A wealthy Morisco middle class existed between the pauper and noble stereotypes

Evidence

Rich Moriscos That there was a well-to-do class of Moriscos in many regions, a class able to operate successfully within the economic system of the day, may not fit with a stereotype of the Morisco either as successor of the noble Moor of the past or of the Morisco as marginalized near-pauper and victim. The former, the noble Moor stereotype, belonged by the sixteenth century to the realm of literature (Abindarraez y la hermosa Xarifa). During much of the century there was little scope for chivalric display in practice. An unheroic view of the Morisco is certainly to be found in literature, too: G´ongora’s mockery of Morisco bu˜nuelo-sellers (the sort of little people who run small fast-food stalls) is but one example among many. Between these two extremes the wealthy Morisco may sometimes have gone unnoticed, especially by liberal historians, who after all have some interest in showing how ill-used the whole minority community was. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1159

Categorization

• QUESTION: How widespread was Morisco wealth relative to the majority population, and did anti-Morisco publicists exaggerate it for expulsion propaganda purposes?
• XREF: Connects to the expulsion debates over capital flight, similar to how Milgrom’s trade-institution work treats who benefits from minority merchant classes.