary public health and grace,You know that I ordered to rent in my court in a public auction in the court of my rents the rent of the said salt mines of Villafáfila for the said four years that began on the first day of January of this said present year with the conditions and saved of the years past and without the collection of it and without salary and with other good conditions that are settled in the books of my rents.... It is my mercy that the said Diego de Palençia is my main landlord of the said rent of the said salt mines of the said four years and of each one of them and take and receive and collect by me and in my name all the mrs and other things that have assembled and rendered and assembled and render in any way the said income from the said salt pans...because I command each and every one of you in your places and jurisdictions to see this my letter or the said your transfer signed as said is that you recudares e fagais recudyr the said Diego de Palençia my greater lessor or that his power ovyere with all the mrs and other things that have assembled and rendered and will assemble or render the said rent of the said Villafáfila salt mines as well as to my major lessor of this present year of the date of this my letter and of the said next year that will be from 1465 of which asy showed a letter of contract from the said Juan Alvarez de Tordesillas my Rº mayor as said is and others and you remind him or ask him to collect with the said income from the said two other years ahead of 1466 and 1467 showing you the contract that you have to phase the said my Rº or Rºs that were of the said bishopric the said two years second myorder according to what belongs to me and I have to see it well and fully in guysa that you do not deny him anything and give him and pay him the mrs and other things from the said rent of the said salt flats to the places and in the way that to my The avides to give and pay and what you give them and pay them to take their payment letters...” ,

“and phase it as well as announce it in the squares and markets of said Villafáfila and of the other cities, towns and places named and declared” .

Gives power to the new landlord so that he can seize and sell the assets of the debtors:

“And if you the said landlords and faithful and cogedores and debtors and guarantors and other aforementioned persons do not give and pay to the said Diego de Palençia or to the one who said his power ovyere all the mrs and other things all the mrs and other things that they have assembled and rendered and assembled and rendered the said rents of the said salinas from this said present year and from the other three years to come to the said terms and each one of them, by this said my letter or by the said letter signed as said is commanded and The power granted to the said Diego de Palençia my landlord or to the one who, said his power, sees that you seize the bodies and you have prisoners and well collected in his possession and in the meantime that he enters and takes all your movable property and rays do you want me to fail them and sell them and auction off the furniture in a third day and the kings in nine days...”,

“I send to anyone who is justiçias as well as from the town of Villafáfila as well as from my house and court and chancery and from all the cities and towns and places of the my lords and lords that they give and do everything you ask for. ..”.

It also summons the council of Villafáfila to appear before the king within 15 days:

“I command the ome that you show my letter or the said letter, signed as it is, that you enplase that you appear before me in my court to whoever I am, the advice of your attorneys and one or two of the officials from each place personally and with the power of the others, from the day that you will enplase to which first following days...

Given in the town of Valladolid on the twenty-sixth day of October, the year of the birth of our Lord Ihuxto de Myll, four hundred and sixty-four years old.” [43] .

In short, at least since the beginning of the 15th century, the rents belonging to the king in the Villafáfila salt flats, like the rest of the royal rents, were leased at public auction to the highest bidder, in the city or town where the Court was located. It seems that the rents from the salt flats were stabilized from the beginning of the 15th century. The interest in his management of characters belonging to the crown bureaucracy is observed: the accountant Pedro de Vivero, receivers and collectors of other revenues, clerks of the king's chamber, etc., who sometimes took over the award, to transfer it then in his servants who acted as straw men, saving themselves from the consequences of a possible bankruptcy. The presence of Jews as landlords is verified, who possibly had local collectors of their same religion.

During the central years of the century, coinciding with the noble revolts and the civil wars of the reign of Enrique IV, few dared to bid for rents that could be subject to war or political contingencies with the possible loss of the landlord. Therefore, the positions were not very high and almost always remained in the hands of characters from the court bureaucracy. Until they stopped leasing:

“It was also ruled by the notebook of the said Mr. King Don Juan and by the books that the Villafáfila salt flats were leased to a certain perçio and for certain limits, until in the time of the disturbances they stopped leasing and in the declarations of Toledo they left their Highnesses commander Pedro de Ledesma the mercy he had from the alvalleras of Villafáfila” [44] .

