Affluent or indigent, most Mudejars passed their lives engaged in one of the following activities: farming, tending livestock, manufacturing, or retail merchandising. Not infrequently these occupations overlapped. Many an artisan farmed land or traveled about selling his wares, while farmers often raised livestock. A detailed consideration of these economic pursuits will reveal much about the Mudejars' daily life and how they adapted to changing economic conditions. It will also provide insights into how Muslims and Christians in Valencia were able to coexist and interact fruitfully, despite glaring ideological differences. Both the king and the nobility favored the continued presence of the Mudejars for their agrarian and commercial activities. But the stability of Valencia's Muslim-Christian convivencia hinged on far more than the interests of the Christian aristocracy; it involved the Mudejars' constant interchange with Christian merchants, humble artisans, and farmers. If the aristocracy and the Mudejars stood in relation to each other as lord and exploited vassal, Muslim and Christian artisans, merchants, and farmers dealt with one another on a more or less equal footing, their economic activities being complementary as often as they were competitive. Such mundane concerns were decisive when rapprochement on a theological basis remained unattainable. Tolerance was a product of material life, not a religious or political ideal.
In fifteenth-century Valencia, as in the rest of preindustrial Europe, the great majority of Muslims and Christians were farmers. In a purely occupational sense, the Mudejars were not much different from their
Almohad ancestors. What had changed markedly since the Christian conquest was the nature of the Muslims' proprietary rights over the lands they farmed. During the thirteenth century most Mudejars retained the status they had before the conquest, that of free proprietors, only now paying their taxes to a Christian king or lord. By the mid-fourteenth century, however, after Christian power had been consolidated, Boswell found that "the untidy remnants of the 'free' Mudejar population were swept aside into one category or another of feudal servitude." By Fernando's reign this state of affairs had not altered, for all Mudejars were either vassals of the king in royal morerías or vassals of lay and ecclesiastical lords, normally holding their lands in enfiteusis from these lords.
Nevertheless, extreme care must be taken in discussing the Mudejars' "feudal servitude." The Mudejar's vassalage to a particular lord, beyond the fundamental obligation of the vassal to render certain rents and services to his lord in exchange for land and protection, may connote an exceedingly unfavorable situation in which the Mudejar and his progeny were irredeemably tied to their plot of land on the seigneury. Such immobility under the heavy burden of seigneurial demands, while certainly the lot of many Mudejars in the late fifteenth century, was more characteristic of fourteenth-century (at least until midcentury) and sixteenth-century conditions. As has been pointed out, the Mudejars during Fernando's reign were hardly immobilized. With the kingdom underpopulated outside of the capital, there was a great demand for their labor and many changed vassalage in the quest for more favorable conditions. The Muslims' greater opportunity and mobility, in what appears to have been a general state of flux, are reflected in the documentation concerning Mudejar land tenure. Although the royal documentation is spotty—and here, local studies would be extremely useful—there is perceptible a pattern of individual Muslims holding lands around any number of towns and villages, both royal and seigneurial. The salient point regarding the Mudejar's feudal servitude is that his bond of vassalage to a particular lord and his residence on that lord's estate did not preclude his renting lands in other localities. Thus, the Mudejar, while having only one seigneur, might have any number of landlords and a corresponding variety of rents and obligations.
Most Mudejar properties, like those of most Christians, were held in enfiteusis. According to this arrangement, the owner of the property—not necessarily the Mudejar's seigneur—ceded usufruct of it to the Mudejar tenant in return for an annual rent paid in either cash or kind. While the landlord retained eminent domain over the land, the Muslim farmer was, for all intents and purposes, its real owner. As long as he paid his rents and in no other way violated the terms of the enfiteutic
contract, he could pass on the land to his heirs or alienate it to whomever he wished. Usually, the landlord had the rights of fadiga and lluisme . The fadiga was the right of priority by which the landlord himself could buy back the land from the tenant in the case that the latter wished to sell it. When the tenant sold the land to a third party, the landlord collected from the former the lluisme , usually 10 percent of the sale price. The new tenant then held the property from the landlord under the same conditions as the vendor. When Mahomat Metli, a vassal in the morería of Valencia, purchased "certain land" in Cuart (in the huerta of Valencia) from Joan Esthelo for 54 pounds 15s, the land was described as "held under the direct lordship [i.e., domain] of the Reverend majoral of the said place of Cuart at a rent of 14s to be paid each year on the feast of All Saints and with lluisme and fadiga and every other full enfiteutic right."
Most landlords of Mudejar tenants were, of course, the seigneurs of the places where the properties were located—king, noblemen, and prelates. However, most Mudejar lands located within the districts of royal towns were rented from ecclesiastical institutions and not from the Crown. In Alcira the local Augustinian community, secular clergymen, and the monastery of Valldigna all figure among the Muslims' landlords. Valencia's faqih[*] , Abdurrazmen Mascor, rented land in the city's huerta from Pasqual Yvanyes, a priest beneficed in the local see. Also, many Muslims of royal morerías rented their homes by enfiteutic contract from the Crown, Christian citizens, or local clergy. The nuns of the convent of Santa Clara were prominent as the landlords of many houses in the morería of Valencia.
Rents varied according to the size of the property, whether it was located in an irrigated or a dry zone, and the type of crop planted on it. Irrigated land was more valuable than dry, and vineyards and mulberry orchards, for instance, were dearer than land planted with carob trees. Most rents seem to have been paid in cash, although even within the same seigneury the type of payment demanded by the landlord might vary for different parcels of land. For instance, of the properties of Fuçey Zignell held in enfiteusis from the abbot of Valldigna, most had monetary rents. However, Fuçey was obliged to render to the abbot one-third of the produce from his carob orchards and one-ninth of the produce from a piece of huerta land planted with cereals.
One also finds Mudejars involved in sharecropping arrangements of a more temporary nature. Mahomat, Jucef[*] , and Azmet Perromalo, vassals in the morería of Murviedro, cultivated the lands of an alqueria (hamlet) located within the town's district and owned by Joan Sparça, a local resident. Sparía had advanced money to the Perromalos, presumably for the purchase of seed and tools. In return the Muslims—
described as migers —were to give to Sparça one-half of the harvest and olive oil produced therefrom.Alqueries owned by canons of Játiva were also tilled by Mudejars, perhaps under similar sharecropping arrangements.
It was not unusual for Muslims to possess allodial lands, and it is probable that the phenomenon of free Muslim proprietorship increased during the fifteenth century. Barceló Torres suggests that as a result of Crown efforts from the beginning of the century to attract Mudejars to royal towns, Mudejars cultivated lands in the marginal zones of the towns that they then held as allods. The data collected by Tomas Peris Albentosa on the property of Mudejars within the municipal district of Alcira (1512) shows that a substantial portion of it was allodial (e.g., 51.9 percent in the zone of Almunia). Peris's qualification of his findings with the conjecture that rented lands tended to be the best lands fits well with Barceló's thesis of Mudejars reclaiming lands in the towns' marginal zones. If the allodial properties of such enterprising Mudejars were not the most valuable, they nevertheless could be quite substantial. Mahomat Algazel of Alcira, for instance, owned a jovate and a half (i.e., 54 fanecates ; 1 fanecate = 831 square meters) of land planted with olive trees ("olivar tua franqua."). Although the allodial holdings of the Muslims of Alcira might have been exceptional, considering the impressive growth of the town's aljama, free Muslim proprietors turn up elsewhere. For example, a number of Muslims of Micleta with allods in the seigneuries of Albalat and Altea are described as holding the lands "as lords ... and thus they have the said possession [of the land] titled with the said domain." Ali Alami and Azmet Almoli of Alcocer each purchased sixteen fanecates of land, more or less, located within the limits of the struggling town of Castellón de Játiva. They, too, were "lords" of their properties, and the previous owner of all 32 fanecates was another Muslim.
