By the censuses of 1768 and 1787 the exempt classes were—
| 1768. | 1787. | |
| Hidalgos | 722,794 | 480,589 |
| Clergy | 183,965 | 151,973 |
| 906,759 | 632,562 |
Floridablanca felicitated himself on the reduction thus shown in the exemptions, resulting from greater strictness in admitting claims, while the population had increased from 9,309,804 to 10,409,879.—Censo español en el año de 1787.
[1048] Dávila, Vida de Felipe III, p. 216.
[1049] Libro de las Cincas Excelencias del Español que despueblan á España, fol. 163, 170 (Pamplona, 1629).
[1050] Representacion al Rey D. Felipe V dirigida al mas seguro aumento del Real Erario. Hecha por D. Miguel de Zavala y Auñon, pp. 7-35, 74-97 (Madrid, 1732).
It should be observed that in none of the descriptions of the burdens imposed on the peasantry is any allusion made to what perhaps was the most grievous of all, both in amount and method of collection—the tithe by which the enormous church establishment was supported. This was wholly beyond control by the secular power and was therefore left out of consideration.
In 1820, Dr. Sebastian de Miñano, in his Cartas del Pobrecito Holgazan, gives a graphic picture of the ecclesiastical burdens of the peasant—the first fruits, the tithes and the obligatory “almsgiving” to all the neighboring convents.—Ochoa, Epistolario español, II, 616.
[1051] Jovellanos, Informe en el Expediente de Ley Agraria (Obras, VII, 165-8).
The trouble still exists. In 1898 the Chamber of Agriculture of Upper Aragon states that notwithstanding large subventions to railroads and highways the greater part of the population is as isolated as ever, and it urges the expenditure of 400 or 500 millions of pesetas to convert 250,000 kilométres of mule-track into cheap wagon roads.—Reconstitucion de España, pp. 24, 89.