«Car més val contendre ab la quartana que ab flaquea». Conflictividad marítima en tiempos de carestía en la Corona de Aragón a principios del siglo XV

Throughout the Late Middle Ages, the cities of the Crown of Aragon obtained by the sovereign several resources to stock up on cereals and especially wheat. One of these was the royal grant generally known as Vi vel gratia, that allowed them to seize shipments of foreign victuals in cases of extreme need. That privilege, applied to maritime transport of grain, involved the authorization of practices previously considered as piratical, now protected by provisions of the King applied only in times of famine. Even so, such activities were the basis of conflicts, especially between the maritime cities of the Crown.This article analyzes the use of this royal grant by the great coastal cities of the Crown of Aragon –notably Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca– in order to ensure their own supply by sea, particularly during dearth. The strategy deployed to this effect is, in fact, a form of institutionalized violence, legally sustained thanks to the support of the Aragonese kings from the first third of the fourteenth century. As can be seen, the objective that legitimated this type of action carried out by the cities was, ultimately, the need to ensure the supply of consumer goods –and especially wheat– to the population. However, it is difficult to think that the adoption of this type of measures would respond exclusively to the solidarity of the agents of the local power. Rather, we are dealing with coercive formulas used by urban elites to safeguard their interests in a context of conflict, such as the Mediterranean world, during the two last centuries of the Middle Ages. Likewise, the use of these strategies by the urban powers, supported by the officers of the king, became a cause of conflicts between the authorities of Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca. A lo largo de la Baja Edad Media, las ciudades de la Corona de Aragón obtuvieron de los soberanos varios recursos para abastecerse de cereales y, en especial, de trigo. Uno de ellos fue la concesión real generalmente conocida como Vi vel gratia, la cual les permitía apoderarse de los cargamentos de vituallas ajenas en casos de necesidad extrema. Dicho privilegio, aplicado al transporte marítimo de cereales, supuso la autorización de prácticas anteriormente consideradas como piráticas, ahora amparadas por disposiciones reales circunscritas a las épocas de carestía. Aun así, tales actividades fueron la base de conflictos, especialmente entre las ciudades marítimas de la Corona