Based on notarial and municipal sources in Madrid from the late sixteenth century to 1808, this article challenges current views of Castilian urban elites as mere reflections of noble hegemony. It assesses the implications of widespread venality of offices, as well as the real meaning of the estatuto of 1603, which formally excluded non-nobles from the city council. Ultimately, it argues that the system of preferment contributed in part to the long-term backwardness of seventeenth-century Castile.