Expelled Moriscos left behind unpaid debts the Crown hoped to seize.

Evidence

Here we get a picture of Moriscos as accumulators of capital that accords ill with the Islamic ban on usury. One might be inclined to dismiss such allegations about profit-seeking rich Moriscos in the memorial as ill-founded, and arising from that hatred for this minority that is so transparent throughout the text. However, there is abundant confirmation of Morisco participation in money-lending, speculation, and in small-scale banking. When the final expulsion came, one of the effects was to leave a number of Morisco creditors unable to claim money that was owed to them (Ciscar 1993, 50), and by the same token there were Christians whose Morisco debtors disappeared. The matter had such serious implications that a report was drawn up on the subject. The Crown was particularly concerned because it was hoped that debts due to Moriscos could be collected after they left by the agents of the Crown and the proceeds applied to give some compensations to Christian creditors. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1164

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: the Crown’s plan to collect debts owed to expelled Moriscos as compensation for Christians — a concrete case of state expropriation of a minority’s financial claims.
• XREF: Connects to the modern ‘Islamic ban on usury’ discourse and how religious minorities (cf. Montaigne’s millet, medieval Jewish moneylending, Chagossians, Tulsa massacre reparations cases) get cast as financiers.