Catastro of Ensenada

It included population, territorial properties, buildings, cattle, offices, all kinds of revenue and trades, and even geographical informations from each place.

[1] The general answers of each place to the 40 questions of the Catastro produced a huge volume of documentation that affords historians an opportunity to analyze the economy, the society, the practices of the señorío system (manorialism) and environmental data from 18th-century Spain.

The Catastro originated in a proposal for a single tax (única contribución), studied by 16 members of the Council of Castile, the Hacienda (Treasury), the Indies (America), the Military Orders, five intendentes (first provincial authorities) and the head of the Barcelona Court.

The reform of the Rentas Provinciales (a complex and heterogeneous mixture of revenues including all sorts of taxes, such as the alcabalas, tithes, millones, cientos, tercias reales, etc.)

The French revolted against a similar tax system, while Spain made that change silently (the only disturbances were the easily calmed Esquilache Riots of 1766, and those were only tenuously connected with other reformist episodes), because the two countries were in unequal states of transition from feudalism to capitalism.