There is general agreement among historians that the Mudejars were gradually pushed out of the kingdom's rich irrigated huertas into zones of dry farming. The dichotomy between irrigated and dry land largely paralleled that between royal and seigneurial land, so that the Mudejars, for the most part seigneurial vassals, were primarily dry farmers from the midfourteenth century onward. This description is most applicable to the huertas of Castellón de la Plana and Valencia, although there is evidence of Muslim property around Cuart in the capital's huerta . Irrigation farming by Mudejars is more evident in the huertas of other towns, such as Villarreal, where Muslim tenants from the Vall de Uxó and Artana paid the sequiatge (canal maintenance tax), or Orihuela, where three Muslim and two Christian villages were settled around the Quartal irrigation canal. Mudejars inhabiting towns with larger Mus-
lim populations tended to hold a more substantial share of irrigated land. This was particularly the case at Játiva, where, for instance, Azmet Bugeig possessed an irrigated parcel planted with olive and carob trees and grapevines, and Gandía, where Muslims grew sugar cane in the huerta . Alcira also had its Muslim irrigation farmers, like Çaat Hualit.
It should not be thought that seigneurial lands were exclusively dry farming areas. A number of seigneuries benefited from irrigation, although their systems were less developed than those of the urban centers. Seigneuries located near a royal town often channeled water into their own lands from the town's main canal. Thus, the town's sequier (irrigation officer) could fine seigneurial vassals who misappropriated or wasted water. Mudejars of Torres Torres and Alcocer were penalized by the sequiers of Murviedro and Alcira, respectively. Precious commodity that water was, the question of access to it occasioned a number of clashes between lords and vassals of adjacent seigneuries. The viceroy was forced to reprimand the bailiff, alcayt , and amin s[*] of the Foya de Llombay for restricting the flow of water through the canal, thereby endangering the millet and corn crops of Alginet. The Muslims of Les Benexides complained that their lands were on the point of ruination because the lord of Alcantera had somehow obstructed the irrigation canal that ran from the Sallent River through Alcantera.
Glick points out that irrigation generally was not used for growing exotic plants, but to increase the yield of ordinary crops. In conformity with the general pattern of Mediterranean agriculture, the triad of cereals, olives, and vineyard was prevalent in Valencia. Although chronically deficient in wheat production, the majority of the land, particularly huerta land, was devoted to the cultivation of cereals, primarily wheat, but rice and barley were also important. Vineyard and olive trees were grown mainly in dry farming areas, though they were irrigated as well. Important secondary crops were sugarcane, carob, and figs. Industrial plants were also grown: flax, for the fabrication of linen, and mulberry trees, for the growing local silk industry.
It appears that most Mudejars cultivated only small amounts of land, whether rented or allodial. For a more precise understanding of Mudejar material life it would be helpful to know just how small their properties were. Unfortunately, the royal documentation is not especially useful for answering this question. Even the descriptions of individual parcels of land have only a limited value, for, owing to the dispersed and patchwork pattern of Valencian land tenure—a couple of fanecates of vineyard here, a few planted with wheat there—one cannot be certain that the parcel under consideration was in fact the full extent of the Muslim's landed property. Fortunately, there is one local study of
Mudejar land tenure, that of Peris Albentosa on Alcira, to provide some guidelines. In 1512 65.7 percent of Alcira's Muslims held a small quantity of property (1 to 25 fanecates ), 29.7 percent a middling quantity (25 to 75 fanecates ), and only 4.5 percent a large quantity (more than 75 fanecates ). Regarding the number of parcels of land held, 34.2 percent of the Muslims possessed only one parcel, 13.5 percent two parcels, 27.9 percent from three to five parcels, 19.8 percent from six to ten parcels, and 4.5 percent more than ten parcels. However, certain qualifications must be made about even this data. First, one cannot necessarily correlate the extent of a Mudejar's landed property to his level of wealth. This especially applies to the residents of an urban morería like Alcira, many of whom were artisans. It may well be that a number of smallholders were artisans for whom agriculture was merely a subsidiary activity.
Second, Peris's study treats only those properties located within the limits of Alcira's district. Yet, as has been pointed out, Mudejars frequently rented lands outside of their place of residence. Sources other than those explored by Peris show that Muslims of Alcira had properties in Corbera, Alberique, and Turís. Thus, not even a detailed local study can fully answer the question of how much land was actually held by the individual Mudejar.
Nevertheless, the pattern of Muslims renting property both from their seigneurs and from landlords in other localities is significant in itself. It seems to have been characteristic of the land tenure of many Mudejars, not only the most affluent. Numerous examples of this pattern can be found in the documentation (table 2), and the fact that such cases almost always involve the complaints of either the distant landlord or the absentee Muslim tenant suggests that it was widespread, noted by the officials only when problems arose.
The lands held by Mudejars outside of their place of residence were usually located on a seigneury or within the district of a town close to the place of residence. To a certain extent this parallels the movement of those Muslims who became vassals in royal towns: most originated from neighboring seigneuries, with the exception of those who settled in the morería of Valencia. The localization of the Mudejars' additional properties was logical enough. If the absentee tenant intended to cultivate the land himself, it was necessary that he be able to reach it within a few hours. Even if the tenant sublet his land to Muslim sharecroppers, it was still preferable to be close enough to ensure that the land was being properly attended to and that he was receiving his share of the harvest. Considering the not infrequent attempts of landlords to hinder the absentee tenants in the collection of their harvests, vigilance on the part of the latter was all the more necessary.
(table continued on next page)
(table continued from previous page)
Mudejars, especially seigneurial vassals, had a good reason for purchasing or leasing land outside of their place of residence instead of simply doing so at home: the obligations of tenants to their landlords were lighter than those of vassals, particularly Muslim vassals, to their lords. When landlords attempted to exact from their tenants the same taxes that their vassals were liable to pay, the tenants would object that they were liable for only those taxes "the other landholders (terratinents ) are accustomed to pay." The obligations of tenants varied somewhat from place to place. All tenants, of course, paid the annual rent on their land. They were also obliged to pay the peyta (property tax) and the tithes collected from all landholders by royal, ecclesiastical, or seigneurial officials. There are a few more specific references to arrangements between landlords and tenants. In one case the landlord would collect from his Muslim tenants all the raisins they had grown, and after selling them would retain for himself the amount owed to him as rent, returning the remainder of the proceeds to his tenants. Muslims of Elda renting land in Agost were obliged to render to their landlord the terratge , that is, a certain portion of their harvest.
Still, such taxes were lighter than the various obligations incumbent on vassals. Vassals were obliged to use the royal or seigneurial utilities and to pay fees for their use. Had the tenants been compelled to grind their wheat in the landlord's mill or to press their olives in his press, they would have had to repeat the payment of a tax they were already paying to their own lord. Moreover, there was a wide variety of other taxes and services for which vassals were liable: a gift of two chickens each year, a certain amount of honey, spinning flax, laboring on the lord's land, the cena, morabatí , and other taxes, and, beyond the rent and tithe, a further portion of the harvest. Therefore, the Mudejars who rented lands outside of their own seigneury were able to retain for themselves more of the produce from these lands than they could from the lands they held from their own lord.