The concession to Pedro de Ledesma, Montero Mayor del Rey and Commander of Castrotorafe and Villafáfila was made in 1465 by Enrique IV as a reward for:

“Certain ladies who are due to me for salaries for twenty horses and eighty vallesteros who, by my order, are still here in the town and fortress of Castrotorafe ... have mercy each year by swearing to inherit forever and ever for him and for his heirs and successors after him, the rights that belonged to me from the alvalerias of the Villafáfila salt mines, and so that he can sell, donate and exchange them” [45] .

This adjudication of rents on the Villafáfila salt mines did not mean that the rent itself was alienated in the hands of individuals, but that an amount of money was granted and its collection was assured in some real rent, which was mortgaged to that payment by a limited time or by oath of inheritance forever.

But the temporary alienation of royal income in the hands of individuals, especially great nobles, was also frequent, through various mechanisms: concessions, leases or direct usurpation, which over the years became hereditary. This was the case with the alvalerías de la sal and the alcabalas of Villafáfila and its land, which ended up in the hands of the Count of Benavente. The procedure was as follows: first, the Count obtained from Enrique IV, on December 12, 1466, the separation of various alcabalas and thirds that corresponded to the king in the towns and places that belonged to the lordship of Don Rodrigo Pimentel: Benavente, Sanabria , Mayorga, Villalón and Portillo, "and of the alcavalas of Villafáfila and its land with the alvalerías of the salt of said town", so that they are all publicly leased together for a period of five years beginning in 1467. They were leased by Sancho Sánchez de Benavente, possibly a figurehead of the count, demonstrating his interest in collecting the rents royals from their land, including Villafáfila [46] . The inclusion of Villafáfila, which did not belong to the Pimentel lordship at the time, in this group of incomes, gives an idea of the Count's interest in the town and its income, shortly before the town itself was forcibly occupied by Mr. Juan Pimentel and retained by his brother, the Count of Benavente in 1467, surely following a preconceived plan.

In the following years, once the revenues were removed from the ordinary collection system, it would be easier for the count to obtain, by force, or by royal concession in exchange for his services, the collection of the alcabalas of the places of his manors and Villafáfila, including the alvalerías, because in 1496 Don Pedro Pimentel collected them, by assignment from his brother, the count:

“Don Pedro Pimentel, the owner of the town of Villafáfila and his land and rents from it by the very numerous Mr. Rodrigo Alonso Pementel, Count of Benavente,…the rents from the alcabalas of the town of Villafáfila and places on his land that belong to the said Mr. Count of Benavente, according to what they usually walk and rent in the past years, and without the portage and castellage, which also belongs to said Mr. Count, and with the mount and alvaleria that belongs to said Mr. Don Pedro " .

The value of the alvalerías in 1494, according to the visitors of the Order of Santiago, in the visit they made to the town that year was 1500 mrs. For each cabin of the eleven there were, not counting the order's own salt mine, which amounted to a total of 16,500 mrs:

“Others and woe in the villa onze salinas without those of the commander who give each year an income called alvelerias that are 1500 mrs. each one” .

But Don Pedro leased them to collect them together with the firewood from the mountains of Quintos and from the land of Távara, which belonged to him:

With the dispossession of the town from the Pimentel family by order of the Catholic Monarchs and its reintegration into the Order of Santiago in 1497, a conflict arose over the income that should return to the commander and those that remained in the hands of the Count of Benavente; thus the alcabalas continued to be received by the count:

“The Count of Benavente has the alcabalas of this town, he says that thanks to their highnesses, they rent three hundred and fifteen thousand mrs each year.” .

But the fate of the alvalerías is disputed, because after so many years of usurpation in the hands of the Pimentels, and the concession of 1465 to the Commander Don Pedro Ledesma, it is not clear who they belonged to. The visitors of the Order of Santiago who came to the town in the year 1499 receive testimonies from the neighbors that they could belong to the master table or the commander:

“It has an income that is said to be the alvalerias, which is 1,500 mrs from each salt mine. and they set up 16,500 mrs. They say that the clerk's office and the albalerías and the mrs of the yantar and the income of the nine parishioners that the commander chooses belonged to the master's table; send their highnesses in it what they are served " .

