Pure ancestry was a pre-requisite for admission into the Military Orders. Dominguez Ortiz (179). (N. from the A.)

For a contemporary account of this device, see Tomás de Mercado, Summa de tratos y contratos (Seville, 1571); modern edition R. Sierra Bravo, ed. (Madrid, 1975). Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson summarizes de Mercado in her discussion of «dry exchanges» (45-48). (N. from the A.)

Isidro de Robles in his 1666 edition of the novela tried to downplay the implications of this favorable resolution by recasting it as a cautionary tale. He called it «El pícaro amante y escarmiento de mujeres.» However, this retouching only exacerbates the ambiguity, since the presumed 'victim' and her numerous progeny suffer no negative consequences as a result of the alleged escarmiento. «Pícaro», 107, note 19. (N. from the A.)

Camerino in fact was a proto-capitalist of the first order. Fifty years before the founding of the Bank of England, in August of 1646, the author of «El pícaro amante» persuaded the Spanish Crown to substitute billetes de cambio or paper certificates for currency. The certificates were to be drawn from a bank called the «Compañía de Jesus, María y Joseph» operated by (Joseph) Camerino himself. Camerino's bank issued fiduciary notes to share-holding partners willing to turn their currency over to it for investment in real estate, gems and goods. These early backers, Camerino's colleagues in the papal nunciature, planned to roll over the profits from these ventures into founding a new church, La Iglesia de las Ánimas, with its own Chaplaincy, to be located in Madrid. With reference to the new enterprise, Camerino hails himself as a messiah, «una especie de Cristóbal Colón» and «depositorio de la voluntad divina» destined to redeem Spain from her financial plight. However, on September 30, 1647, one year after its founding, the Crown doomed to extinction the domestic institution Camerino had attempted to create by suppressing all banking enterprises with the exception of four large Genovese firms. See Rodríguez, Novela corta, 252, 253. (N. from the A.)

Canon law from Pope Gregory IX's Naviganti letter of 1227-1241 to the Councils of Lyons (1274) and Vienna (1311) demanded increasingly strict silver [p. 105] reprisal for usury. In his Ordenamiento de Alcalá of 1348, Alfonso XI reasserted anti-usury law in the civil sector, extending its proscription to Castilian Moslems and Jews as well as Christians. See Grice-Hutchinson, Early, 13-60. Azpilcueta's Comentario provides a provocative challenge to Max Weber's views on Catholic capitalism. (N. from the A.)

Camerino alludes to this concept of opportunistic waiting with the nautical term «barloventear»: «después de haber barloventeado algunos días» (95). Sebastián de Covarrubias explains, «barloventar la nave es dejarla ir a donde el viento la quiere bornear y llevar». In contrast to his starving pícaro brethren, propelled from master to master by sheer necessity, Armíndez is able to wait for favorable winds before embarking on his next adventure. (N. from the A.)

Against the moneychangers in the Temple, see for ex. Jer. 7:11, Matt. 21:12, Mark 11:15, Luke 19:45, John 2:13. Against the taking of interest see Lev. 25:36-37, Deut. 23:19-20, Ezek. 18:8, 13, 17, 22:12, Neh. 5:6-13, Prov. 28:8. (N. from the A.)

The Greek word «tokos» refers both to interest and offspring. In Politics I, Aristotle declares interest to be against the natural order since an inanimate artifact such as money cannot produce offspring (Langholm, 54-69). (N. from the A.)

In Don Quijote, Book I, don Quixote ascribes superlative value to a shaving basin. Since he fails to persuade his listeners of its worth, however, they silver [p. 107] judge him in his solitary delusion to be mad. For fiat money to function effectively, entire communities must voluntarily consent to uphold the fictive worth of slips of paper. (N. from the A.)

Indeed, the merchant's fraudulent letras de cambio, while precursors of fiat money, lacked this property of anonymity Technically a form of contract, they could be traced back to their signatories. Fortunately for Armíndez, no one in Leonor's household thought to question their authenticity. (N. from the A.)