That such a state of affairs should have arisen was due to the under-population and chronic labor shortage in the kingdom. King, nobles, and prelates all needed more hands to work their fields, preferably new vassals, but if not, then new absentee tenants. Chapter 1 described how Fernando and the barons competed for the vassalage of Mudejars, and how some royal towns, such as Alcoy and Castellón de Játiva, their populations decimated by pestilence, were in desperate need of new inhabitants. The straitened circumstances of some lords whose estates were underpopulated and uncultivated are well illustrated by the example of the seigneury of Terrateig in the Vall de Albaida. Its lords, Don Pedro Dixer and his wife Dona Johana, were compelled to lease the place to Francesch Vilana, a citizen of Valencia residing on the barony
of Castellón de Rugat, and Adam Alactar, a Muslim of Castellón, for six years at an annual rent of 3200s. Much of the property in Terrateig had been abandoned, and Vilana and Alactar had their work cut out for them. Later, when Don Pedro violated their agreement and attempted to drive the lessees out of Terrateig, it was described how "they [Vilana and Alactar] have diligently worked to have vassals and landholders [moros vassalls are mentioned earlier in the document] in the said place, loaning them wheat, barley ... and other grains for the purpose of sowing and cultivating ... in a manner that the said place and area may be increased and improved." The diligence of the lessees indeed paid off, which explains Don Pedro's rather timely breach of contract: "the said place and area being so much increased and prospering that it has been a long time since there has been seen in the said place and area such a great planting of all manner of grains ... as a result of the said work and industry and expenses of the said plaintiffs [Vilana and Alactar]."
Clearly, land was available, and astute lords and enterprising townsmen investing in the land were willing to offer favorable conditions to prospective vassals and tenants to see that it was farmed. It was a buyer's or tenant's market and prices and rents were probably reasonable (one may recall how the Christians of Alcoy desired the settlement of Mudejars so that land values would increase). There is no lack of evidence of Mudejars buying land. For example, Çaat Hualit purchased from Galçeran Gombau some allodial land in Alcira's huerta worth 70 pounds, adding to the at least five fanecates he held in enfiteusis in the Almunia. Significantly, some of the property that Muslims rented from the Crown in Alcira had been "abandoned land" (terra derrenclida ). Again, the picture comes to mind of a regional economy struggling to recover and expand through the reclamation, repopulation, and cultivation of abandoned land.
The purchase of land by Mudejars, their ability to change vassalage, and their possession of land in diverse localities reflects an improvement in their material conditions during the course of the fifteenth century. However, one author has suggested that the Mudejars' holding of land outside of their place of residence attests to their need to obtain a surplus of crops in order to pay seigneurial rents and dues; in other words, it is evidence of their material difficulties. It is undeniable that the burden of seigneurial dues weighed heavily on many vassals, and that it ground some into a state of abject poverty which they could not escape. To this the enslavement of insolvent Mudejar vassals is dramatic testimony. Also, the fact that a number of lords and their aljamas were in financial straits, weighed down by outstanding pensions (censals ), casts a shadow over any picture of increasing Mudejar prosperity. Nevertheless, that Mudejars were able, for whatever reason, to purchase and
cultivate more land, either at home or in other places, indicates an improvement in their situation. Even if the resultant surplus was used only to meet the demands of the lord—and this often was not the case, for there is evidence of Muslims selling their surplus crops in urban markets —this was still far better than not being able to pay at all. Moreover, many of the Mudejars who held property in diverse places did so as a consequence of having changed vassalage. Since dissolving the bonds of vassalage required the settling of accounts with one's lord, the absentee land tenure of such Muslims is indicative of at least their solvency, if not their prosperity.
Truly impoverished Muslims would have been unable to purchase or lease additional land. Therefore, one can infer that there were two classes (at least) of Mudejar proprietors: a class of growing affluence able to invest in new land, change vassalage with the hope of obtaining better conditions, or both; and a class devoted to subsistence agriculture, rendered immobile by poverty and hardly making ends meet.
An example from the more prosperous class is Fuçey Zignell, a Muslim from Valldigna who later became a royal vassal in the morería of Valencia. Fuçey and his sons appear most frequently in the documents as retail merchants trading in the capital. At the same time, Fuçey continued to hold in Valldigna land planted with flax, mulberry and carob trees, and wheat. This combination of retail merchandising, or manufacturing, with agrarian pursuits was not uncommon, and further explains why seigneurial Muslims moved to royal towns: urban life was more conducive to entrepreneurship and economic diversification.
The activities of the Mudejar underclass do not emerge as clearly. That a Fuçey Zignell could be a merchant in Valencia while renting lands in Valldigna raises an interesting question: who tilled the lands of Fuçey and of others like him? It has been conjectured with good reason that the kingdom's wealthier Muslims often sublet their properties, especially those located outside of their place of residence, to poorer coreligionists. Perhaps sharecropping arrangements were common in these circumstances. In addition, there probably was a substantial body of Mudejar day laborers who subsisted by working the lands of their more fortunate fellows. There is an interesting incidental reference to "certain Sarracens plowing or otherwise laboring on a certain field of Abrahim Juçefi." Because Christian officials were concerned mainly with the contracts between Christian landlords and Muslim tenants, and not with the arrangements worked out among the Muslims themselves, there is little other solid evidence about these sharecroppers and day laborers.
It is difficult to know what portion of the Mudejar population constituted this lower stratum and what portion had the means to leave their
land in another's care. In the latter one should not see an upper class of great wealth, but more of a prospering middle class. Given the considerable evidence of a number of Mudejars augmenting their landholdings or striking out on new commercial ventures, it may be inferred that this middle class was of some size and was perhaps growing. The anti-Muslim violence of the Germanías , ideological motives notwithstanding, may well have been in part an expression of Christian resentment against the members of this class.
Sheep-raising in the kingdom of Valencia never attained the importance that it long held in Castile, where, through the shepherds' association of the Mesta , much of the economy was organized around it and the export of wool. Nevertheless, pastoral activity was an important adjunct to agriculture. Livestock, primarily sheep and goats, were raised for self-consumption as well as for the market. Meat, especially lamb, was a basic component of the Valencian diet, as were cheese and milk. Wool production was geared to both the domestic textile industry and export. The hides of goats and, to a lesser degree, cattle were sold to urban tanners for the manufacture of leather. Farmers utilized manure to increase crop yields; however, given the prevalence of irrigation in Valencia, this factor in agricultural production was less significant there than elsewhere.
Although the Mudejars were active in raising livestock, the extent of their pastoral pursuits was by no means extraordinary. The amount of livestock possessed by the kingdom's Muslims was roughly commensurate with their proportion of the population. Of the 931,743 head of livestock counted in the census of 1510, 28.5 percent were owned by Muslims and 61.5 percent by Christians.
Most Mudejar pastoral activity took place on seigneurial lands in the mountains bordering the alluvial plains. Muslim shepherds living in the lowlands engaged in seasonal transhumance, driving their flocks up to the mountains for the summer months. Three Muslim brothers of Alcácer explained how they took their 300 head of sheep and goats to the mountains "according to the custom and practice each year of the animals that are in the present kingdom." Unfortunately, this year (1480) armed horsemen waylaid them and stole their flock. Livestock was also grazed in the pastures surrounding the huertas . A Muslim of Albatera was permitted to graze his animals in the huerta of Orihuela. Grazing rights to unclaimed wasteland were not clearly defined, and this sometimes caused problems. When the citizens of Alcira created a new pasture that extended to the limits of the seigneury
of Masalaves, they unwittingly included in it lands allegedly held by Muslim vassals of Masalaves who had been grazing their own livestock there.
Mudejars owned livestock collectively as well as individually. Any number of families from a particular village might pool their resources for the purchase of livestock. For instance, six Muslims of Ribarroja bought animals from a merchant of Cuenca for 1654s. Whereas the livestock possessed by an individual family of limited means might be sufficient for only its own consumption, such jointly owned flocks allowed for more extensive breeding and for the production of enough wool and hides for sale on the market.
