Season 1, Episode 138

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Joan lays out the terms for large loans coming to the monarchy from prominent merchant named Pere de Muntros.

Today’s Document

• Subject: a very large plan for some very large loans
• Date: May 11, 1387
• Day of the Week: Saturday
• Language: Latin and Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1751 f64r-65v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipient: Pere de Muntros

Corrections to the Podcast Episode

After recording this podcast I realized that I had mis-transcribed the last name of the merchant, Pere de Muntros. I erroneously ignored the macron and the clearly shaped letter ‘r’ coming after the ‘c’ or ‘t.’

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Pere de Muntros is identified as a merchant in this document and it is very likely that he had some familial connection to Johan de Muntros in yesterday’s document; if Joan and Violant faced severe problems with their revenue streams, then documents like this one would be an important measure to keep the finances of the monarchy afloat

• Contextualization: the decision of Pere the Ceremonious, in 1380, to default on payments to the firm of Descaus & d’Ollivea, caused a financial panic that continued to reverberate through the economy of the Crown of Aragon throughout the rest of the decade¹; the damage to the financial solvency of the monarchy could not be repaired easily; taking out high-interest loans might have had a rather different cost-benefit ratio if done in consideration of apocalyptic beliefs about the year 1400, which Joan himself was known to have taken seriously²

• Corroboration: for the Muntros family of merchants, the documents examined in Episode 137, Episode 139, and Episode 149 involve either Pere or Johan de Muntros; many of the documents tagged with finances provide corroboration for this one in that the new monarchs encountered an immediate and urgent need for new revenue streams in the first months of their reign

• Close-Reading: I think that the crossed-out ‘regina’ at the start of the document and the probata with ‘dominus rex’ at the end indicates that this document, like yesterday’s, demonstrates some amount of co-rule; the phrase ‘fortune of time’ must have some function in the terms of the deal being struck in this document, perhaps as an escape clause in the event that time generates a bad fortune; the accidental Aragonese/Castilian ‘razon’ might indicate that the scribe, Pere de Beniure, spoke Aragonese as his first language

What is this document doing?

• This document initiates a stream of money for the monarchy.
• The document presumes the legality and a certain measure of appropriateness for loan instruments to finance the monarchy.

Questions

• Was this document as much of a collaborative product as yesterday’s commission for Johan de Muntros?
• Is the amount of money arranged for by this document something extraordinary or is it comparable to other revenue sources in its quantity?
• How was Pere de Muntros chosen for this financial arrangement?
• Were measures like the ones in the document a response to a financial hole left by Pere the Ceremonious or was this reflective of bad management on the part of Joan and Violant?

AI Usage

The transcription and translation of this document was carried out by my OpenClaw pipeline.

Bibliography

• Boase, Roger. The Troubadour Revival: A Study of Social Change and Traditionalism in Late Medieval Spain. Routledge & K. Paul, 1978.
• Feliu i Montfort, Gaspar. “Finances, Currency and Taxation in the 14th and 15th Centuries.” Catalan Historical Review, no. 9 (2016): 25–44.
• Girona y Llagostera, Daniel. “Itinerari de l’Infant En Joan, Fill Del Rei En Pere III. 1350-1387.” III Congreso de Historia de La Corona de Aragón (Valencia), Hijo de F. Vives Mora, 1923, 169–592. Available on Google Books, accessed December 26, 2025.

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