The salt tax is one of the most abusive taxes in history
Medieval tax
The notion is usually used to name a tax that was collected in the Middle Ages , more specifically from the feudal lord. Generally the gabela was applied to food , which mainly affected the poorest who lacked land and animals to produce their own food and therefore had to buy it.
One of the peculiarities of the gabelas was that, due to their characteristics, their collection was quite simple compared to other types of taxes. On the other hand, due to the taxed products and the exemptions that members of the nobility usually enjoyed, they were regressive taxes that mainly affected the most vulnerable sectors of society .
The salt tax , for example, was a very important resource for the French State when it came to financing its war campaigns. In the 13th century , at the urging of King Louis IX , France began to produce large quantities of salt in conquered lands. The monarch, in this framework, established a gabella, which was first temporary and then fixed.
Outside France, taxes similar to the gabela were recorded in other countries, including Spain. The upper classes obtained exemption either because of their social privileges or because they had their own source of the product on which the tax was charged, which was generally food. This did not usually happen with salt, since it was rarer to have a private exploitation of this product.
Salt gabel
It all began in the year 1229, when Blanche of Castile and her son (Louis IX) ordered the Albigensian crusade to stop, and France began to dominate the Rhône estuary and other nearby lands. This event led to the founding of the city of Aigues-Mortes in 1246 (until then there were no others with seaports) and the creation of a pool operation to obtain salt through evaporation.
Thanks to this it was possible to carry out Louis IX's wishes to carry out a military expedition to the Middle East . It is enough to take a look at the growth in income that France received, with which it was able to sustain its wars and other projects, to understand that having controlled the production of salt was a more than correct idea, and in fact it is difficult to imagine that it would have been the history of the European country if this gabela had not existed.
Furthermore, it is important to note that the salt tax was initially intended to be something temporary, and it was only in 1259 that Charles I (brother of Louis IX) converted it into something more stable, first on the production of the population. de Berre and later covering an important part of the territory. The gabela became permanent under King Philip VI of Valois .
The state monopoly that the salt tax represented was very particular, because to ensure that it had sources of money every month, the country forced every citizen over 8 years of age to buy salt, with a previously established price and minimum quantity. As if this were not enough, using it to create other products was an illegal act. The penalty for rebels was prison and, for the most repeat offenders, death.
Louis IX of France, the promoter of the salt gabelle
Other meanings
In countries like Puerto Rico , Dominican Republic , Ecuador and Colombia , meanwhile, a gabela is an advantage or benefit . The expression dar gabela , on the other hand, is used in Puerto Rican territory to refer to providing an opportunity .
Gabela , finally, is the name of a city in Angola . This town is part of the province of Cuanza del Sur and belongs to the municipality of Amboim .