There were individual Mudejars who owned substantial flocks. Mahomat Alazrach of Benegida owned 1,100 head, and Çahat Ageg of Alcira had a flock of 500 goats. The owners of large numbers of sheep or goats were not necessarily shepherds by occupation; for them the livestock might have represented a form of capital investment. However, it seems that there were professional Mudejar shepherds who for some form of remuneration attended to large flocks comprising the animals of a number of proprietors. Ali Barrazi, a shepherd from Alasquer, related how he and Abrahim Xativi of Alcira looked after the 380 goats of Ageg b. Çahat Ageg and those owned by Xativi, while Xativi's son tended the sixty newborn goats. The shepherds were able to ascertain to whom each animal belonged by the symbol with which each owner marked his animals. In this manner Ali Barrazi recognized another ten of Ageg's goats running in the flock of a certain Mofferig. Itinerant as they were, the shepherds sometimes acted as middlemen, selling the livestock on behalf of the owners to buyers in various towns and villages.
There was a lively commerce in livestock between the towns and the satellite rural villages involving both Muslims and Christians. This is reflected in the activities of Mahomat Ageig of Alcira, who leased the butcher shop of the local morería (1473) and who, therefore, was obliged to provide a quantity of meat sufficient for the needs of the Muslim population. Ageig turned to the stockmen in the region of Alcira, purchasing forty-five sheep and fifteen goats from a Muslim of Cortes, more than 100 sheep from Bernat Cathala, a merchant of Alcudia, and still more sheep from Mahomat Vizcaya of Masalaves. The demand for meat, particularly in the towns, made livestock-raising a profitable pursuit for Christian and Muslim alike.
However, it was the commercial and industrial demand for wool and hides that gave pastoral activity its particular market orientation. Christian merchants in the capital seeking wool, either for export to Italy or
for sale to local textile manufacturers, often contracted with Mudejar stockmen for the delivery of a certain amount of wool each year. The quantities of wool involved seem to have ranged between ten and twenty arrobes (one arroba = 10.4 kilograms, or twenty-six pounds) annually. Usually the merchant would pay the Muslim the accustomed price for the wool during the winter months, and the stockman would deliver the wool to the merchant after the spring shearing. The merchant Pere d'Aragon contracted with Muslims of Alasquer and Masalalí (Valldigna) for eighteen and twelve arrobes , respectively, while the brothers Açia and Ali Çelim of Chelva had a similar contract with the merchant Anthoni Albert of Valencia.
Goat and cow hides were always needed for the manufacture of leather and for the industries dependent on the availability of leather, such as shoemaking. Muslim vassals of the Foya de Buñol were active in supplying artisans in the capital with hides. Francesch Martí, a tanner, paid Amet Caçim and Abrahim Ale 20 pounds for "all the hides of goats, both male and female, that they slaughter in 1488." Interestingly, a Muslim shoemaker of Valencia seems to have acted as an intermediary between the tanner and the stockmen.
Many Mudejars owned horses, mules, and donkeys, all valuable as draft animals and for transportation. Muslim carters and itinerant merchants, familiar figures on the Valencian scene, were always in need of such animals. They frequently purchased or rented horses and mules from Muslims and Christians. Conversely, a number of Mudejars were in a position to sell or lease their livestock to Christians. Ali Çequien of Benaguacil sold mules to five Christians of Liria and three of Castelinou for a total price of 181 pounds 5s.
Beekeeping, chicken-raising, and fishing also figure among the Mudejars' economic activities. Seigneurial Muslims usually had to render two chickens to their lord each year, and on some seigneuries lords exacted a quantity of honey from their vassals. Some Muslims owned apiaries, while others leased them from the Crown or from private individuals. The honey thus produced was sold in its pure form or as confections.
Fishing did not hold a prominent place among Mudejar occupations. Still, for Muslims living in coastal villages it was a subsidiary economic pursuit, and throughout the kingdom fish was an important dietary supplement. Mudejars owned fishing boats, for which reason they were sometimes suspected of aiding Maghriban corsairs, and there are records of Muslim fishermen purchasing fishing line. Muslims who rented lands in the coastal seigneuries of Altea and Albalat had the right to fish in the rivers and the sea, since the waters were common to all
tenants. By the midsixteenth century fishing ceased to be a Muslim pursuit because, for security reasons, the authorities prohibited the Moriscos from inhabiting villages near the coast.
Mudejar artisans engaged in a wide variety of industrial activities. While most evident in urban centers, where they produced for a large local or sometimes a kingdom-wide market, Mudejar artisans were also active on seigneurial lands, although here their manufacturing was intended strictly for local consumption. Notwithstanding their skills as craftsmen and the general shortage of labor in the kingdom, the Mudejars' opportunities in industry were not unlimited, for the monopolization of certain crafts by Christians guilds tended toward the exclusion of Muslim artisans.
Because Christian craft guilds were essentially religious confraternities, the membership of Muslim and Jewish artisans was problematic. The guilds justified their ordinances prohibiting the membership of non-Christians by emphasizing the religious dissidence of the latter. The ordinances of Valencia's confraternity of mattressmakers and quilt-makers, presented to the king for confirmation in 1479, are quite explicit in this regard:
We ask and demand that it be ordained that no one who is a Moor or a Jew may practice the trade of mattress and quilt maker in the city of Valencia, nor may they [Muslims and Jews] be admitted to the examinations of the confraternity, nor may they practice the said trade as masters. The same should be [ordained] for slaves or bastard sons of slaves, so that the trade not fall to vile persons or to enemies of the Holy Faith.
The guild of cappers similarly ruled "that any Moor or Jew, who are enemies of the Holy Catholic Faith, if he is not already a slave of the capper, cannot in any manner practice or work in the said trade."
Other guilds, in justifying such discriminatory legislation, voiced their fears of the Mudejars as a fifth column who might reveal the Christians' technological secrets to Aragon's Islamic foes. The cord-makers reasoned that Mudejars given access to the trade might teach to Maghriban Muslims the art of making crossbow string; the carpenters claimed that Mudejars who became skilled in woodworking would aid Muslim corsairs in constructing ships (1424); and the Christian manufacturers of cuirasses, harnesses, swords, and spears all had obvious reasons for excluding Muslims from their trades (1480).
Nevertheless, anxiety about Muslim or Jewish competition was
weightier than ideological or political concerns in motivating the Christian guilds' exclusivity. The silkweavers of Valencia at least were more forthright in explaining why the masters of the trade could not give instruction to Muslim and Jewish apprentices: "it would be a great damage ... to the workers of the said craft, for whom work would be lacking." It was also for economic reasons that Christian guilds consistently prohibited Muslim and Jewish craftsmen from working on Sundays and Christian feast days—it would have given them an edge in productivity. Yet other guilds less pressed by "infidel" competition were not adverse to the idea of Muslims and Jews being examined and approved as masters. The feltmakers of Valencia ordained that "no person of whatever law [i.e., religion] or condition can have a loom or looms if he is not already an examined master," implying that persons of all religions could become master feltmakers. Nor do the guilds' professed political fears appear too convincing when one considers that although Mudejars did not manufacture cuirasses or swords, they nevertheless were active in producing shields and bucklers, and many were smiths, metalworkers, and carpenters. Even Christian carpenters employed Maghriban Muslim slaves, despite enactments to the contrary. A guild's profession of religious and political concerns seems to have served mainly as a screen for the more practical aim of maintaining its monopoly of a particular trade. As for the trades in which Christian craftsmen were less interested, such concerns strangely disappeared; there was room enough for Christian, Muslim, and Jew.
