Més enllà de la senyoria. Mercat i impostos a la Plana de Castelló (segles XIV-XV)

Sovereignty, social and territorial frame which associated the sirs with his vassals, was the defining element of the feudal society. However, there were other realities that, without leaving the socio-economic field, are essential to characterise societies in the early medieval times: the market and the taxes. The works collected in this book analyse the impact of the markets and the taxation over the rural world, specially over the farmers, in a specific place: the village of Castelló and the region of la Plana. The peasants didn’t react automatically to the market opportunities, but rather they decided among the commercial crops based on their interests, which could oppose their lord’s or the market’s. The agrarian innovation, with its growing productivity, happened in a territory of ‘fight for the income’ among the different social sectors. The definition of the taxation instruments the villages had to satisfy the demands of the Crown and the payment of public debt was a scenery for social and political confrontation. This is what the articles collected in this book are about: the peasants’ efforts to keeps the profits of their work, which was growing thanks to the agrarian innovations, but threaten by the market’s and their lord’s control of the commercialization and, above all, by taxes that were spent far away and helped strengthen the territorial and social inequalities of a country in construction.

Pau Viciano (Castelló de la Plana 1963) is a doctor in history by the Unversitat de València and a specialist on taxation and the medieval rural world. He is the author of the booksl Els cofres del Rei. Rendes i gestors de la batllia de Castelló (1366 – 1500) (Afers 2000), Senyors, camperols i mercaders. El món rural valencià al segle XV (Afers 2007); Regir la cosa pública. Prohoms i poder local a la vila de Castelló (segles XIV – XV) (2008) and Els peus que calciguen la terra. Els llauradors del País Valencià a la fi de l’edat Mitjana (Ferran Soldevila award, 2012). In addition to the academic research, he was interested in historiography and the usage of the past and the social memory with the books such as La Temptació de la memoria (Joan Fuster essay award in 1995); Des de temps immemorials (Llorer essay award, 2003); El regne perdut. Quatre historiadors a a la recerca de la identitat valeniciana (Afers 2005) and De Llorente a Marx. Estudis sobre l’obra cívica de Joan Fuster (2012). He belongs to the editorial board of the magazines L’Espill and Afers.