{
  "id": "marca-y-registro-de-la-plata-labrada-en-las-indias",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "The bullion had to be booked before the silversmith could touch it: ley xxxiiij of the quintos reales título, which registers American gold and silver twice and marks every finished piece",
  "summary": "Ley xxxiiij of libro VIII, título X of the Recopilación taxes wrought gold and silver in the Indies and builds a procedure to make the tax visible in the object. The bullion is weighed and entered in a royal book before work begins, with the silversmith named; the finished pieces come back to be weighed against it and stamped with a small mark; and owner and silversmith are liable in solidum for the whole value if a piece is held without it. Folio 488.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "colonial-law",
    "law-of-the-indies",
    "legislation",
    "legal-history",
    "recopilacion",
    "governance",
    "taxation",
    "fiscal-history",
    "real-hacienda",
    "royal-treasury",
    "silver",
    "silverwork",
    "crafts",
    "guilds",
    "metrology",
    "standards",
    "property",
    "spanish-empire",
    "americas",
    "sixteenth-century"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "quinto-real-de-minas-batallas-y-rescates"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "manifestacion-del-oro-y-plata-en-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "fundicion-y-peso-de-las-barras-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "cuenta-y-valor-de-los-quintos-de-oro-y-plata"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "prohibicion-de-sacar-metales-sin-quintar"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "tenencia-y-labor-de-metales-sin-quintar"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "ensaye-y-marca-del-oro-y-plata-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "arfe-varia-commensuracion-1585"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "casas-de-moneda-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "quinto-de-las-perlas-y-la-forma-de-quintarlas"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "How was silverware taxed in colonial Spanish America?",
    "Did Spanish American silver objects have to carry a tax mark?",
    "What did a silversmith in the Indies have to do before working gold or silver?",
    "What was the libro particular kept by the royal officials of the Indies?",
    "Who was liable if a piece of American silver was found without its mark?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "One law of the royal-fifth título is about objects rather than metal. In the fourth impression, printed at Madrid in 1791 by the widow of Joaquín Ibarra for the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, ley xxxiiij of libro VIII título X stands whole on the printed folio 488, opening the left-hand column under the running head and ending in the right-hand column where the heading of ley xxxv begins. Its rubric is \"Que el oro, y plata en pasta, joyas, y piezas, se marquen en la forma de esta ley\" and its margin reads \"D. Felipe II en el Pardo á 8 de Julio de 1578. Y á 30 de Octubre de 1584.\" Both boundaries were read on this one leaf.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The law opens by naming what it taxes, and the list is a household inventory rather than a fiscal category. The fifth is owed on all silver and gold worked anywhere in the Indies into \"qualesquier vasijas, aparadores, recámaras, arcas, escritorios, braseros, ó piezas\" kept \"para el servicio, autoridad, y ornato de las casas\", and equally on \"los aderezos, y guarniciones de Imágenes, Retablos, Pinturas, Oratorios, joyas, collares, cinturas, cadenas, medallas, alxorcas, botones, puntas, sortijas, y otros géneros, ó especies de labores\". A devotional frame and a woman's bracelet are inside the same clause as a brazier.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "The duty falls on the customer, not the craftsman, and it falls before any work is done. Everyone who gives gold or silver out to be made up is obliged to bring the bullion — \"la pasta de oro, y plata de que se hubieren de hacer, y labrar\" — before the royal officials of that district, or the nearest ones if the district has none, who are to see whether it is already quinted and marked with the marks it should carry.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "What the officials then do is an entry in a dedicated register. If the bullion carries its marks they weigh it and \"asienten, y registren en el libro particular, que han de tener para este efecto\", recording the quantity and the pieces, jewels and other things \"que el Registrador declarare, y tuviere voluntad de hacer, y por mano de que Platero\". The record therefore binds a weight of metal, a declared intention and a named silversmith together before the work begins; the law's own word for the customer is Registrador, the person who registers.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The metal is returned with paperwork and against an undertaking with a deadline. The officials give it back \"con certificacion, y testimonio del asiento, y registro\", and the Registrador binds himself to bring the finished pieces back for registration \"dentro del término que pareciere bastante para labrar las piezas\" — a term the law does not fix in days but leaves to be judged piece by piece.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "The second registration is a weight check, and it is the mechanism by which the law catches metal that never paid. The finished pieces are brought back so that \"se compruebe su peso con el de la pasta registrada\" — the worked object weighed against the bullion booked for it — and only then do the officials put on each piece \"una señal, ó marca pequeña, qual les pareciere\". The mark is a fiscal receipt applied to the object itself, and the law leaves its design to the local officials rather than prescribing one.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Without that mark the object is unusable in law, and the prohibition reaches possession, use and manufacture in the same breath: \"sin la qual no las puedan tener, ni servirse de ellas, ni labrarlas ningun Platero, sin haber precedido esta diligencia\". A silversmith may not work the metal unless the registration is shown to him by the officials' own testimonio and the fifth is shown to be paid, so the law makes the craftsman an inspector of his customer's tax position.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "The penalty is joint and several, and its first tier is the full value of the piece rather than the duty evaded on it: \"pena de pagar el valor por entero la primera vez los dueños, y Platero, con obligacion in solidum\". In solidum means the treasury may collect the whole sum from either of them. A second offence carries the penalty that falls on \"los que defraudan nuestros quintos Reales\", which this law does not restate, referring instead to what is \"proveido, y ordenado\" elsewhere.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c9",