Muslim and Jewish artisans responded to the exclusive legislation of Christian guilds by forming their own craft guilds. The Muslim shoe-makers of the capital had a confraternity, and, according to Dolors Bramon, there were many minority guilds, all characterized by religiously exclusive membership. It made perfect sense that Muslims and Jews would have wanted confraternities for the mutual support and services they provided for members. In those trades where Christian masters refused to examine Muslims and Jews, the latter would have needed an organization for maintaining standards and setting prices. The barring of Muslims and Jews from Christian guilds, therefore, did not necessarily prevent them from practicing the trades in question.
However, it should not be imagined that there existed a minority guild system—or an "authentic counter-society," as Bramon has proposed —paralleling and competing with that of the Christians. The Valencian economy was far more integrated and functioned far more efficiently than such a bipartite guild system would have allowed for. In the treatment of Mudejar artisans that follows, three characteristics of the economy will emerge with clarity: (1) although Muslims and Christians practicing the same trade often competed with one another, they
were also able to work cooperatively; (2) Muslims and Christians were more apt to practice different trades that complemented one another than to be rivals within the same trade (the restrictive legislation of the Christian guilds might have been little more than a confirmation of this tendency); and (3) as a consequence of the second point, Muslim and Christian artisans were as likely to sell their wares to clients of different faiths as to coreligionists. The Valencian economy was structured in a manner that left far less room for Muslim-Christian rivalry than the regulations of Christian guilds would suggest.
The documentation is most revealing about the activities of Mudejar shoemakers in the capital. They had their own guild, the ordinances of which were approved by the bailiff general in 1497. The Muslim shoemakers organized themselves for their own protection and to maintain standards of craftsmanship. They were particularly anxious about those Muslims who were coming to the city and, without making themselves royal vassals, were renting workshops and houses in or near the morería . The problem was not so much a glut of shoes on the market as the quality of the product being marketed by these free-lance shoemakers. Valencia was an expanding city and a center of economic opportunity. Persons of diverse origins flocked there either to make their fortunes or to join the ranks of the urban proletariat. Muça Almedino, a metalworker from Calatayud (Aragon), had little difficulty finding day work with Christian cutlers and boilermakers in Valencia; even a Muslim from Málaga sought employment there. Even though there were 45,000 pairs of feet to be shod in the city, the morería 's shoemakers probably feared losing customers to the newcomers. The latter, although manufacturing an inferior product, most likely were undercutting the guild's prices. The masters of the guild complained that "the products that those [newcomers] make are neither good nor suitable, nor made with the perfection that ought to be done by good shoe-makers." The masters maintained that this state of affairs could lead to the diminution of the morería 's population (always a convincing argument with the Crown authorities), the implication being that the circulation of inferior products and the undercutting of prices would cause the guild's ruination.
In order to remedy this situation the masters proclaimed with the bailiff general's concurrence that no Muslim could rent a workshop without first having been examined and approved by them. The prerequisite for certification was a three-year apprenticeship with one of the masters. Sons of shoemakers had to work with their fathers for three years, and had to be eighteen years of age and married before they could have their own shop. In this way the masters could
enforce quality and price controls and strengthen their own economic and social position.
Muslim and Christian shoemakers seem to have coexisted amicably enough. Aside from the Christian shoemakers demanding that their Muslim and Jewish counterparts not labor on Sundays and feast days, there is little evidence of an intense Christian-Muslim competition. In fact, Christian shoemakers sometimes toiled in the homes and shops of Muslims, although it is difficult to know in what capacity they did so. Joan de Gandía and Miquel de Boro manufactured shoes in the home of Abdalla Torralbi, a linen-draper, whose sons Azmet and Çahat were shoemakers. Joan recounted that he conversed with Azmet as he worked, stopping only to go home for lunch.
When in need of materials, Muslim shoemakers patronized Christian tanners and manufacturers of brass buckles (oripells ). In the capital these two crafts seem to have been exclusively in the hands of Christians. The sources for the business between these Muslim and Christian artisans are spotty, inasmuch as they consist of either the bailiff general's letters of execution against those Muslims late in paying their Christian creditors—who would have been more the exception than the rule—or the Muslims' public acknowledgment of their debts. Nevertheless, the sources are revealing. They show that the working capital needed to operate industry in Valencia was provided in part by short-term credit arrangements between artisans whose crafts were complementary. Thus, the Christian tanner would furnish leather to the Muslim shoemaker on credit, with the understanding that he would be paid as soon as the Muslim received payment for his finished products. The tanner's confidence that the shoemaker would, indeed, fulfill his obligation was enhanced by the fact that the members of the latter's guild were accustomed to stand as pledges for honest repayment of one another's debts. For example, when Azmet Alboruch purchased leather on credit from Jaume Caldes, Axet Carcaix stood as surety for him, liquidating Alboruch's debt to Caldes when he was unable to pay at the time agreed upon. In addition to the tanner's confidence that the Muslim shoemaker's guild would not allow one of its members to default on a debt, a more fundamental mutual trust developed through frequent transactions and consequent familiarity. The sources indicate that certain Christian tanners were especially active in dealing with Muslim shoemakers. Of the sixty-one debt cases involving the shoemakers, the tanner Girart Boix appears as the creditor in twenty-one, Jaume Caldes in eight, Joan Carbonell in six, and Joan Gironella and Alfonso Delgado in three apiece. A similar pattern is apparent in the transactions between the shoemakers and the Christian manufacturers of brass buckles.
Here, in the nineteen debt cases considered, Pere Ribesaltes was the creditor eight times, his relative Bernat Ribesaltes twice, and Francesch Cabanes three times.
Játiva had Mudejar shoemakers and tanners, the latter renting the local tannery from the Crown. Travel licenses issued by the bailiff general reveal that one of the shoemakers, Çahat Cantsevol, made periodic trips to the southern part of the kingdom in order to purchase hides, probably for the morería 's tanners and shoemakers. One of Çahat's Valencian counterparts, Yuçeff Abducarim, stood as surety for him (in case he did not return), which suggests that Yuçeff had an interest in Çahat's quest for hides. And Yuçeff was not alone, for on different occasions Pedro Navarro, a Jativan merchant, and Andreu Mestre, a Valencian tanner, joined him in backing Çahat. Navarro likely intended to sell the hides retail in Játiva, while Mestre must have tanned the hides himself.
Artisans were usually artisan-retailers, responsible for both manufacturing and selling their wares. Beyond selling their products from their shops or in Valencia's market, it may be that the capital's Muslim shoemakers made some attempt to distribute their shoes throughout the kingdom. When Abrahim Fato of Cárcer traveled south "to sell clothing and certain merchandise," Yuniç Tarongeta, a shoemaker of Valencia, stood as surety for him. Perhaps shoes made by Yuniq and his fellows were part of the merchandise Abrahim was vending, in which case Abrahim would have received a share of the proceeds as compensation for his labor as an itinerant merchant.
Another important center for the manufacture of footwear was the Vall de Uxó. The hemp-sandal (espardenya ) industry was almost completely monopolized by Mudejar espardenyers . The espardenyers carried on a brisk trade with the Christian cordmakers of the capital, from whom they purchased hemp thread on credit. The cordmakers' guild, which prohibited the practice of their trade by Muslims, had no qualms at all about doing business with Muslim espardenyers . Certain cordmakers figure prominently in these transactions. In the thirty-two debt cases of Mudejar espardenyers , Jaume Lobet was the creditor ten times, Joan de Caritat nine times, Francesch Nadal five times, and Joan Bonet twice. One of the cordmakers, Joan Pérez Bou, on a few occasions pooled his resources with the espardenyers Mahomat and Suleymen Garbi in order to buy hemp from Valencian merchants. Pérez also made an interest-free loan (prestech gratios ) of 63s to the Garbis. The largest market for hemp sandals was the capital. It is therefore not surprising to find there a Muslim espardenyer from the Vall de Uxó renting a stall beside the fonduk, where he made and sold the sandals.