The kings had to determine that the alvalerías did not belong to the commander, because in subsequent years they did not appear in the lists of their income in the town, and the neighbors continue to pay them in 1518, as belonging to the royal income:

Apart from these royal tributes, the production of salt, like that of other goods, was subject to the titheecclesiastical, at least since the twelfth century. It consisted of a part, not always the tenth, of the final product obtained. From 1154, by concession of Alfonso VIII, the cathedral of Astorga received a third part of all the tithes of Villafáfila and all of Lampreana. In 1172 Bishop Ferdinand made a distribution of income with the canons of Astorga to whom he gave, among other things, the third of Lampreana salt. In the case of salt, it was a fixed amount, and we know that the part corresponding to the episcopal third was the subject of an agreement between the bishop and the council of Villafáfila, by which the residents of the town and land they promised to pay as tithes and first fruits to the church of Astorga, the amount of five eminas for each "torva" of salt. This term must refer to the productive unit, because in 1310 it is specified that the bishop carries five ochavas for each salt hut, with the adjustment of metric terminology over the years. The payment of these amounts had to be made between June 24 and August 15, if the salt was collected, and if not when it was. To facilitate the collection of the tithe of salt in the villages of the region, the payment of a fixed amount by the parishes had been established, apart from the agreement of the five ochavas for each salt hut:

“Et de Sant Pedro del Otero, et de la Eglesia de Sobradiello, et de la Eglesia de Villarigo, et de la Eglesia de Oter de Sirago, et de la Iglesia de Sant Agostin, et de la Eglesia de Videianes...two moyos from the salt...et of the church of San Feliz there is a salt well and from the Church of San Miguel a salt well and the alcipreste another well” ,

possibly because the production of these places was more difficult to control because it was carried out on small farms or simply on farms, unlike the production of the more regulated and easier to estimate herds.

The other two-thirds of the tithes were distributed between the monastery of San Marcos de León, which took a sixth of the total tithe of salt, and the priests of the town and land, who took half of the total tithe of salt. but in the case of churches owned by monasteries, the owners received a fixed annual amount, as patronage, which was established by agreement with the priest when the benefit was presented:

the delivery of bread, wine, barley "and two dozen salt cheeses in honor of the padronadigo of your church of Santa Maria del Moral and for the third that you alone levar" must be delivered by the priest of Santa Maria to the monastery of Eslonza.

In summary, the distribution of income from salt production can be fixed as follows:

-rent from their own salt flats, at least until they were donated to the Order of Santiago in 1229.

From this part of salt or money, he made transfers or donations to various institutions or people, as is traced in the documentation from the canons of the cathedral of León in 1073, to the concession of the alvalerías to Pedro de Ledesma in 1465, receiving various shares. in the royal rents of the Villafáfila salt flats: the Roncesvalles monastery, 200 mrs. Annuals since 1207, Queen Berengaria the mrs. necessary to complete the rents indicated in the marriage agreements of the Cabreros treaty that year, the Cistercian abbey 300 mrs. annually since 1211.

- The church took the tithe of the final product, distributed between the bishop and council of Astorga, the monastery of San Marcos a sixth and the priests of the parishes half, of which they gave part to the owners of the churches.

- The owners of the cabins, who received a fixed annual amount in exchange for rent.

- The tenants or those in charge of the cabins sold the remaining salt, after making the payment of the previous items.

The quantities of salt produced are today impossible to assess due to the different size and quality of the cabins. We have references from the mid-16th century, when there were only three active cabins left, one of which produced half the other two:

“it seems from the said information that it is commonly done every year in the salt shacks of the said village myll hanegas and they are sold for four and three and a half reales” [47] .

There is some data on the rent paid by the tenants of the Order of Santiago cabin to the commander. The leases of the commander's cabin were made for certain periods of the year and for certain amounts in cash:

Reina Pastor says that until the middle of the 13th century the circulation of salt was done freely throughout the kingdoms of Castile and León, and it had a markedly local character. The establishment of territorial circumscriptions was the result of the circulation that was actually practiced since ancient times. In the years that followed the reign of Alfonso X, due to conflicts between landlords or between owners of salt mines, there were insufficiencies and shortages of salt, for which reason territorial jurisdictions were eventually established for each salt mine, within which only the salt from the corresponding saline was sold.