      "text": "The cost of this procedure falls where the law does not say it falls. Every commission of plate requires two journeys to the royal officials, two weighings and two book entries, and the law provides for no fee, no exemption for small pieces and no shorter route for a household far from a treasury — the only concession is that where there are no officials in the district the nearest ones will do. A law that requires a round trip to a royal office before and after every piece of silverwork is a heavier burden on a remote customer than on a capital one, and nothing in the text acknowledges the difference.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.8
    },
    {
      "id": "c10",
      "text": "The motive the law gives for all of it is stated plainly and is not disguised as consumer protection: the procedure exists \"para que no se defraude, y conste si está pagado\". The mark is not a guarantee of fineness to a buyer: the law never mentions the ley or fineness of the metal, only whether the fifth is paid, and it leaves the design of the mark to the local officials. The two kinds of mark a piece of Spanish American silver could carry had different purposes, and this law supplies only the fiscal one.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c11",
      "text": "What this entry does not establish. It reads one law of one título in one impression and says nothing about enforcement: whether any owner or silversmith in the Indies was made to pay the full value in solidum, how many treasuries actually kept the libro particular, what the small marks looked like, or how American silverwork was marked in practice across two centuries. The related prohibition on keeping unquinted plate and jewels at home, and the forfeiture of a silversmith's whole estate for taking in unmarked metal, stand in leyes xxxxvij and xxxxviij of this same título and are held by a separate entry in this corpus, which is where that penalty and this one should be read together. Nothing here was collated against the 1681 first impression, which this corpus also holds.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-viii-titulo-x-marca-de-la-plata-labrada"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": true,
  "winning_edge": "Accounts of colonial Spanish American silver that discuss marks almost always discuss the assay and town marks that collectors use to attribute a piece, and treat the royal fifth as something settled at the smelting house before the metal reached a workshop. The law printed here shows a different and earlier mechanism: a double registration in a dedicated royal book, before and after the work, with the bullion weighed against the finished object and a small fiscal mark struck on each piece, the customer named in the record as Registrador and the silversmith named in advance. Reading ley xxxiiij from the leaf also puts on record what the procedure cost the householder — two journeys, two weighings, no exemption for small work and no fee schedule — and the in-solidum liability that makes a silversmith answerable for his customer's tax, neither of which is visible in summaries that describe the quinto as a mining levy.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-10-20",
  "media": [],
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    "name": "The bullion had to be booked before the silversmith could touch it: ley xxxiiij of the quintos reales título, which registers American gold and silver twice and marks every finished piece",
    "description": "Ley xxxiiij of libro VIII, título X of the Recopilación taxes wrought gold and silver in the Indies and builds a procedure to make the tax visible in the object. The bullion is weighed and entered in a royal book before work begins, with the silversmith named; the finished pieces come back to be weighed against it and stamped with a small mark; and owner and silversmith are liable in solidum for the whole value if a piece is held without it. Folio 488.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/marca-y-registro-de-la-plata-labrada-en-las-indias",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-10-20",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, libro VIII título X \"DE LOS QUINTOS REALES\" — ley xxxiiij alone, from its heading at the head of the left-hand column of the printed folio 488 to the end of its text in the right-hand column of the same folio, where the heading of ley xxxv stands below it. Rubric \"Ley xxxiiij. Que el oro, y plata en pasta, joyas, y piezas, se marquen en la forma de esta ley.\"; margin \"D. Felipe II en el Pardo á 8 de Julio de 1578. Y á 30 de Octubre de 1584.\"; whose text reads \"MANDAMOS que de toda la plata, y oro, que se labrare en qualquier parte de nuestras Indias, de que se hicieren qualesquier vasijas, aparadores, recámaras, arcas, escritorios, braseros, ó piezas, de qualesquier género, calidad, y suerte que se acostumbra tener para el servicio, autoridad, y ornato de las casas, ú otro fin: y asimismo los aderezos, y guarniciones de Imágenes, Retablos, Pinturas, Oratorios, joyas, collares, cinturas, cadenas, medallas, alxorcas, botones, puntas, sortijas, y otros géneros, ó especies de labores, fabricadas de oro, y plata, se nos haya de pagar el quinto. Y para que no se defraude, y conste si está pagado, ordenamos que todas las personas que dieren á hacer, y labrar las piezas susodichas, ó algunas de ellas, ó de otra forma, sean obligados á llevar, y lleven á presentar ante nuestros Oficiales Reales de aquel distrito, y si no los hubiere, ante los mas cercanos, la pasta de oro, y plata de que se hubieren de hacer, y labrar, los quales vean si está quintada, y marcada con las señales que debe tener, y si las tuvieren, la pesen, asienten, y registren en el libro particular, que han de tener para este efecto, expresando la cantidad que es, y las piezas, joyas, y otras cosas, que el Registrador declarare, y tuviere voluntad de hacer, y por mano de que Platero, y con esto se la vuelvan, con certificacion, y testimonio del asiento, y registro, obligándose el Registrador á que dentro del término que pareciere bastante para labrar las piezas, las llevará á registrar ante los nuestros Oficiales, para que se compruebe su peso con el de la pasta registrada, y pongan una señal, ó marca pequeña, qual les pareciere, en cada pieza, que harán para este efecto: y puesta la marca, se vuelvan á las partes, sin la qual no las puedan tener, ni servirse de ellas, ni labrarlas ningun Platero, sin haber precedido esta diligencia, y constarles por el testimonio de nuestros Oficiales haberse registrado ante ellos, y estar pagado el quinto, pena de pagar el valor por entero la primera vez los dueños, y Platero, con obligacion in solidum: y la segunda de incurrir, en la que tienen los que defraudan nuestros quintos Reales, aplicado todo, como está proveido, y ordenado.\"",
        "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=Lt41mzCz8zEC&pg=PA488"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "The bullion had to be booked before the silversmith could touch it: ley xxxiiij of the quintos reales título, which registers American gold and silver twice and marks every finished piece"
  }
}