King's fifth

Real Potosi silver.

The quinto del rey or quinto real was a tribute paid to the king when a prize was captured or treasure discovered and equal to one fifth (20%) of what was captured or discovered. First the king was paid a fifth of it and then the miner after finding the value of the mineral that had been found for the amount of it.

In particular, the expression quinto del rey or quinto real usually refers to a tax of one fifth established in 1504 by the Crown of Castile on the extraction of metals precious, mainly gold and silver, and other articles within the territories of what was Spanish America.

Origin

As a possible biblical foundation, in Genesis 47.24 and 47.26 Joseph, the second highest authority in the country of Egypt, asks the people for a fifth of the produce of the land for Pharaoh, except for the priests.

The king's fifth was in force in the Muslim states of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages.

The spoils and prey (war) will be distributed as follows: after deducting the fifth for the king, each individual can take as much as he needs to satisfy his hunger, applying the rest to the common acquis. The rider will receive two parts; the infant will receive one (...)

Legal Code of King Yusuf I of Granada (1318-1354)

Amount of tax

This tax initially amounted to twenty percent of all metallic or jewelery wealth that was obtained in their colonies. With the fall of the Habsburg house and the ascension of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne, a series of reforms were undertaken in order to reactivate and encourage mining production (in crisis for those decades). The tax was reduced, changing to a nominal percentage of ten percent (tithe), which would drop over the years to an amount between five and eight percent or less by the end of the empire in America.

In the case of silver, the amount to be paid was perfectly known by the amount of mercury that the crown, owner of the monopoly on the production of this element, delivered to mine lords and concessionaires to carry out the & #34;backyard benefit". Since the mercury was necessary to extract the silver, there was no way to defraud the Treasury.

Destination and form of tax

This tax was collected by the colonial administration through the Royal Funds and reached the hands of the Spanish monarchy in the form of bars of precious metal.

Transportation

In order to transport as much of the quinto real as possible in the Spanish ships of the time, there were pieces of art that were melted down to transform them into gold or silver bars and thus facilitate their transport. For this reason, there are few pieces of art made of said metals from pre-Columbian times.

Some of these pieces were freed from the royal fifth, and at the same time from the foundry, thanks to the fact that certain conquerors, who had become rich in the Indies, kept the pieces that in their opinion were the most beautiful for their residences.

Other gold and silver pieces can be seen today because they were buried in tombs and because they were discovered later.^{[citation needed]}