Introduction

Introduction to a volume that brings together different perspectives to explore the controversial relationship between the courts of faith and money from the late Middle Ages to the modern era. In the first part, contributions focus on the budgets of judicial offices, the use of economic resources by magistrates and their assistants, and the history of confiscations and fines imposed on heretics and apostates. In the second part, the authors analyse the Inquisition's assessment of wealth, money lending, credit and early forms of finance. In the third part, essays deal with specific issues such as the legitimisation of the slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Christian-Jewish relations, the expropriation of the Moriscos in Spain and the use of slaves as a resource in New World courts.