ABSTRACT

The scarcity of free labourers after the Christian conquests of the Balearic Islands increased the demand for captives. It is assumed that most slaves lived out their lives in captivity, but a significant number of them were in statu libertatis through the so-called contracts of talla or alforria. Historians have often regarded this change of status as an improvement in the captives’ lives, a step closer to freedom; here it is argued that this status was but a different type of subjugation. Captives were made to pay weekly instalments towards the price which their freedom was estimated to be worth. Were they to default, they would revert to fully enslaved status, and this led to the emergence of a contingent of half-free workers. The present study analyses the contracts of talla granted especially in thirteenth-century Mallorca and shows evidence of the contemporary wider spread of this system in Castile.

摘要

基督教征服巴利阿里群岛后，自由劳工的稀缺增加了对俘虏的需求。据推测，大多数奴隶在囚禁生活，他们的生活，但他们的显著数量分别在statu libertatis通过的所谓合同TALLA或alforria. 历史学家常常将这种地位的变化视为俘虏生活的改善，更接近自由；这里有人认为，这种状态只是一种不同类型的征服。俘虏被要求按其自由估计价值的价格每周分期付款。如果他们违约，他们将恢复到完全被奴役的状态，这导致了一支半自由的工人队伍的出现。本研究分析了特别是在 13 世纪马略卡岛授予的塔拉合同，并展示了这一制度在卡斯蒂利亚当代更广泛传播的证据。