Mudejars were active in the textile and clothing industry as dyers, weavers, linen-drapers, tailors, and retailers. Most royal morerías had their resident dyers, as did many seigneurial morerías , especially in Valldigna. In Játiva and Murviedro Muslims rented the dyeworks from the Crown. Muslim dyers from all over the kingdom came to Valencia to purchase cloth from Christian wool-dressers and drapers, and the dyes and alum necessary for the dyeing process from merchants. There were some Mudejar cloth merchants, such as the aforementioned Ali Gehini, who made a fortune selling woolens. Mudejar tailors seem to have been located mainly on seigneurial lands, where they worked on the clothing of the local population. They, too, had to go to the urban centers for materials. Azmet Lopo, a tailor of Bellreguart, purchased over two meters of black cloth in Gandía.
In the capital there were a number of Muslim linen-drapers. One was Abdalla Torralbi, whose varied activities were probably not typical of the other practitioners of his craft. Abdalla wove linen himself and purchased flax from farmers for that purpose (twelve arrobes from Pere Màcia). As a retailer Abdalla not only sold his own work but also resold linen he had purchased from a variety of Christian parties—monks, feltmakers, tailors, notaries, and merchants. Nor did he confine himself to the retailing of only locally woven linens. He sold especially fine linens (olanda ) purchased from a Venetian wholesaler, as well as other types of cloth bought from local wool-dressers and wholesale drapers, and from a Florentine merchant. Abdalla's retail trade seems to have been quite successful, considering the large quantities of cloth he purchased from wholesale merchants. In one instance, Abdalla bought 155 pounds 7s 11d worth of cloth from the merchant Joan Allepus, whom he repaid at a rate of 3 pounds per week. Abdalla's retailing activities appear to have extended beyond the confines of the capital, for there is record of him standing as surety for Azmet Ubeyt of Valldigna, who was traveling south for commercial purposes ("per mercadejar"), perhaps with some of Abdalla's linen and cloth. He also invested in small-scale commerce with the Maghriban port of Oran. Abdalla managed to finance his retail trade by borrowing money from Christians whom he repaid with annual pensions.
The Mudejars of Valencia were not as prominent in the construction industry as were their fellows in Aragon. Aragonese Muslim "masters" were often hired to work on the royal aljafería in Zaragoza or on churches, and some were even sent down to Granada after the conquest to make repairs on the Alhambra. Still, some Valencian Mudejars labored as masons and carpenters in urban and rural areas, and they were hired by the Crown to repair royal ovens, fonduks, and other public works.
Mudejars seem to have played a somewhat more important role in the metalworking industries as smiths, boilermakers, and manufacturers of shields and bucklers. All carried on business with Christian merchants from whom they purchased their materials, both iron and copper. Through their ability to supply the artisans with materials on credit, the merchants attained a position of dominance in industry. It enabled them to some degree to dictate the terms of production to the artisans. For example, when the merchants Dionis Miguel and Francesch Miro supplied Muslim shieldmakers with iron, the latter agreed to sell bucklers to the merchants at a set rate.
Muslim saddlers are evident throughout the kingdom, and in Alcira and Játiva they leased the royal saddleworks. Játiva's Muslim residents were also involved in the fabrication of soap.
Mudejars took part in Valencia's sugar industry, not only growing sugarcane but also refining it and preparing confections for sale. Some Muslims leased sugar refineries, such as Çahat Mucellem who rented a refinery from the lawyer Miguel Albert for a number of years. Çahat Flori, a confectioner of Játiva, often did business with the representatives of the Cardinal in Valldigna. Çahat rented (or owned) fields in Valldigna planted with sugarcane, from which he supplied his own confectionary shop. However, Çahat also had to buy sugar from Valldigna's officials (they probably ran a refinery), to whom he later sold his own confections.
This brief look at Mudejar artisans may be rounded out by mentioning Muslims who made a living as entertainers (juglars ), those who fashioned musical instruments or played them, and those who worked as physicians, barbers, and surgeons. Although Mudejar medical practitioners did not have the same prominence as Jewish physicians, when all else failed a Mudejar surgeon might be called in to care for Christian notables. Mudejars, in turn, did not always go to their coreligionists with their medical problems. Some were treated by Christian physicians in Valencia's hospital.
Muslim artisans did not restrict themselves to the activity of manufacturing one specific product. Many, as has been seen, were necessarily retailers. Most in all likelihood had some land under cultivation in the area. Some were active in more than one craft. For example, Muslim shoemakers sometimes supplemented their income by repairing pots or weaving silk.
In 1502, when rumors were circulating concerning the possible forced baptism of Valencia's Muslims, Fernando reckoned the cessation of
Mudejar commerce to be one of the most injurious consequences of the rumors: "the said Moors desist from leaving their villages and from conducting business and commerce as they were accustomed ... which things are ... damaging for our entire kingdom." Viewed from the perspective of international trade, the king's fears appear insubstantial, for the role of the Mudejars in this sphere was minimal, not significant enough for their abandonment of commerce to have had any impact. An understanding of what Fernando meant by Mudejar "business" and "commerce" and why he deemed them crucial for the kingdom's economy requires a shift of focus from international maritime commerce, where the largest profits were to be made, to the more modest domestic, land-based trade that linked town and countryside and brought the entire kingdom within the commercial orbit of the capital.
The relationship between town and rural hinterland, which included neighboring seigneuries, was necessarily reciprocal. From the countryside the urban inhabitants received victuals and raw materials for industry. For the rural folk the town was above all a market center where they sold their agricultural surpluses and purchased manufactured goods. Yet this urban-rural division of labor was not all that precise, for townsmen often invested in and cultivated land, while rural villages had their own artisans. Nonetheless, towns could scarcely survive without the importation of foodstuffs from the countryside and the business of the inhabitants of satellite villages.
The Mudejars took part in this constant interchange between urban and rural spheres, traveling freely from their seigneurial villages to the towns with their produce. The weekly trek made by Mahomat Bolagui and his wife Madoneta from the barony of Corbera to the market of Alcira was typical of the commercial activities of many a Muslim or Christian peasant: "the said Moor and Mooress [were] travelling to the town of Alcira with their animals burdened with victuals and other things which are customarily brought every Wednesday by those residing near the said town, for on that same day each week they are accustomed to have a market." Muslims from nearby Llombay also provisioned Alcira with wheat and those from Alcocer usually marketed their goods there. The commercial network linking town to regional villages prevailed throughout the kingdom. Muslims of Gilet were frequent visitors to Murviedro, while Oriheula likewise opened its gates to a Mudejar carrying merchandise from Elche. The marketing of crops in urban markets by Mudejar farmers indicates that a number of them were producing above the subsistence level. This was made possible in part by their purchasing and leasing of additional land both inside and outside of their place of residence, and by their reclamation of wasteland.
Most Muslims, when they did not bring their crops to the nearest town market, brought them to Valencia. The capital was always in need of victuals and raw materials, and as a center of massive consumption drew to it the surplus produce of farmers and stockmen from all over the kingdom. Ali Gibi traveled there from the Foya de Buñol "with certain packs of hides and other merchandise and victuals ... to sell." Açen Açanego of Torres Torres transported 104 jugs of wine to Valencia. Mudejars brought to the city a wide variety of products for sale: wheat, honey, sugar, figs, raisins, oil, wood, and so on. The large number of Muslims who came to Valencia for this purpose prompted the bailiff general to restrict their vending to the city's main market: "let no Moor or Moors dare to go through the city of Valencia or through its houses or places selling flax, linen, or any other merchandise [such as] anis, sugar, caraway, ... and other seeds but only in the market of the present City." Merchants of Valencia would pay Muslim farmers in advance for the delivery of crops. For example, Mahomat Benfat of Carlet agreed to deliver to the merchant Ferrando Vilareyal 300 arrobes of olive oil, a considerable quantity. Mudejars might act as middlemen between the farmers and Valencia's merchants. Maymol Gathneu, an oil merchant of Játiva, purchased olive oil from rural producers and delivered it to the city.
