Expulsion of the Moriscos promised short-term private profit to greedy courtiers.

Evidence

The most important development at the end of the century was the espousal by Lerma himself of the policy of expulsion. On February 2, 1599, he submitted a paper on the subject of the Moriscos. Morisco males between fifteen and sixty as Moors (Muslims) were liable to the death penalty (for their treason), and so might legally be enslaved and their property confiscated (Lea 1901, 307, citing Danvila 1889, 233–40). Although Lerma was already Philip’s favorite (valido) and so was inundated in a flow of royal munificence, he was always greedy for more. Contradicting the established view that Moriscos meant profit for their landlords, he could see the potential short-term gains that might accrue from getting rid of them. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1391

Categorization

• QUESTION: How much of the expulsion decision came down to Lerma’s personal greed rather than ideology? Harvey seems to suggest venality was decisive.
• SEED: A piece on how early-modern states sometimes expel productive minorities not for ideology but for enabled elite looting of their assets, with the Morisco case as a clean three-century-old precedent.