In 1338 by order of Alfonso XI these limits were abolished and circulation towards the consumer market was released. The monetary needs for the crown, due to the decrease in income that had occurred during his minority:

"Because of the many damages and evils that our land received in the time of our guardians, when we were less than hedat, and later due to great wars, which afflicted our dominion, caused our income to decrease. Let's stop keeping ourselves and our cavaalleria " ,

"Especially because the salt is mined and belongs to us, we consider it good to try a way to serve us and go after it to increase our income" .

“And because of the flood workers who were here fast, great damage came to our land due to the many insults and cofechos that they caused” ,

“We consider it good that none of the aluareros walk forward to keep the salt from the salt mines of our lordship” ,

“And because this is better guarded, we consider it good that all the amount of salt this date, or be released from now on in... the salt flats of Villa Fafilla, and in all the other salt flats, which are in our regions and throughout the world. our lord... let it go and be sold and bought freely by all the cities and towns and places of the kingdom of our lordship” .

But the salt originally, that is to say at the foot of the salt pans, had to be sold to the king's men:

“Another thing is that all the salt that is dated or fissures from here on in all the salt flats of our regions, which belong to some heirs, saluo those of Andalusia, that they sell it in each of the logares of the ay to the omes that They ask them to collect them for us, and not to anyone, and if they sell to someone else after the said plegon was done, as said, that salt mine where they sell it to someone else, may the Lord of it lose it forever and be it for us” .

The isolation of the Villafáfila salt mines from others both coastal and inland in the kingdom of León, including the Castilian ones in the north of Burgos and Álava, or those in the area of Atienza and Sigüenza, in the early medieval centuries would have led to a circulation of its long distance salt. In the central centuries of the Middle Ages, salt was supplied to the main monastic and religious centers of the kingdom of León, owners of salt mines or participants in their income, from Villafáfila: cathedrals of Astorga and León, monasteries of Sahagún, Eslonza, Moreruela, Castañeda, etc., the city of Zamora and the towns of the bordering regions.

As of the fifteenth century, the new limits within which the cities, towns and places are supplied with salt from each salt mine are definitively established, despite some towns or cities the kings granted them the privilege of freedom of supplying the salt. salt from the salt pans of their kingdoms. Those of Villafáfila supplied the city of Zamora from this part of the Duero and the surrounding regions, between the Valderaduey, the Duero and the border of Portugal. They were registered between the limits of the salt mines of Atienza, to the south, those of Avilés to the north and those of Rosío, in Burgos, to the east, whose scope of supply reached, despite its proximity to Villafáfila, as far as Villalpando " fasta Frómista, Carrión, Abastas and Cisneros, and from Villalón to Aguilar de Campos and Villalpando”as it establishes a concord between the monastery of La Huelgas and the council of the salt flats of Añana [48] , possibly due to the influence of the Constable, lord of Villalpando, with interests in the salt flats of Rosío.

The city of Zamora was one of the main markets for Villafáfila salt in the Late Middle Ages. It was freely sold in the city of Zamora since the 14th century, since the council established in its ordinance of the year 1400:

“That of the salt from Villa Fafila that came to be sold to this said city that whoever trades it pays for each beast that wants to already load or half a load eight pieces of currency and of the salt that is sold for half a load I help him pay from each eighth a money of the said currency and from the salt pedres that will sell from each eighth a sleeper that is a spoon " .

In addition, the salt had to be sold in the city and its surroundings at an appraised price that was set on Tuesdays of each week, either by the landlord of the council or by the salt lord or a vendor on his behalf, paying certain fees. , without in any way allowing the haggling on the price:

