Nobility And Venality: The Ecclesiastic Market of Sale of Nobility Titles in the XVIIIth Century

Abstract

During the XVIIIth century nobility titles were granted by means of very diverse routes. The sale of these honors through religious institutions was one of the most used procedures during the century. The distinctions that were sold in this ecclesiastic market were granted by the king, who, unable to face up to the maintenance of these institutions, delivered one o more nobility titles in order to get some money weth the sale to pay the needed expenses. This mechanism of obtaining the honor by means of the payment of a certain quantity of money, prevented the social control of the Crown on the new acquirers and provoked the alteration of the established hierarchy. The religious institutions to sell his “goods” used of “agents” specializing in the bureaucracy of the Court, which were searching clients with the sufficient capital to realize the buy. The majority of those who were titled came from The Indies, though there were also peninsular merchants and members of the urban oligarchy who invested in his own social promotion