The Inquisitor of Valencia himself warned expulsion would devastate the kingdom’s economy

Evidence

Among the disadvantages the Inquisitor listed were the loss of one-third of the population of the kingdom and the loss of two-thirds of the income accruing to public funds (“because they”—presumably the Moriscos—“are the ones who pay most” [por ser aquellos los que mas pagan], Reinoso adds, revealingly). Other disadvantages included a shortage of foodstuffs to be foreseen in the years immediately after the Expulsion (“because the Moriscos as a whole are the ones who provide supplies”) and a decline in the incomes of the Valencian nobles because the productivity of their lands depended on the Moriscos. (This was judged by Reinoso to be the greatest drawback to a policy of expulsion.) A last point against this was the expense of carrying out the expulsion and the risk that the Moriscos, if they got to know the secret in advance, would put up resistance. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1376

Categorization

• QUESTION: The expulsion proceeded anyway despite this internal warning—worth tracing how and why reasoned opposition collapsed.