In 1836, then Spanish Prime Minister Juan Alvarez Mendizabal unleashed his decree that targeted the privatization of lands owned by religious orders with the aim of winning the ongoing Carlist War and improving agricultural production as well as overall economic situation.
DECREE OF DISENTAILMENT OF THE REGULAR CLERGY
(1836)
Her Majesty the Queen, her August Mother and Governing Queen, and the Infanta María Luisa Fernanda, continue without change in her valued good health in the Royal Palace of El Pardo…
Madam:
Selling the properties that have passed to the hands of the State not only fulfills a solemn promise and gives positive assurance to the national debt through a repayment exactly equal to the product of the income, but it also opens an abundant source of public happiness; reviving a dead wealth; unblocking the channels of industry and circulation; connecting the country through the natural and vehement love for what is ours; engaging the nation; creating new and strong ties that unify it; basically, identifying with the exalted throne of Isabel II, a symbol of order and freedom.
It is not, Madam, a cold commercial speculation or a mere credit operation, although this is the lever that moves and balances the nations of Europe in our time: it is an element of animation, of life and fortune for Spain. It is, if I may explain myself in this way, the complement of her political resurrection. (…) So that the most ingenious suspicions do not feed any qualms, where there is only a healthy intention, it is initially declared that all goods are for sale. (…)
Another measure of incalculable importance is that which sets on recommending the division of large estates, to reduce them to lots that are available to the honest and industrious citizens who are the strength and hope of the motherland. Without this system and without the commitment to execute it, the primary purpose of these sales would be distressingly disappointed, which, as I have mentioned to Her Majesty, is to create new ties that bind men to the homeland and its institutions.
Royal Decree
Given the need and desirability of reducing the consolidated public debt, and delivering the mass of real estate which have become the property of the nation, to private owners, so that agriculture and trade get from such properties the benefits that could not be achieved entirely in its current state, or that would be delayed at the expense of national wealth, for as long as the properties are not put for sale, let it be known that:
Art. 1. All real estate of any kind which had belonged to extinct religious corporations is declared on sale as of now, and other properties that were awarded to the nation by any title or for any reason, and also all those that will be awarded since the act of adjudication.
Art. 2. Exceptions to this measure are the government buildings intended for public service or to preserve monuments of the arts, or to honor the memory of national feats. (…)
Art. 3. Regulations on how to proceed with the sale of these assets shall be devised, maintaining, insofar as convenient and adaptable to current circumstances those regulations decreed by the courts in September 3, 1820 and adding the necessary rules for the implementation of the following measures:
1st: The auction shall be verified not only in the capital of the province where the farms or real estate would be based, but also in this court, within exactly one day. (…)
2nd: The official newsletters of the provinces, or a special print, shall be published the next day after the conclusion of the auctions (…) bidders’ names will be omitted in these publications, circumstantially expressing the amount of the highest bid.
3rd: Within ten days of receipt by the court of the results of the auctions carried out in the provinces, the name of the bidder shall be published, who by offering the highest price for the property should be declared its buyer.
4th: All rural property subject to division, without reducing its value, or without serious obstacles to a prompt sale, shall be distributed among the largest number of parties as possible. (…)
6th: To make these divisions, which must include careful consideration of all circumstances that could lead to facilitating their sale, a committee of farmers and people of good knowledge in farming shall be appointed by the respective council, to designate land that can be divided by each village’s jurisdiction.
7th: Once the division is made, it shall be published in the corresponding village and it shall be forwarded by the president of the town’s council to the head of the province, who shall order the publication in its capital. (…)
Art. 4. Any Spanish or foreigner shall have power to order in writing to the governor of the province an appraisal of the farm or farms among those which have not yet been appraised or included in the published lists so that they can proceed to the auction. (…)
Art. 7. Fifteen days after publication of the price of the appraisal, at the latest, the sale of the designated farm or farms shall be announced, following the same rules laid down for the disposal of any other property of this class. (…)
Art. 10. Payment of the auction price shall be in one of two ways: consolidated debt securities or cash.
Art. 11. The consolidated debt securities which shall be delivered as payment of the amount of the auction, will be accepted at their full face value, but on condition that the required payment is made and executed under these terms: one third in already consolidated debt securities at 5 percent interest; another third in already consolidated debt securities at 4 percent interest; and the remainder in debt securities that will be consolidated again at 5 percent. (…)
Art. 17. The heirs of estate buyers shall be subrogated to the heirs for the fulfillment of all obligations pending payment of installments, until the total amount of the price for which the properties were auctioned is paid. (…)
Art. 20. Every month a statement of the verified sales paid in cash during the previous month shall be published and the amounts received pursuant to the fifth part to be satisfied before the formalization of the deed. The product shall be invested by third parties in the purchasing, through exchange agents in this capital of the kingdom, of debt titles consolidated at 4 and 5 percent and debt securities without interest, which, having been liquidated and recognized would have not been subject to consolidation, and which are amortized by publicly destroying them and announcing them in the Gazette and the number and value of the securities redeemed in this way.
See also:
Source:
Morcillo, Aurora et. al. The Modern Spain Sourcebook: A Cultural History From 1600 to the Present. New York, New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
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