Los amillaramientos como fuente estadÍstica: una visión crítica desde la contribución territorial

There are two extreme positions regarding millage and its statistical usefulness The fiscal position postulates that millage is not a reliable way to establish ownership and uses of land in 19" century Spain. At the other extreme, the so-called sectorial position advocates its validity and uses such data with gay abandon. Some conjectures regarding this position are the trend among researchers to identify with the source and to validate their results from this source, in that their use by a wide community of researchers legitimates and minimizes the imperfection of the data source. Indeed, they have gone to the point of only formulating formal preventions and then moved, without seeking continuity, towards an uncritical tolerance of the millage defects. Indeed, there are indications that sustain an improper use of the source in some studies, casting doubts on their consistency and credibility. We here argue that in some cases and with proper verification, millage can be reliable. To demonstrate such reliability and mindful of the limitation of the source, the history of the local property tax and the process behind specific millage can help to reveal its usefulness.