Olive oil production in Aljarafe and the oil tithe of Seville’s almojarifazgo (Fifteenth Century)

Abstract

This article reconstructs olive oil production in the main olive-growing region of Seville (Aljarafe) during the fifteenth century, using the olive oil tithe records. This particular tax belonged to the Castilian Crown, even though it was established during the Islamic period. The sources for this study include tax data from the Crown Treasury of Castile (at the Archivo General de Simancas) and original tax collection files from the Municipal Archives of Seville. The article questions the supposed increase in olive oil production that other scholars hold to be the cause of tax revenue increases. To test this increase, oil tithes and other taxes have been compared here. This leads to the conclusion that the rising oil tax revenues were not due to an increase in oil production, but to an improvement in tax administration and the Monarchy’s efforts to reduce fiscal fraud, when the political conflicts that hampered tax-collection and favoured the latter were over.