1704. Carta de Antonio José de Valdenebro y Tapias para Alonso Prieto, labrador y cosechero.

Letter from Antonio José de Valdenebro y Tapias to Alonso Prieto, a farmer and a harvester.

The author indicates to Alonso Prieto that the courier is carrying some money to settle part of his debt.

Following an accusation of smuggling grain and other goods from Castile to Portugal, a case occurred in 1709 against Alonso Prieto, a resident of Aldeadávila de la Ribera (Salamanca). In order to defend himself from the accusation Alonso Prieto stated the following: a certain José de Valdenebro came to him in 1704 with an order to go down to the Douro River to deal with a Portuguese; that this Portuguese was a spy and the reason for these meetings was to obtain information about the enemy; that the exchange of goods was just an excuse to justify those meetings and the only exchanged four loads of sugar, a hundred pounds of wax and stockings. Seven letters seized to Alonso Prieto were found in the process documentation (PS6236 to PS6242).These letters were used to contradict the defendant´s version, since their content showed that he was indeed trading with all kind of goods: hats, wool fabric, soap, grain…