THE COLLECTA

THE collecta was a group of communities centred on a major aljama that formed one area for tax collection, as its name indicates. It was originally a Catalan creation designed to facilitate and improve the collection of the taxes from the ruler's point of view. In the rare references to it in the Hebrew sources it is called tevah, literally ‘case’ or ‘box'. In most places, writes R. Shelomo hen Adret, each city had its own tax borders as set by the authorities. Adret gave halakhic legitimacy to the authority exercised by the main community over all the smaller ones within the boundaries of the collecta, including Jewish settlements under baronial jurisdiction.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries many payments of taxes and subsidies were made by the Jews of Barcelona, Gerona, Lerida, and Tortosa in the name of Catalan Jewry. In 131 l, for instance, representatives of the four communities gathered in Montblanch and vouluntarily put themselves under ‘house arrest’ for fifteen days to decide on the apportionment of the tax. If they failed to reach an agreement within those fifteen days, the king would decide. Two years earlier, the Catalan communities that contributed to the expenses of the war against Granada were Barcelona, Gerona, Lerida, and Tortosa. In both cases the question arises whether these were the only Catalan communities which paid taxes and subsidies. The answer lies in the collecta system: the four abovementioned communities were, in fact, the four collectas that included all the Jews of Catalonia.

We have sufficient evidence to indicate that there were no collectas other than these four and that the sums of tax and subsidy paid by these collectas amounted to the total sum that was imposed on Catalan Jewry. In 1314, for instance, the Catalan communities were required to pay 90,000 sb for the purchase and annexation of Urgell. The collectas of Barcelona and Gerona paid 36,000 sb each, Lerida paid 1 o,ooo sb and apparently the remaining 8,ooo sb were paid by Tortosa. Repeatedly in the sources the four collectas appear as the only Catalan communities to pay taxes and subsidies.