Population, wealth and power: the moorish and the Kingdom of Granada

Abstract

One of the most important axioms of mercantilism is that population is power. But the monarchy of Philip II considers that it is only power when the subjects are loyal to the catholic faith. From that we can deduce the planning of the integration of the moorish population and their expulsion afterwards. After their distribution among the territories of the crown of Castile arosed the question of the population void —the crown tries to cover it up throught the repopulation— and the descent of the royal revenue, an extremely serious matter. Everyone knew that Granada was mainly a border territory and that it would not be able to self-financing its defence, simply because it did not have the necessary resources.