SPANISH CONFISCATION: GODOY, MENDIZÁBAL AND MADOZ - HISTORY - 2025

The Spanish confiscation was a process that began at the end of the 18th century, with a small previous antecedent, and that lasted until the second decade of the 20th century. Through the confiscation, lands that generally belonged to the so-called “dead hands” were expropriated; that is, the clergy and religious orders.

The term "dead hand" meant that these lands were not cultivated, since they belonged to God and should not be destined for that purpose. In any case, the confiscations also affected communal lands of the municipalities.

After being expropriated, these lands went to public auction, in order to return to the market. The objective was to clean up the great debt that the State always maintained, although the results were not as expected.

Other reasons that led to these confiscations were the attempt to change the social structure of the time, creating a bourgeoisie of owners. On the political level, the liberals used them to end the property concept of the old regime, trying to arrive at a more advanced system.

Although there were quite a few confiscation procedures, the three main ones were Godoy's, Mendizábal's and Madoz's.

Background

Ecclesiastical wealth and poverty of the State

The historical evolution of the West had made the Church one of the main landowners in all of Europe. Since Charlemagne, he had taken advantage of donations from the people and the nobles.

However, the states had not accumulated so much wealth. Specifically, the Spanish Treasury was almost constantly bankrupt. Bad foreign policy, full of wars, made it have to finance itself by borrowing, since taxes were not enough to cover expenses.

For this reason, already in the time of the Habsburgs, the Crown was fixed in the privileges that the Church had. There was some small attempt to dispose of some properties, especially those of the Military Orders, but on a very small scale.

Illustrated and Carlos III

With the advent of the eighteenth century, the ideas of the Enlightenment joined the already existing drive to disentail. Thinkers like Jovellanos affirmed that their agriculture was considerably less developed than in the rest of Europe, as well as commerce, private initiative and other areas.

The coming to power of Carlos III, a king who shared some of the principles of the enlightened, brought with it some disentailment laws. It was the well-known Mutiny of Esquilache that caused some municipal lands to be rented to needy families. At first it occurred only in some areas of the peninsula, but in 1768 the average spread to the entire country.

Although it was not a proper confiscation, since the lands were rented while maintaining municipal ownership, it can be considered a precedent. Three years later, the regulations that regulated this measure were repealed.

Godoy confiscation

It took until 1798 for the first real confiscation to take place in Spain. It is known as the confiscation of Godoy, valid for King Carlos IV, although Manuel Godoy had really lost power before it took place.

In this way, it was his substitute, Mariano Luis de Urquijo, who promoted and developed this economic and political movement.

At that time the Spanish Treasury was at an even worse time than usual. The recent warlike conflict that he had experienced when facing France during the Convention War, as well as the subsequent confrontation with Great Britain, caused the deficit and debt to reach unbearable figures.

In addition, the British cut off communications with America, preventing the Spanish from receiving the precious metals and the taxes they obtained there.

In this way, the idea of ​​carrying out a confiscation was imposed to try to clean up the accounts. The objective was the assets of the Colegio Mayores, those of the Jesuits and those of the charitable institutions of the Church.

Orders

The confiscation of Godoy was based on three royal orders that regulated it. They were promulgated on September 25, 1798 and each one detailed what assets had to be expropriated and the steps to be taken.

In the first, it was ordered that what was collected from the Residence Halls was compensated with 3% of what was obtained from its sale.

The second referred to the assets of the Jesuits. These had been expelled a few years before, so what they confiscated was what had remained in their possession after that event. Everything was incorporated into the Royal Treasury.

The last of the three laws detailed the assets to be confiscated belonging to the charitable institutions of the Church. Among these are houses of mercy, foundling houses or pious works. In return, the Church received an annual rent equivalent to 3% of the value of the expropriated.

Outcome

The calculations of the experts affirm that about one sixth of what the Church owned at the time was liquidated through this confiscation.