"Other than that no man or woman cannot buy or buy here in the city or in two leagues around it to sell or sell the said salt to recatonia in this city, it is and sell it, that by that same date lose the salt that so I will sell and pay more than twenty and four mrs. of the penalty coin for each time, and this is for the lessor that this rent will lease; And if the party from outside that brings said salt wants to set up a vendor so that he can sell said salt for small amounts, as well on Tuesday as on any other day during the week, he can set it up and can sell it, as well as on said day of Tuesday as in the whole week, firstly swearing he, and the said seller, that he does not sell or sell it to recatinia and that he sells it for the lord of the salt for whatever price he sells it, and that the said vendor who so sells the said salt that pays by right to the said council or to the lessor of this rent in his name, a maravedi for the said day Tuesday who so sells the said salt; and if later he sells the said salt during the week that the said seller can sell it for the price that it is worth on Tuesday and not for more, and in addition that he pays the said landlord by right for all the salt that he sells during the week from Tuesday to Tuesday three months ., and anyone who sells the salt to Recatonia, is a lord of the salt, is a seller, that by that same date any of them who sells it or has to sell it or has been sold to Recatonia pay more than twenty and four mrs. It's a shame and everything is for the said landlord as it is said " a maravedi for the said day Tuesday so that I will sell the said salt; and if later he sells the said salt during the week that the said seller can sell it for the price that it is worth on Tuesday and not for more, and in addition that he pays the said landlord by right for all the salt that he sells during the week from Tuesday to Tuesday three months ., and anyone who sells the salt to Recatonia, is a lord of the salt, is a seller, that by that same date any of them who sells it or has it to sell or has been sold to Recatonia pay more than twenty and four mrs. It's a shame and everything is for the said landlord as it is said " a maravedi for the said day Tuesday so that I will sell the said salt; and if later he sells the said salt during the week that the said seller can sell it for the price that it is worth on Tuesday and not for more, and in addition that he pays the said landlord by right for all the salt that he sells during the week from Tuesday to Tuesday three months ., and anyone who sells the salt to Recatonia, is a lord of the salt, is a seller, that by that same date any of them who sells it or has to sell it or has been sold to Recatonia pay more than twenty and four mrs. It's a shame and everything is for the said landlord as it is said " and others that he pay the said landlord by right for all the salt that he sells weekdays from Tuesday to Tuesday three mrs., and whoever sells the salt to recatonia, is a salt lord, is a seller, that by that same date any of them that he sell it or toviere it to sell or to sell it to recatonia pay more than twenty and four mrs. It's a shame and everything is for the said landlord as it is said " and others that he pay the said landlord by right for all the salt that he sells weekdays from Tuesday to Tuesday three mrs., and whoever sells the salt to recatonia, is a salt lord, is a seller, that by that same date any of them that he sell it or toviere it to sell or to sell it to recatonia pay more than twenty and four mrs. It's a shame and everything is for the said landlord as it is said "[49] .

With the establishment of the limits of the salt mines of Atienza between the Tagus and the Duero, in the year 1447, when they were recovered by King Juan II, from the hands of the King of Navarre, who owned them:

"The said laws were made in the year of forty-seven by Mr. King Juan the Second, that before said time the said salt mines with the town of Atiença belonged to King Juan de Navarra" ,

part of the city of Zamora and its land was within them, with which the mayors of said salt mines wanted to force their residents to consume salt from said salt mines under pressure:

“Because they have taken garments and detained beasts from the farmers of the said land of Çamora who left their market, saying that they bought salt from Villa Fafila that is publicly sold in the said city, from which they can freely eat. of the said city and its land without falling into any penalty according to the tenor and form of privilege that the said city has” .

It must have been common for the residents of Zamora, in addition to consuming the salt from Villafáfila, to introduce contraband salt from the neighboring kingdom of Portugal, which was probably cheaper. Faced with this situation, known by the Court, the Catholic Monarchs sent Diego de Alderete to punish the residents of Zamora and demand that they be forced to eat the salt from the Salinas de Atienza, by virtue of new ordinances, which had been deliberately commanded to do:

“Diego de Alderete went to the said city and presented to the town hall two letters that we ordered and gave each other by which we ordered and gave power to proceed against the people who had eaten salt from the Kingdom of Portugal except from the salt flats of Attend where they were obliged by virtue of certain hordenanças that we ordered to do near us, with which Diego de Alderete required them to keep them and had them presented in the said city and that they obey them”.

