1705. 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 informs Alonso Prieto that he is sending a Francisco on his behalf to pay a transaction and to pick up certain merchandise.

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…