ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the strategies created by the small retailers of Colonial Mexico to elude the sales tax (alcabala) during the first half of the eighteenth century. First, it describes the origin, tax base, application and fiscal exemptions of this sales tax, which was established in 1575 in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, also known as Colonial Mexico. Second, it presents an overview of the administrative structure developed by the Spanish Crown, based on a multiplicity of tax collecting systems, mainly through tax farming and administration by district judges. Finally, it analyses two case studies of tax avoidance in Central Mexico and compares them with other strategies such as the obtention of sales taxes through leasing contracts offered by the traders' guild and the city councils.
