See other formats

Full text of "The Mesta; a study in Spanish economic history, 1273-1836"

CO 




* V 1 l* V*l 4*1 W ^. i*"H^"* 

iion vicnni ccraonc* TO 



Cnrlo6pccUDimtuckinoici.T 



ntco: cwpcraugi? 

nia COfia liwiu fii niacfec cl 



rm jx^uiwoa octcHcoo ortwknc 



ct <pm5u oenwlkTzae- cKlaulu oc 



raurcu ottoKni wla? 



au4txn,T6iS*iKop3frin ccntv*> cxrrrafretteiHcVccr 

*.f1%/r^ ^%t4Viftrt r^nrv^tt^% ir^^Hir^I/ttl^tXrY.llH^nS i 



oe ocitan a t<nxiaiio 



niw 1 Drtt?lt cct 



vfiibd ota 
at iXMniiwK? oe cucib 1 ftmwoaotfuo iKra tnce a fd wo 



jjk. v m a%u iftatcn am /// c arm ct awfinnnnoii nila 
q uc mcfupti^uum (a? auucuiTc coufi rnwr mp:c j inr ia.~ 
pnuilktjia* paa qiido cncl Icy a?tCToofcgiwrOM ai 
Aflin AJxlantt occrooinrot roeracc>ii\tffl^ 




MESTA CHARTER OF 1525 

The first page, showing a miniature of Charles V and the arms of the Mesta. Details of the 
coat of arms are explained in the description of the plate facing page 52. 



THE MESTA 

A STUDY IN 
SPANISH ECONOMIC HISTORY 

1273-1836 






BY 



JULIUS KLEIN, PH.D. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY AND 
ECONOMICS IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



AWARDED THE DAVID A. WELLS PRIZE FOR 
THE YEAR 1917-18, AND PUBLISHED FROM 
THE INCOME OF THE DAVID A. WELLS FUND 




6 



CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

IQ2O 



COPYRIGHT, IQ20 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 




TO 
MY MOTHER 



PREFACE 

OF the many economic problems brought forth by the war, two 
have stimulated especial interest and have already been made the 
subject of considerable research. /OneTybf these is the national 
control of raw materials, and the other the economic foundations 
of newly organized states. It may not be altogether inopportune, 
therefore, at a time when so much thought is being given to these 
fundamental matters, to invite attention to the same questions 
as they appeared in another age and under far different cir- 
cumstances. 

Spanish merino wool was for generations one of the great 
staples of commerce during the period when modern Europe was 
in the making77The history of ' the Honorable Assembly of the 
Mesta/ the Castilian sheep raisers' gild, presents a vivid picture 
of some six hundred years of laborious effort on the part of one 
of the great European powers to dominate the production and 
marketing of that essential raw material. This policy, though 
primarily concerned with the agrarian affairs of the realm, had, 
nevertheless, a far wider significance because of its part in the 
mercantilistic ambitions of the greatest of the Castilian mon- 
archs. The high unit value of wool, its compact, exportable form, 
and the universal demand for it made it one of the most valued 
means for determining the relative status of rival monarchies. 

As a factor in the laying of the foundations of the Castilian 
state which rose from the ruins of the Reconquest, the Mesta 
played an inconspicuous but important part. It was used by 
each of the stronger sovereigns in turn to carry on a prolonged 
struggle against the ancient traditions of Spanish separatism 
political, racial, and economic provincialism and to work 
toward a united peninsula. Its rise synchronized with the suc- 
cessful efforts of the warrior monarchs of the Reconquest to weld 
their newly won dominions into a nation. Its decline began with 
the collapse of the monarchy and the triumph of separatist in- 
fluences under the seventeenth-century Hapsburgs. 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

The study of the economic development of Spain, and more 
particularly of its declining centuries, has occupied the attention 
of many investigators, but their interest has centred chiefly upon 
the use of economic conditions as convenient explanations of 
political phenomena. This has been especially true of the gen- 
eral works dealing with the great days of Spanish absolutism in 
the sixteenth century, j A clearer understanding of the interrela- 
tion of economic and political factors can be possible only after 
considerably more attention has been paid to the study of cer- 
tain special topics which are illustrative of the economic develop- 
ment of the country. Among these lacunae in Spanish histori- 
ography there is none more important than the account of the 
Mesta. The long and active life of this body from 1273 to 1836 
has been a notable and in many ways unique feature of Spanish 
economic history. For hundreds of years it played a vital part 
in the adjustment of problems involving overseas trade, public 
lands, pasturage, and taxation. 