One of the effects of it was the disappearance of the entire charitable network that, at that time, the Church had. This, at a time when the State did not take care of the most disadvantaged, caused serious social problems.

As for the economic, the rent promised as compensation for the expropriations stopped being paid in a few years. Furthermore, it did not solve the Spanish economic problems. At the beginning of the 19th century, the difference between income and expenses was 400 million in favor of the latter.

In 1811, despite attempts to reduce it, the accumulated debt rose to 7 billion reais.

Confiscation of

The death of Ferdinand VII in 1833 added further upheaval to the history of Spain. The monarch had had to repeal the Salic Law to allow his daughter Isabel to rise to the throne, which caused supporters of the infant Carlos to present strong opposition.

As Isabel was only 3 years old, her mother had to occupy the regency. The economic situation was almost bankrupt and he appointed Juan Álvarez de Mendizábal as Prime Minister, who had to face the first military uprising of the Carlists, supported by the Church, which aggravated the situation.

To try to alleviate the economic ruin, Mendizábal implemented a much more radical confiscation than the previous ones.

Development

Between the years 1835 and 1836, the Mendizábal government issued several decrees to confiscate ecclesiastical assets. In this way, all the convents in which there were no more than 12 members were suppressed.

The same was done with many religious orders. On this occasion, those who were dedicated to teaching the poor or healing were taken into account and exempted.

The fact that the Church had positioned itself against the future Queen Elizabeth and in favor of Carlos, was not unrelated to the large number of lands and possessions that were alienated from it.

The assets obtained were sold at public auction and the proceeds were used to alleviate the debt contracted by the State. However, this could not be paid in full and, in addition, the conflicts in which Spain was involved did not stop happening.

Outcome

Despite the extent of this confiscation, the actual results were hampered by corruption among those in charge of managing it.

An example was how, when dividing the lots to auction them, they did it in such a way that their price was very high. This meant that only great fortunes could buy them.

In this way, a very powerful landowning class was created, generally nobles or wealthy bourgeois.

On the other hand, the Church proceeded to excommunicate the expropriators and buyers of the land. In such a believing society, many gave up the attempt to acquire them or, when they dared, did so through intermediaries.

Confiscation of Madoz

From that of Mendizábal to the confiscation of Madoz, only Espartero carried out a small similar measure.

It was not until the progressives came to power when many assets were confiscated again. In 1855 the Minister of Finance was the Navarrese Pascual Madoz Ibáñez who, as usual, found the public coffers empty.

That was the reason that led Madoz to proclaim a law that declared for sale all rural and urban land belonging to the State and the clergy. Likewise, the confiscation also affected military orders such as that of Santiago, Calatrava or Montesa.

Finally, the Obras Pías and, in general, everything belonging to the “dead hands” also went on sale.

Outcome

The importance of this confiscation, both in sales and in volume, was much higher than the previous ones. However, it is much less known than that of Mendizábal.

Furthermore, this process was intended to change the form of ownership of Spanish society. Although it was thought that it would benefit the more popular classes, the real result was not that. In fact, many municipalities, given the sale of municipal land, were left impoverished and without resources to serve their neighbors.

References

1. Otero, Nacho. What was the Mendizábal Confiscation ?. Obtained from muyhistoria.es
2. Ródenas, Luís Antonio. The Ecclesiastical Confiscation in Spain. Recovered from gibralfaro.uma.es
3. Martí Gilabert, Francisco. The Spanish confiscation. Recovered from books.google.es
4. Barton, Simon. A History of Spain. Recovered from books.google.es
5. Wikivividly. Spanish confiscation. Retrieved from wikivividly.com
6. Vidal Crespo, Alejandro. The Liberal Movement in Spain: From the Constitution of Cadiz to the broadsword of Pavia. Recovered from bancamarch.es
7. TheBiography. Biography of Pascual Madoz and Ibáñez. Retrieved from thebiography.us