Page 132 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

132 from Italy to the Canary Islands

inherited from the Roman Empire of the “Publicans”, i.e. of certain private
individuals who established themselves as a collector’s office aimed at
collecting the revenue of the public authorities, which is why they were
called “Publicans”. As the publicans had to run the entrepreneurial risk of
collecting, which had been pre-established ahead of time in a certain sense,
they were entitled to withhold a certain percentage of the takings obtained.
This percentage was called “aggio” (commission).
The dispute was caused by the fact that Guglielmo Malocello did not
approve of the four tax-collecting Pepere brothers withholding 25% as
commission and, strangely enough, it turned out that the brothers got the
better in the dispute.
As we were saying above, Guglielmo Malocello is known to have had
four sons, each one of which then had offspring. We will briefly outline the
family tree for now, focusing on the most important names later on.