But the residents protested the imposition and limitation of the consumption of salt to that from the Atienza salt flats, alleging that they had privileges from previous kings allowing them to spend salt wherever they wanted:

“and because he says that they are in great harm and disregard of the said city and their land, they begged and begged of them in a degree of supplication they appeared before us in ours who saw the said letters being against them very unjust and aggrieved because Said city has very old privileges confirmed by us so that they can freely take said salt wherever they want, which they say have been stored here for time immemorial, and because said city does not fall or enter the limits of the Atiença salt flats , which consideration was given in the past and the said privileges were ordered to be kept and because the salt from the said salt flats is harmful to the residents and residents of said city because according to the privileges that the said city has, if they were to do so, it would collapse " ,

“therefore they begged us to order the execution of the aforementioned and of the said letters to be dismissed, and to save their privileges and give more letters so that the said privileges are kept and they can take the said salt from wherever they want and for the good of them. about it we will provide him with our mercy was what we saw with the agreement of those of the number and of the number of major accountants it was agreed that the residents of the said city and their land could take salt from wherever they wanted and for good tovyesen as long as they didn't eat it and they couldn't eat it from outside our kingdoms and we had to send this letter for the said reason and we didn't do it for good” .

"in the noble city of Cordoba on the thirteenth day of the month of July, year of the birth of Nro Salvº Ihuxpto de myll and four hundred and eighty-five years",

declaring the freedom of the residents of the city and land to be able to consume salt from any part of the kingdoms. The conflicts with the landlords of the Atienza salt mines were constantly reproduced, and in 1499 the attorney for Zamora and his land, Cristóbal de Salamanca, appeared before the Royal Council, while the Court was in Seville, complaining that García González de Sevilla, mayor from the Atienza Salt Flats:

“ Unfairly and not properly they had been taken to the councils and places of the parties of the land of the said city and we visited more than three hundred thousand more of them, saying they had eaten salt from outside these kingdoms ”,

and in 1500, the residents of the left bank of the Duero are urged to consume the salt from their salt pans and

“They have taken garments and detained beasts from the farmers of the said land of Çamora who left their market saying that they bought salt from Villafáfila, which is publicly sold in the said city from which the people of the said city can freely eat and his land syn for that reason fall into any penalty " .

“From time immemorial to this part the said city and its land and you long for those who live and live on the side of the Duero river facing Salamanca as well as on the other side facing Benavente and the said city have been in peaceful possession of eating and spend the salt from whatever parts they wanted freely... and that having salt in the region and time of the said city they were forced to eat and spend salt from the Atienza salt mines " ,

furthermore, as they were used to the white salt from Villafáfila, they did not like that from other places.

“who never saw or heard that the vermilion salt from the said salt pans of Atienza was traded, traded and sold in the said city of his land” [50] .

The transport of salt to Zamora was done by the Villafáfila salt workers themselves, in 1502 the city councilors gave a license:

“to Juan de Aller, a resident of Villafáfila because he brings loads of salt and maintenance to the city” [51] ,

“that they were poor and they took pots and other things to sell at the markets and fairs of these kingdoms and returned some amount of salt that would be very little than the one who brought the most was four fanegas” [52] .

But the proximity of the border to the city of Zamora and the lower cost of salt from Portugal meant that its smuggling with the neighboring kingdom was a practice that was difficult to eradicate, despite the pressure and condemnation, with great to the detriment of the producers of Villafáfila who in 1518 complained to the recently arrived King Carlos I exposing him in a memorial they sent him:

“Very powerful sirs. Alonso de Villacorta in the name of the council of the town of Villafáfila for himself and in the name of the lords of salt pans and salt huts who, in said town, kiss the hands of V.Al. and I let you know that in the said town there are twelve or thirteen cabins for making salt, of which the said salt that is made in it is usually provided with a memorial to this part by the city of Çamora and its land, which has from Duero to this part, with land from Castrotorafe and the other towns and villages that are from Valderadue, and that cape made Portugal, without any other salt entering or being able to enter under penalty of the said limits of the kingdom and outside of it, which said salinas deven and paid to V.Al. alvalerias and alcavalas, and now for five or six years to this part, guarding as they always do the said limits to the said our salinas, the VA collectors of the salt pans of Atiença and Avilés, as always in the past, were kept, and from five or six years to this part, many people from the said city of Çamora and from said lands, being as they are defended by V. To the. and for their prematics that salt from the kingdom does not enter their kingdoms, not strange in their disservice and their income and to our detriment and that of the said vylla, they have entered and they put salt from the kingdom of Portugal and they sell it publicly in the said city and in the lands, towns and logars where the said salt from our said salt flats usually runs and is spent, from which V.Al. there continues to be a lack of service and loss of their income to us in the said town a lot of loss and damage because the salt that is made in the said town is not and cannot be spent if the said salt from Portugal did not enter. A V.Al.[53] .

