“With an Open Sore to Irrigate the whole Land”: Financing, Credit and Indebtedness of the House of Medina Sidonia (1536-1648)

This article analyzes the indebtedness process suffered by the Lordly House of Medina Sidonia. We will pay special attention to the mechanisms that produced such a result, some of them protected by positive law –censos with royal license– and some not. According to this case study, not all the forms of indebtedness were equivalent, nor did respond to the same parameters and origins. In the conclusions, we offer an attempt of classification of the different procedures of indebtedness based on the deep causes and the apparent justifications. We also pay attention to the diverse seigneurial response to the financial problems