Seigneurial Rationale and Administrative Memory: The Account Books of the County of Dénia at the End of the Fourteenth Century

Abstract

The aim of this work is to determine how the management of the seigneurial estates (both the administrative memory that made the reproduction of the fiscal cycle possible and the supervision of the accounts) was reflected in the material structure of the accounting records, namely, the division into chapters and entries, supervisors’ annotations, partial sums and balances. Two 1376 account books, corresponding to the Christian and Muslim communities of the county, have been used as sources. We have concluded that the management logic, based on the “charge and discharge” technique, effectively consisted on controlling the tax agents and setting the seigneurial rights, and not on providing information for innovative decision-making. The seigneurial rationale consisted in ensuring, through these records, the continuity of tax collections, avoiding fraud or negligence on the part of their agents.