This smuggling caused the abandonment of the farms, whose production costs had to be higher, due to the depletion of the salt richness of the waters, and to the extraction techniques, all added to the greater protection that the Court owed to give to the salt flats of Atienza or Avilés that belonged to the king, as opposed to those of Villafáfila that belonged to private individuals.

The weights or measures of salt were set by the kings and in the regulation cahíces, almudes, fanegas Toledo of twelve bushels or heminas and ochavas of XL "conciellas" are mentioned .

The values of the measurements were different from one region to another, so they were referenced to measurements established in some cities that served as a standard. The cahíz was equivalent to 12 fanegas in the times of the Catholic Monarchs, although it was only used in Andalusia, but in the past it had had different equivalences:

“Although cahises syno are not currently used in Andalusia and all cahiz are counted as twelve fanegas, in some previllejos and old writings nonbran Toledo cahizes and from other parts that some say that they are from ten to eight fanegas, and others from a six and others to four” .

A bushel was equivalent to a bushel, but the one used in the Rosio and Poza salt flats was a third of the load and was worth 16 bushels:

In the case of the Villafáfila salt, the usual units used for cereals and aggregates in general are mentioned as salt measurement units: morabetines, loads, heminas, ochavas and moyos, with some references to the origin of the measurement to ensure its accuracy. accuracy, such as the Zamora ochava or the Benavente hemina. The equivalences are 1carga = 4 fanegas = 8 ochavas = 12 heminas = 24 modios = 48 bushels.

In 1160 the monastery of Eslonza agrees to pay the bishop of Astorga for the third of his church in Villafáfila "IIII modios salis" .

In 1176 “XVI modes of salt” , the holders of the estate of the Monastery of Vega owe their abbess; a year later, the amount of salt that must be paid as rent for the Muélledes estate belonging to the Order of Santiago includes a salt morabet [55] ;

in 1197, the payment of the rent of the estate of Sahagún in Muélledes includes, among other things, 16 ochavas of salt per ochava of Zamora [56] ;

in 1200 “Xm octouas de sal” [57] Antonino had to give to the monastery of San Pedro de las Dueñas in 1200, however, the rent that Sahagún receives for his Villafáfila salt mines, being larger, is measured in charges of the usual measure:

in 1235 the agreement with the bishop establishes in "quinque yminas de unaquaque torva per eminam comunem ad quam conmuniter vendetur et emetur in Villa fafila et in suo termino ..." five heminas of each torva for the common hemina according to which it is sold and purchase in Villafáfila and its term.

In 1310 mention is made of different salt mines that some parishes must pay, and they refer to the Benavente emina, due to the boom that the markets of this town would have already reached.

In the 16th century, the salt that was made in the salt pans was measured by bushels:

“Commonly it is done every year in the salt huts of the said Myll Hanegas village” [60] .

The medieval sources do not provide us with news that allows us to know the prices. In times of Fernando III, the price of salt at origin was set at 1 mr. for each cahiz in the jurisdictions of Córdoba and Carmona, but it was still a price for appraisals and setting taxes, since the variability of the price according to the years and the regions must have been very great, especially in bad years in which the scarcity of salt was associated with that of other products, such as the year 1234:

Alfonso XI in the order of 1338 fixes the price of 4 mrs. and a half each fanega of salt from Toledo:

“and that they sell the bushel of salt for four maravedís and half of this currency that we ordered to work and no more” [62] .

Changes in the value of coins during the late Middle Ages and the disturbances of the reign of Henry IV, led to a great variability in the setting of salt prices both at origin, which was more regulated, and in the consumer centers where it was sold. with some price freedom:

"And because the disturbances that occurred in these Kingdoms in the time of Mr. King Don Enrique... ovo mutanças, both in the price and in the measure" .