While the Mudejars found the towns and the capital a ready market for their produce, urban merchants and shopkeepers could likewise count on the patronage of Muslim customers. The records reveal a lively traffic between merchants and Mudejars, especially in the capital. Credit transactions seem to have predominated. That the merchants were compelled to extend credit to the Mudejars (and to their Christian clients as well) reflects an insufficiency of cash in the hands of the latter, or, more generally, deficiencies in the supply and circulation of coinage. At the same time, it suggests that the merchants viewed the Mudejars as safe credit risks. It is difficult to know whether the Muslims normally made a down payment upon receipt of the goods, or if their credit extended to the entire cost of their purchase. Probably both types of credit arrangement were used. Sometimes the Muslim buyers left with the merchants articles of property, frequently jewelry, as collateral.
Unfortunately, the records, primarily the bailiff general's letters of execution against Muslim debtors, seldom state what goods were being purchased by Mudejars. Naturally, there was much traffic in comestibles—grain, olive oil, cheese, fish, and so on. Grain shortages, a chronic Mediterranean problem, caused Muslims to journey from places such as Bétera and Macastre to the capital to buy wheat. In the spring of 1479 Francesch Conill sold more than 76 pounds worth of wheat to Muslims of Alicra, who were to pay him by Christmas of
that year. Along with food, clothing ranked among life's most basic necessities. Christian drapers, such as those with shops in Cuart, had a steady Muslim clientele. Of course, Muslim artisans were always in need of materials—iron, copper, steel, alum, dyes, flax, cloth, thread, and the like—and shopkeepers were more than happy to oblige them. Besides such essential articles, some Mudejars could afford to buy luxury items. Yuçeff Turis and Abdulazis Alboruch satisfied their taste for Sardinian cheeses, while other Muslims purchased spices and sugar. Some preferred garb more sumptuous than that of locally woven fabrics, and so bought silks, fine linens, and cloth imported from Bruges and Brabant.
In addition to these small purchases of a retail nature, Mudejars also made wholesale purchases of large quantities of goods with the intention of selling them retail. As retail merchants the Mudejars played an important role in the distribution of commodities throughout the kingdom from the centers of production and importation. Sometimes the large size of the purchases made by Muslims suggests that they were buying for their own retail businesses. Abdalla Xeyt of Castellnou had credits with Valencian merchants amounting to 171 pounds 3s 2d, and Abdalla Medalla purchased 100 pounds' worth of goods from the merchant Joan Allepus. Muslim fishmongers from diverse localities bought eels, sardines, hake, and other fish directly from Christian fishermen in Sueca and Valencia. Mascor Borrachet, a retailer from the Vall de Uxó, bought thirteen pounds of saffron from Gabriel Polo (an Italian?), and Amet Alami of Segorbe owed 82 pounds 16s 11d to the merchant Miguel Pérez for fifteen arrobes of pepper. Men such as Mascor and Amet probably sold the goods thus purchased to the inhabitants in or near their own towns and villages. Muslims who made such wholesale purchases were not necessarily full-time merchants. The artisan or farmer might turn retailer if the wholesale price was right and there was the likelihood of earning a profit from retail sales. A soapmaker and a linen-draper pooled their resources to buy fifteen quintars (41.5 kilograms) of cheese from the merchant Gaspar Valenti.
The Zignells, a large Mudejar family of Tabernes de Valldigna, devoted themselves to mercantile pursuits more fully, with one branch of the family eventually establishing itself in the capital. While holding land from the abbot of Valldigna, the Zignells were involved in commerce in the Orihuela-Alicante region since at least the beginning of Fernando's reign. Various members of the family traveled there to sell linen, mules, and other merchandise. The Zignells also backed other Muslims of Valldigna journeying southward for commerce (at least that is what their standing as surety for them seems to indicate). Perhaps the latter, such as the carter Abrahim Çaffont, were the Zignells' agents, in
which cases the Zignells would have furnished the merchandise and the agents their marketing skills. In the 1480s the Zignells were doing business with merchants and farmers in the capital, perhaps purchasing goods and produce wholesale for retail distribution in the south. By 1491 one branch of the family, consisting of Fuçey Zignell, his sons Yuçeff, Abdulazis, Mahomat, and Çahat, and their wives and children, set up commercial operations in Valencia. The city offered a considerably larger market for the enterprising retail merchant. Pere Eximenez, a wealthy innkeeper who had become Fuçey Zignell's partner, described Fuçey's (and his sons') retailing activities:
he has made and is accustomed to make many contracts, buying from merchants and from other persons many and diverse dry goods and merchandise of diverse kinds, having them to sell retail [per menut ] and selling them retail both in his own house and throughout the present city to those who wish to buy.
Indeed, the merchant Luis Nadal made to Fuçey and his sons "many sales of cloth from his shop ... he sold goods to the said Moors who left pledges for the said merchandise." Dionis Miguel, Francesch Miro, Berthomeu Pinos, Gaspar de Gallach, and a company of German merchants all dealt with the Zignells, selling to them in the gross Neapolitan linen, cloth, and other goods. The Zignells also retailed vegetables and sugar, which Ali Zignell, Yuçeff's son, was licensed to vend in the city. At the same time, the Zignells of Valldigna and Valencia continued their commercial dealings south of the Jijona River. In 1502 Yaye Zignell (Fuçey's grandson?) stood as surety for a Muslim of Alberique traveling to the Vall d'Elda to sell mules. It was the backing of the innkeeper Pere Eximenez that enabled the Zignells to carry on these rather far-ranging commercial operations. Eximenez stood as pledge when the Zignells bought wholesale on credit. Whenever the proceeds from the Zignells' retail sales were insufficient for the repayment of the wholesalers, Eximenez would provide the funds that kept the Zignells' business afloat. In 1494 Eximenez paid 14,000 of the 22,000s owed by Fuçey Zignell and his sons to various creditors. When Fuçey and sons proved unable or unwilling to repay the 14,000s to Eximenez—at one point the sons had fled the city—their cousins in Valldigna, Umaymat and Yaye, came forth with 100 pounds (20,000s). But this incident did not terminate the Zigne II Eximenez partnership, for two years later Eximenez interceded with the bailiff general in the Zignells' behalf and obtained for them safe-conducts against prosecution for debt.
Trading in the capital on a far more modest scale than the Zignells
was the widow Xempsi Bizqueya. Her late husband Azmet had been involved in the retailing of cloth, and Xempsi followed in his footsteps somewhat, selling the second-hand clothing of affluent Christian women. The women commissioned Xempsi to sell articles of their clothing, and, after Xempsi returned the proceeds to them, they paid her a pittance for her troubles. However meager her earnings, Xempsi still was able to offer to her daughter-in-law a bridewealth of two gold bracelets and a silk robe worth 21 pounds. The capital also had its Muslim shopkeepers, such as Amet Mathera, a botiguer , and Mahomat Fandaig, a druggist. Any town with a sizable Muslim community likely had a similar array of merchants.
