The Consolidation (secularization of the pious funds of church organizations) of 1804 cannot be viewed as an isolated historical phenomenon but rather must be examined in the light of a long hallowed tradition of enmity on the part of the Spanish crown to the church's economic power, and, more immediate to the 1804 decree, as part of the Bourbon policy of regalism. Legislation aimed at controlling the sale of the holdings of the church has many precedents in Spanish legal history. In 1523 the Cortes of Valladolid asked the king, Don Carlos and his mother, the queen, Doña Juana,
que las haciendas y patrimonios a bienes raíces no se enajen a iglesias y monasterios e ninguno non se los pueda vender, pues según lo que compran las iglesias y los monasterios, y las donaciones mandas que se les hacen, en pocos años pudiese ser suya la mas hacienda del reino.