Los decretos de financiación de la Orden de Carlos III (1775)Una fuente para el estudio de las encomiendas de las órdenes y de las dignidades eclesiasticas de España e Indias

Abstract

After the creation of the order of Carlos III (1771) the monarch had to find a way to finance it, since it was expected that there would be 200 pensioner knights who would receive 4.000 reales de vellón annually. After obtaining the pertinent permission from the pontiff, Carlos III decided that the money would come from the commendations of the military orders and from the mitres, dignities and benefits that the Church had in Spain and the Indies. Many of these rents already had charges, but the king opted for this model that hardly affected the daily life of these institutions, as we will see later. The specific data provided by the financing decrees is extremely interesting to understand the ecclesiastical organization of the moment, a snapshot of its specific income, including in a special way the minor benefits of many of them and some extraordinary abbeys.