The Mudejars did much to facilitate the flow of goods throughout the kingdom. Many worked as carters and muleteers, and were hired by merchants and artisans. Ali Borrachet, a carter of the Vall de Uxó, carried honey to a spice merchant in the capital. A Murcian Jew importing goods through Valencia hired a Mudejar of Alcantera to transport them, and a Jewess employed Maymo Açen to deliver paper to a Christian printer. Mudejars were sometimes commissioned as the agents of Christian entrepreneurs and were given funds en comanda for the purchase of certain commodities in bulk. For example, Simo Sánchez, a citizen of Valencia, gave 84 pounds 16s 8d to Açen Tintorer of Valldigna "for the purpose of buying for him [Sánchez] as much silk as the said ... [money] can buy." Açen was probably familiar with silk producers, many of whom were Muslims.
It was partly through the offices of the Mudejar carters and muleteers that Valencia's commercial network was extended to the cities and towns of the kingdom of Aragon. Ali and Azmet Ferriol of Benaguacil were active in transporting goods from Valencia to Calatayud. A merchant of Zaragoza entrusted 1,200s en comanda to a Muslim of Segorbe, probably for the purchase of merchandise in Valencia. Mudejar muleteers from Aragon and Castile complemented the activities of their Valencian cousins. Caçim of Avila carried "packs with diverse things" from Valencia to the king. Muleteers and carters could achieve some prosperity, as is evinced in the person of Azmet Bocayo, a carter of Castellón de la Plana who also had substantial landholdings.
In addition to merely transporting goods, Mudejars sold them as itinerant merchants. The evidence for Mudejar mercantile activity is derived largely from the licenses granted by the bailiff general to Muslims for travel to the region south of the Jijona River, often for reasons of commerce. It may be presumed that Mudejar merchants traded in areas north of the Jijona as well, where Muslims could move freely without a license. These merchants rarely worked merely on their own account; rather, they were vending on behalf of sedentary partners who furnished
the necessary goods or cash. The travel licenses reveal nothing about the details of the arrangement between the itinerant vendor and the sedentary partner. However, they do provide the names of those who acted as guarantors of the licensees, in case the latter did not return to the capital in the time specified. It seems likely that those who took the trouble to be guarantors, especially the Christians who acted in this capacity for Muslims, had some interest in the licensee's commercial venture. This is indicated in the case of Yuçeff Abducarim of Játiva, who with his son and servant traveled south "to sell pots and some other things of his trade." His guarantor was Francesch Sarria, a boilermaker (calderer ). Likewise, it may be conjectured that when March Casterellenes, a silversmith, and Alexandre Alvespi, a glassworker, acted as guarantors for Muslim merchants, their wares represented part of the merchandise to be sold by the latter. Wholesale merchants such as Francesch Sparça and Pasqual Vicent were able to extend their commercial interests from the port of Valencia to Orihuela through the marketing expertise of itinerant Mudejar retailers. The fact that the Mudejars had to come to the capital in order to obtain travel licenses worked to the benefit of Valencia's entrepreneurs who wished to expand the scope of their businesses beyond the city's limits. At times local bailiffs were authorized to grant licenses to Muslim merchants to facilitate the flow of goods not emanating from the capital. For instance, since "each day some Moors of the said place [Orcheta] have to go to the Vall d'Elda, Orihuela, and the town of Alicante with loads of some merchandise," the bailiff of Penáguila was empowered to grant the licenses.
It has been mentioned above how Mudejar artisans and merchants, like Abdalla Torralbi, Çahat Cantsevol, and the Zignells, also backed these itinerant merchants. Entire aljamas sometimes acted as guarantors for Muslim merchants, as did lords for their merchant vassals. Perhaps in such cases the merchant was vending the crops and manufactures produced on the seigneury itself.
Mudejar carters, muleteers, and itinerant retail merchants had Christian counterparts. Still, the Muslims' familiarity with the rural, seigneurial areas, where many of them resided, made them especially suitable for the role of linking the commerce of the capital to that of the outlying towns and villages. Were one to pose a mercantile division of labor between Christians and Muslims, one would conclude that the former monopolized maritime commerce and wholesale trade, while the latter moved the goods of the wholesalers and distributed them throughout the kingdom through their retailing activities. No doubt the commerce in Christian hands was substantially more lucrative. Still, the retailing of the Mudejars reaped some profits and for the regional eco-
nomy was no less essential. The king expressed concern about the cessation of Mudejar commerce in 1502, because the result would have been a considerably slower circulation of goods through the kingdom's commercial arteries.
Mudejar participation in international trade was of far lesser moment. There had been important mercantile families in the morería of Valencia during the early decades of the fifteenth century. These families—the Ripoll, Xupio, Benxarnit, and Razbayda—conducted trade with Granada and North Africa. However, as a consequence of emigration and the destruction of Valencia's morería in 1455, this Mudejar commercial elite had largely disappeared by the last quarter of the century. The inhabitants of the morería subsequently focused most of their energies on manufacture and the local retail trade.
During Fernando's reign Mudejars nonetheless continued the small-scale maritime trade with Almería in the sultanate of Granada and with Tunis and Oran in North Africa. Mudejar merchants did not have ships of their own, and so traveled with their goods on Venetian, Genoese, and Valencian vessels. The volume of this commerce was not great, and the merchandise of individual merchants only occasionally had a value of more than 50 pounds. Among the commodities sold by Mudejars in North Africa were silk, saffron, cloth, and metalware. Whereas previous to 1455 the majority of Mudejar merchants had originated from the capital's morería , most now came from seigneurial lands, the exception being those who were residents of Játiva. It is unlikely that these Muslims were full-time merchants; most probably represented only the interests of other members of their aljama. Some combined commercial pursuits in Islamic lands with family business and study. The war with Granada eventually terminated the trade with Almería and, combined with the later crusade against Africa, also seems to have slowed the movement of Mudejar merchants between Valencia and the Maghrib.
The outstanding exception to the general decline of Mudejar maritime commerce was the mercantile activity of the qadi[*] general, Mahomat Bellvis. Like other Mudejars, the Bellvis participated in the trade between Valencia, Almería, and North Africa. Sometimes Mahomat sent his sons there to conduct family business and other times agents were sent to represent Bellvis interests. However, commerce took the Bellvis much further afield, for they were also involved in the eastern Mediterranean spice trade. Mahomat's son Yahye purchased spices in Alexandria and sold them in Italy and Valencia. In one case Yahye sold spices in Naples and was given letters of exchange for repayment in Tunis. Traveling with Yahye were other members of his "company of Moors" from Valencia. Bellvis' commercial expertise seems to have
attracted other Mudejars to invest in their commercial ventures, though no doubt the Bellvis were dominant in this Mudejar company. It appears that the Bellvis shipped spices to Valencia on Venetian and Florentine vessels, or at least this is suggested by a litigation between Mahomat Bellvis and Dominic de Tella, a representative of Florentine ship patrons. Çahat Bellvis, described in the sources as a spice merchant, must have handled the Bellvis' wholesale-retail business in Valencia. By 1498 Yahye Bellvis had emigrated to Tunis, in all likelihood to facilitate his family's commercial ventures between the Levant, Italy, the Maghrib, and Valencia.
Notwithstanding the evidence of Mudejar prosperity, the great majority of the kingdom's wealth was concentrated in the hands of the Christian upper classes. Of Valencia's Muslims perhaps only the Bellvis family had attained a financial status similar to that of Christian noblemen and successful merchants. Prosperous Mudejars only rarely rose above the level of the middle class. The fact that enterprising Muslim merchants and artisans, such as the Zignells or Abdalla Torralbi, often relied on the financial backing and loans of far wealthier Christian investors and partners indicates the true locus of economic power in Valencia. The careers of Mudejar officials who farmed royal and seigneurial taxes tell much the same story, for their middling wealth was acquired mainly through their access to the fiscal machinery of the Crown and the Christian aristocracy. The inescapable fact was that the economy remained securely under Christian control, a state of affairs evident since the thirteenth century, when political conquest was followed by the wresting of economic power from Muslim hands.