Reyes, acredores y conversos: El impacto de la política real y de la deuda corporativa en la identidad colectiva de los conversos de Malorca después de 1391

Abstract

Royal correspondence of the Kingdom of Majorca reveals that "external" economic factors and royal policies forced the first generations of 1391 conversos to remain a distinct social group. Not long after the anti-Jewish violence and mass conversions of 1391, the conversos of Majorca granted a percentage of their assets to King Joan I. At the same time, the conversos and surviving Jews had to repay the creditors of the former aljama, which had been dissolved following the attack against the Jewish quarter. These two collective financial obligations required the conversos to organize themselves as a group, following the precedent of the aljama, with elected leaders who organized an internal tax collection in order to pay these debts, and who lobbied on behalf of the conversos before the king and before their creditors. This administrative structure set the foundation for the converso confraternity of Sant Miquel, founded in 1404.