Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2010
This article studies the Spanish Tax on Consuptions during the second half of the 19th century. It focuses on three issues: a), its significance within the funding of local governments; b), its importance to explain the protests against taxation in the 19th century; and c), its incidence. Our hypothesis is that the mutinies against this tax constituted one of the recurring practices of the resistances against taxation in the 19th century, but not the most important, represented by the tax defraudation. It is also indicated that the Tax on Consumptions was not only a tax on expenditure, and was in part transferred to agriculture. We provide some data that question the exclusively urban character that has been usually attributed to this tax.
Este artículo estudia el impuesto de Consumos español durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Se fija en tres aspectos del mismo: a), su peso en la financiación de las haciendas locales; b), su importancia en la protesta antifiscal del siglo XIX; y c), su incidencia. Aquí se mantiene la hipótesis de que los motines anticonsumos constituyeron una de las fórmulas recurrentes de la resistencia antifiscal del siglo XIX, pero no la más importante. Ese protagonismo le corresponde al fraude. Se sostiene asimismo que el de Consumos no fue sólo un impuesto sobre el gasto y que en parte se trasladó a la agricultura. Se aportan datos que hacen al menos dudar del carácter exclusivamente urbano que normalmente se le ha atribuido.