Alcabala de las Indias
The sales tax of Spanish America. An old Castilian levy extended to the Indies from 1574 in New Spain and 1592 in Peru at two per cent, its proceeds consigned to the maritime armadas. Codified in Recopilación libro VIII, título 13, it taxed merchants and encomenderos alike — but exempted, in the crown's own words, the Indians ("por ahora no la han de pagar"), staple grain sold in the markets and alhóndigas, and food sold retail for the poor.
Why this wins its question: The alcabala turns up in English surveys as a one-line "sales tax of two to six per cent" with no text and no nuance, usually as evidence of extraction. Título 13 is quoted here from the 1791 Ibarra impression opened folio by folio, and it is more specific and more double-edged than the summaries: the 1558 junta and the 1574/1592 start dates in the crown's own account, the two per cent rate, the suspension in Peru "to favour its settlement", the proceeds assigned to the war fleets — and, given equal weight, the exemptions that a purely extractive reading omits: the Indians "por ahora", the maize and grain of the public markets, the food sold retail for the poor, alongside the ley that still charged the encomendero the alcabala on the tribute he resold. It lets a reader see how a colonial tax was actually graduated, rather than taking the round number on trust.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
The tax and its history are set out in the código itself. Recopilación libro VIII, título 13 (De las Alcabalas), ley j — Philip II, El Pardo, 1 November 1591, cap. 2 del Arancel de Alcabalas — states that "la alcabala de lo que se vende, y compra universalmente por todos, es un derecho tan antiguo, y justificado de los Reyes de Castilla", due in the Indies "desde el tiempo que se hizo la incorporacion"; that a Junta convened by Philip II in 1558 resolved to levy it and charged the viceroys of Peru and New Spain; that collection began in 1574 but was suspended in Peru "por favorecer mas su poblacion, y vecinos"; and that as necessities grew "no fué posible dexar de valerse de este miembro de renta, principalmente para conservacion, y sustento de las Armas maritimas", the levy continuing from 1592.
The rate in New Spain was two per cent. Ley xv — Philip III, Madrid, 28 January 1609 — opens "Aunque está ordenado, que en la Nueva España se paguen las alcabalas á razon de dos por ciento en dinero de contado", and because sellers were paying in unworked silver "en que nuestra hacienda es damnificada", orders that the alcabalas be collected "en reales, y no en plata en pasta, sin labrar, en todas las Indias".
The Indians were exempt. Ley xxxiij — Philip II, El Pardo, 1 November 1591, cap. 1 del Arancel — orders that those who administer the tax draw up a nómina of "todos los vecinos, estantes, y habitantes en cada Pueblo... Españoles, Mestizos, Mulatos, y Negros libres; y de los Clérigos", of whom it is understood the alcabala may be incurred, "excepto de los Indios, que por ahora no la han de pagar" — the exemption is on the record, and so is the provisional "por ahora" it was granted under.
Staple food and the provisions of the poor were exempt. Ley xviiij — cap. 5 del Arancel — rules that of "el maiz, granos, y semillas, que se vendieren en los mercados, y alhondigas para provision de los Pueblos, no se ha de pagar alcabala, ni de los mantenimientos que se vendieren por menudo en los Lugares, y Plazas para provision de la gente pobre, y caminantes"; and ley xx exempts "pan cocido", horses, coined money, books in Latin or romance whether bound or loose, "impresos de molde, ni de los escritos de mano", and falconry birds.
The clergy's exemption was narrow. Ley xvij — Philip II, del Arancel cap. 1 — exempts churches, monasteries, prelates and clergy on the sale of their own goods and their barters, "pero si compraren ó vendieren qualesquier cosas por trato de mercadería, ó por via de negociacion... han de pagar alcabala, como si fuesen legos", and declares that clérigos de corona, those in minor orders, and the married are not exempt but "han de pagar alcabala como los legos".
The lower rate and the Indian exemption sat beside a levy that reached into the tribute economy. Ley iij of the título declares that although encomenderos may not compel their Indians to commute tribute maize and goods into money, when the encomendero then sells what he received "nos debe el alcabala el Encomendero, porque realmente es vendedor". The tax the Indians did not pay was still owed on the produce they handed over as tribute the moment their encomendero sold it, and the exemption itself was a "por ahora" merced the same título records the crown as pressed to keep — the burden was moderated and displaced, not absent.