Taxation
- Public Finances
Although at the start of the population process the Donataries concentrated, along with the other powers, on the ability to launch taxes, at a stage when there was virtually nothing to collect, this prerogative was soon limited. In 1466 the first royal tax appeared, obliging moradores-armadores (resident - ship fitters) to return a quarter of the merchandise imported from Guinea to the Crown, and exempting them for the rest of their trade. In 1495, when Don Manuel, the Duke of Beja, became king of Portugal, the captains donatary became directly dependent, also in terms of contributions. As it was necessary to subsidise the judicial, fiscal and military apparatus, in 1507 the monarch himself decreed that the quarter of merchandise from Guinea should be increased by a fifth, with the relevant tax rising from 25% to 28,75%, while European merchandise was to be taxed at 10% and a dízimo da terra (land tithe) was applied to agricultural production. The lessors that joined the armadores (ship fitters) in trading with ships were taxed in the same way.
On the islands apart from Santiago and Fogo, where economic activity consisted of extensive cattle rearing, taxing by the donataries varied from 32.8% in Santo Antão, to 32,5% in Maio and on Boa Vista, and 10% in São Vicente and São Nicolau.
The reality of taxation was, however, quite different from these rules, and taxes were only charged for limited periods, such as the golden age of commerce in Ribeira Grande and in the cities of Praia and S. Filipe, due to the difficulty the authorities had in putting the relevant laws into practice, and due to the dispersal of the islands and the ports for extraction or receipt of taxable goods.
Although at the start of the population process the Donataries concentrated, along with the other powers, on the ability to launch taxes, at a stage when there was virtually nothing to collect, this prerogative was soon limited. In 1466 the first royal tax appeared, obliging moradores-armadores (resident - ship fitters) to return a quarter of the merchandise imported from Guinea to the Crown, and exempting them for the rest of their trade. In 1495, when Don Manuel, the Duke of Beja, became king of Portugal, the captains donatary became directly dependent, also in terms of contributions. As it was necessary to subsidise the judicial, fiscal and military apparatus, in 1507 the monarch himself decreed that the quarter of merchandise from Guinea should be increased by a fifth, with the relevant tax rising from 25% to 28,75%, while European merchandise was to be taxed at 10% and a dízimo da terra (land tithe) was applied to agricultural production. The lessors that joined the armadores (ship fitters) in trading with ships were taxed in the same way.
On the islands apart from Santiago and Fogo, where economic activity consisted of extensive cattle rearing, taxing by the donataries varied from 32.8% in Santo Antão, to 32,5% in Maio and on Boa Vista, and 10% in São Vicente and São Nicolau.
The reality of taxation was, however, quite different from these rules, and taxes were only charged for limited periods, such as the golden age of commerce in Ribeira Grande and in the cities of Praia and S. Filipe, due to the difficulty the authorities had in putting the relevant laws into practice, and due to the dispersal of the islands and the ports for extraction or receipt of taxable goods.