In addition, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the price of salt grew and not only because of the monetary changes that set the number of maravedís for each real at 34:

“That salt price increased, that number of mrs. not with respect to the rule that was previously said from old currency to white currency” [63] .

In the middle of the 16th century we know the price that Villafáfila salt reached in origin, when production was already residual:

Zamora: Institute of Zamoran Studies "Florián de Ocampo", 2000. ISBN 84-86873-87-8.

All text, photographs, transcription and montage, their rights belong to their authors, any type of use is prohibited without authorization.

[1] Yáñez: doc. 3.

[2] Mínguez 1976: doc. 196.

[3] AGSE of Hª 425-3.

[4] Farm 1993:146.

[5] Pérez Alonso f. 516-1.

[6] OSUNA 2152-16.

[7] Mínguez, 1976: doc. 233.

[8] Rodríguez Fernández: doc. 31.

[9] Ruiz Asensio doc. 1201.

[10] Osuna 2152-16, AHPZ Disentailment C.238.

[11] Year 933 “pausatas ... cum suos puteos et cisternas ”. Year 935 “pausatas cum suis puteis et suos eiratos ”. Year 936 “ pause... cum your puteos vel eiras ”. (Mínguez, 1976: doc. 36). Year 1522: “a rayodero with half a foya, the other half belongs to Lope Fernández ” (AHN Nobleza. Osuna 2152-16); 1528: “ two foyos or fountains... that are from the said Moreruela cabin” (AHPZa. Confiscation 238) .

[12] DGRI Leg. 2355.

[13] DGR II Leg. 3401.

[14] AGSDGT Inv 9, leg 1-73.

[15] Ruiz Asensio, 1987: doc. 64.

[16] Vignau, 1882: doc. CLXXV.

[17] Fernández Flórez, 1991: doc. 1511 and 1544.

[18] Cabero 1987: doc. III.

[19] Smith, doc. 534.

[20] Vignau 1882 Doc. CLXXV.

[21] Cabero 1987: 18.

[22] Delibes el alii 1998.

[23] OSUNA 2152-3.

[24] ARCH.VPC Ceballos F. 66 - 1321.

[25] OO.MM. Book 1094.

[26] DGR II 3401.

[27] Mínguez, 1976: doc. 132.

[28] SANZ / VIÑE, 1991.

[29] Cabero 1987: Doc. IV and VI.

[30] AGSDGR II.3401.

[31] AHNOO.MM. Book1090.

[32] AGSCC 128-232.

[33] AHN OO.MM. Lawsuit 52588.

[34] OSUNA Leg. 2157.

[35] Larero Quesada: 433.

[36] AHNOOM 1090.

[37] AGSCC 128-232.

[38] Mínguez, 1976: doc. 99.

[39] Blacksmith doc. 534.

[40] Cabero 1989.

[41] Ruiz Asensio doc. 1185, 1190, 1236 and 1291.

[42] OSUNA 2152/3.

[43] AGS Notary Public of Rents Legs. 1-35, leg 2-2, 2-27, 3-424, 3-426, 4-62, 6-284, 8-169,12-117 and 118, 12-117, 18-64.

[44] AGSD of C. lib.3, fol.85, cited by Azcona.

[45] AGSM and P. leg 70.

[46] AGSEMR 15-146.

[47] OSUNA 2152/3.

[48] Farm 1993: 143.

[49] Laredo 1991: 432

[50] AGS General Directorate of the Treasury. Inv.9 leg. 1-73.

[51] Laredo 1991.

[52] AGSDGT Inv.9 leg. 1-73.

[53] AGSCC Pueblos.128-232.

[54] Various AGS of Castilla Lib. 3 Fº 5. Cited by AZCONA T. 1986: 367.

[55] A.HN. OO.MM. Ucles Box 88-3.

[56] Fernández-Forez 1991, doc. 1511.

[57] Cabero III.

[58] Fernández Flórez, 1991, doc.: 1544

[59] Cabero 1989.

[60] OSUNA 2152/3.

[61] Shepherd of Togneri 1967.

[62] Farm 1993: 142.

[63] Various AGS of Castilla Lib. 3 Fº 5. Cited by AZCONA T. 1986: 367.

[64] OSUNA 2152 / 3.