Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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have Mend or Tomas rent garden space from an Indian village.
have Mend or Tomas rent garden space from an Indian village.
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Gov. Salazar taxed ranchers to pay for castillo construction
Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: The King?s Coffer (ID 83)
Author: Bushnell, Amy (ID 32)
Content_id: 1507
Treasury officials later claimed that the governors had collected 50 Castilian pesos per ranch. In the 1670s Governor Hita Salazar instituted a regular quitrent along with an accelerated land grants program to raise money for the castillo. Hacienda owners were charged four reales per yugada, which was the area a yoke of oxen could plow in one day, with a minimum of five pesos. [Note 23: Gov. Hita Salazar 10/30/1678; Francisco de la Rocha and Francisco de Cigarroa 7/10/1685. Four years later the proprietors of Carolina introduced what seemed to have been a similar form of land tenure, with cash quitrents.] AN26 The governor also offered to legitimize earlier land titles and make them permanent. A clear title to a ranch cost 50 pesos per legua cuadrada, though it is not certain whether this was a square league, a league on the side of a square, or a radial distance in a circular grant. [Note 24: Gov. Hita Salazar 10/30/1678. Two petitions, those of Marcos Delgado between 12/10/1694 and 12/13/1694 in the Florencia visita of 1694-95, and of Lorenzo Horruytiner 5/6/1685, suggest that the measurement was radial.] The chiefs of native towns followed suit, selling their extra fields or leasing them to Spaniards. [Note 25: Francisco de la Rocha and Salvador de Cigarroa 3/2/1680] AN25 As it was a royal prerogative to grant lands in perpetuity, the government in Madrid annulled all titles issued by chiefs or governors, at the same time inviting more regular applications. Between 1677 and 1685 land sales and title clearances (confirmaciones) in Florida brought in 2,500 pesos to be applied to castillo construction. [Note 26: Fiscal of the Council, Madrid 10/3/1680, comment on Francisco de la Rocha and Salvador de Cigarroa 3/2/1680; Francisco de la Rocha and Francisco de Cigarroa 10/6/1685] The crown also disallowed part of the governor’s new taxation schedule. Lands granted at the foundation and still held by the heirs were not to be taxed, ever. AN27 Land distributed after then could be taxed, but at no more than Hita Salazar’s 4 reales the yugada, later reduced to 1 real. [Note 27: Council 10/13/1687, cited by Gov. Marques Cabrera 4/28/1685; Council 10/6/1690, comments on three ranchers 8/28/1689] Disposition of the revenues from lands beyond the confines of St. Augustine was a royal prerogative as much as granting the lands was. (Bushnell KC)