THE communities of Aragon together developed a strong regional organization which left no room for a local inter-communal structure comparable to the Catalan collecta. A loose framework did, however, develop in Aragon, as the sources show. The large aljamas in Aragon had under their jurisdiction small communities and settlements in their vicinity. This jurisdiction was exercised mostly in the field of taxation.

THE COLLECTA OF SARAGOSSA

The earliest references to the collecta of Saragossa belong to the period of Pedro 111. The sources contain very little information until the beginning of the fourteenth century. Until then, the Jews of Alcafiizo were the only Jews mentioned as part of the tax district of the Aragonese capital, the most important aljama of the kingdom. In 1300 the collecta is mentioned without details of its dependent localities. According to the tax distribution of I 304, the aljama of Saragossa included the Jews of Ruesta, Pina, Zuera, Gorrea, and Pedrola. The Jews of the last-named locality had belonged to the nobleman Lope Ferrench de Luna until 1302 and were therefore excluded from the tax district of Saragossa. Hence the opposition of the aljama of Saragossa to the emigration of its members to Pedrola. Emigration in the opposite direction was stopped by the Crown, to the disappointment of the capital's aljama. In the 1280s Jews of Ruesta complained that the aljama of Saragossa dealt with them unjustly in the apportionment of the taxes.

THE COLLECTA OF CALATAYUD

Earlier and more detailed information is available on the collecta of Calatayud, the second largest aljama in Aragon. In records pertaining to the reign of Pedro III, the Jews of Fariza and Ricla were included in this collecta. Some of the Jews of Fariza paid tax with the Christians. Others, objecting to being included in the collecta of Calatayud, eventually persuaded Jaime II to separate them from Calatayud. The Jews of Daroca apparently paid their taxes with the Jews of Calatayud. References to the collecta are not frequent but are quite explicit, even when the names of the localities are not mentioned.

THE COLLECTA OF HUESCA

In addition to Jews living around Huesca, several settlements that had been attached to Lerida in the thirteenth century became part of its tax district by the period of Jaime II.