Solidarity or Fiscal Rapacity? : The Interplay between Food Supply Policy and Taxation in Valencia during the 1350s-1360s.

Abstract

This paper examines the interplay between tax policy and food supply regulation in Valencia during the 1350s–1360s, a decade marked by fiscal restructuring and war. It argues that the city’s grain subsidy program—ostensibly aimed at ensuring affordable access to food and preserving social peace—was primarily designed to expand the city council’s fiscal capacity. Drawing on archival sources, the study highlights how indirect taxation and provisioning policies were interwoven into a coherent yet contradictory system. The findings reveal how war, debt, and governance shaped a framework that would endure for centuries, benefitting urban elites under the guise of public welfare.