The city of Tortosa was one of the most important urban centres in late medieval Catalonia, mainly thanks to its river port, which linked the Iberian interior to the Mediterranean trade networks. In the archives of Tortosa there are several registers of wealth, called manifests, which served as the basis for the distribution of direct taxes according to the wealth of each taxpayer. This paper examines the only two manifests that are complete, those of 1316 and 1353: together they allow us to study the impact of the Black Death on population and wealth. The paper first describes the socio-economic and urban structure of the city in the fourteenth century and then the main features of the sources used. Secondly, it examines the structure and evolution of the distribution of population and wealth between 1316 and 1353. Finally, we propose some reflections on the impact of the plague of 1348 on both economic inequality and the demographic structure of the city of Tortosa.
University of València, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0001-5530-8123
CSIC-IMF, Institution Milá i Fontanals, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0001-6740-2088
Chapter Title
Economic inequalities in an Iberian urban society: Tortosa before and after the Black Death
Authors
Laura Miquel Millian, Jordi Morelló Baget
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.07
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Socio-Economic Inequalities during the Conjuncture of the Fourteenth Century
Book Subtitle
Sources and Methods, Dynamics and Representations (Italy and Europe, c. 1270 - c. 1350)
Editors
Davide Cristoferi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
458
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0699-0
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0705-8
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0707-2
Series Title
Reti Medievali E-Book
Series ISSN
2704-6362
Series E-ISSN
2704-6079