Communities of chartered regime

This provision established a protection and respect for the historical rights of the territories that had fueros, "charters", "privileges" or "jurisdictions", which were to be "updated" within the framework of the constitution.

The competences of the fueros at one point in time included the right to establish custom controls, have their own militias as well as some governing institutions, and to manage their civic and fiscal affairs, but these were progressively reduced or completely eliminated — as was the case for the former constituent kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon.

Nonetheless, only two years after, by the end of the First Carlist War, the law of 25 October 1839, again recognized the validity of their fueros, even though the government retained the right to modify them if necessary in the nation's interest.

Finally, the law of 21 July 1876, during the time known in Spanish history as the Restoration, abolished the fueros of the Basque provinces while, paradoxically, keeping the fiscal autonomy of the territories in the form of a concierto económico, "economic treaty".

This system was abolished in Gipuzkoa and Biscay during the Spanish Civil War, through the decree-law of 23 July 1937, as a "punishment" for taking up arms against the National Movement, the insurrection that led to the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco.

[3] During Spanish transition to democracy, the recognition of these fueros was one of the hardest to reach a consensus on, and incited many heated debates,[3] but in the end the Constituent Assembly opted to recognize them within the framework of the constitution and the Statutes of Autonomy — the basic organic laws of the autonomous communities that were to be created — and therefore they were to be "updated" or "modernized".

[5] Though not part of the common-regime system, for comparative purposes, when taking into account the "quota" transferred to the central government, the Basque Country and Navarre would be among the smallest contributors, despite being among the richest communities in income per capita.

[5] Catalan nationalist politicians have demanded either a change in the "common-regime" system or full fiscal autonomy for Catalonia like that enjoyed by the communities of chartered regime.

Map of Spain in the 1850s, showing the different territories based on their regimes. The "Chartered Spain" is shown in blue, whereas the "Assimilated Spain" — regions whose charters had already been abolished — is shown in green. The rest of peninsular Spain , in orange, is shown as "Uniform Spain", whereas the overseas Spanish territories, "Colonial Spain", are shown in yellow.