The Cash flow on a monastic economy. An Oseira Abbey's Community Ark Study (1614-1698)

Abstract

In the line of the recent investigations developed about monasteries in Spain, this work tries to
reconstruct the origin and application of the cash flow generated by the economic activity at the Monastery of “Santa María la Real de Oseira” (Ourense, Spain) throughout century XVII, beginning with the monetary annotations appearing in the Abbey´s book of states. The periodic information provided by this documentary series on the composition and quantity of the Community´s Ark, allows us to draw conclusions of the liquidity generated by this religious institution and also on the different kinds of currency used by the monks to palliate the frequent coercive disturbances of its value that knocked down the Castilian economy at that time. In addition, the data analysis allows us to study the evolution of the “reach” of currency and its mandatory removal (cash, charge rights and obligations of payment), completing an historical vision of monastery´s economic position from the financial perspective that is derived from its cash flow. This article concludes with some reflections and a results´ summary. These results show us that the information provided by the book of states allows the surrender of accounts in the “Capítulo General”, and the decisions making relative to the contributing obligations
from the Congregation: distribution of the “repartimentos” and control of the management of the “Media Anata”.