Abstract

ALBIEZ-WIECK, Sarah. Taxing Calidad: The Case of Spanish America and the Philippines. e-JPH [online]. 2021, vol.19, n.2, pp.110-129.  Epub Dec 31, 2021. ISSN 1645-6432.  https://doi.org/10.26300/58b8-hs97.

Poll taxes constituted a significant factor to organize and perpetuate social inequalities in many early modern empires. Fiscal categorizations had very concrete effects on the daily life of the categorized, on their assets and on their labor force. They intersected with social categorizations such as gender, religion, profession, age and what many authors have termed race or ethnicity, but which I prefer to call, more accurately with a Spanish term from the colonial sources, calidad (literally ‘quality’). Categorizations were imposed by legislation from above and contested via petitions from below. This article delineates the major fiscal categorization in Spanish America and the Philippines and details three examples for their negotiation in petitions.

Keywords : Spanish America; Philippines; Taxes; Petitions; Categorizations.

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