The extant descriptions of the Mesta are, for the most part, 
based upon prejudiced discussions and fragmentary documents 
originating with its numerous opponents. In no case has any 
use been made of the rich treasury of the Mesta's own archive, 
which has been in Madnd for nearly three hundred years, un- 
touched and practically unknown. * Whether the institution 
was but a product of strongly intrenched, cunningly directed 
special privilege pursuing its selfish ends, is a question which even 
the most recent investigators have too readily answered affirma- 
tively. In its later centuries it unquestionably did contribute 
much to the agricultural decay of the country; but that circum- 
stance should not obscure an appreciation of its earlier stimula- 
tive and constructive influence, both political and economic. 
Present day scholarship has been too ready to accept the point 
of view expressed in such seventeenth-century couplets as 

"<iQueesla Mesta? 
j Sacar de esa bolsa y meter en esta! " 
or 

"Entre tres ' Santos' y un 'Honrado ' 
Esta el reino agobiado." 



PREFACE IX 

The latter voices the popular contempt for such ancient and once 
revered institutions as the Santa Cruzada, the Santa Herman- 
dad, the Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion, and the Honrado Concejo 
de la Mesta. It would be safer to accept the observation of 
Ambrosio de Morales, a distinguished scholar of the period of 
Philip II: " What foreigner does not marvel at the Assembly of 
the Mesta, that substantial, ably administered body politic ? It 
not only gives evidence of the infinite multitude of sheep in Spain, 
but a study of it helps toward a better understanding of our coun- 
try, if it be possible to understand her." l 

The almost entire absence of reliable investigations in the field 
of Spanish agrarian history has made it necessary to base the 
present study very largely upon hitherto unused manuscript 
materials, found in the archives of the Mesta and of small towns 
in remote parts of Castile. For this reason the references in 
the bibliography and footnotes have been made more extensive 
than might ordinarily seem necessary, in the hope that sugges- 
tions might thus be given for subsequent investigations of such 
subjects as the domestic and foreign trade of mediaeval Spain, 
the enclosure movement in the peninsular kingdoms, or Castilian 
field systems and commons. 

The researches upon which this book is based were made 
possible through two liberal grants from Harvard University 
for studies in Spain and elsewhere in Europe in 1912-14: the 
Woodbury Lowery and Frederick Sheldon Fellowships. What- 
ever merits the volume may have as the first fruit of the Mesta 
archive as a field for historical study are due entirely to the un- 
failing courtesies of the Marques de la Frontera, the late Senor 
Don Rafael Tamarit, and their colleagues of the Asociacion Gen- 
eral de Ganaderos del Reino of Madrid, the successor of the 
Mesta. These gentlemen interrupted the busy affairs of their 
efficient organization in order to provide every facility for the 
exhaustive examination of the valuable collection in their pos- 
session. Without their cordial cooperation and expert advice 
upon Spanish pastoral problems this study could not have gone 

1 Las Antiguedades de las Ciudades de Espana (Alcala de Henares, 1576), 
p. 40. 



X PREFACE 

beyond the limits of a perfunctory essay. The search for sup- 
plementary material was carried into several obscure archives 
in different parts of the peninsula, where little could have been 
accomplished without the aid of such helpful friends in Madrid 
as Professor Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin, Professor Rafael Alta- 
mira y Crevea, and Seiior Don Arturo G. Cardona. I am espec- 
ially indebted to Professor Bonilla for many pleasant and invalu- 
able hours of counsel upon mediaeval Spanish law and local in- 
stitutions. My sincerest thanks are due to the officials of the 
Real Academia de la Historia and of the great national collec- 
tions in Madrid, and particularly to the courteous archivists of 
the Casa de Ganaderos in Saragossa and of the estate of the 
Duque de Osuna in Madrid. The library of the Hispanic Society 
of America generously secured copies of scarce volumes and 
pamphlets which would otherwise have been inaccessible. I am 
under obligation to Professor Alfred Morel-Fatio of the College 
de France for many thoughtful kindnesses while I was working 
in the various archives of Paris; to Dr. Constantine E. McGuire 
of the International High Commission in Washington for advice 
upon doubtful passages in certain important manuscripts; to 
Professor Charles H. Haskins of Harvard for constructive sug- 
gestions regarding several shortcomings of the investigation; and 
to Mr. George W. Robinson, Secretary of the Graduate School 
of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, for assistance in preparing the 
manuscript for the press. 

Among the many friends who have given freely of their valued 
counsel I must acknowledge especially my great indebtedness to 
three teachers at Harvard, to whom it has long been my good 
fortune to be under the heaviest obligations. Professor Archi- 
bald C. Coolidge first suggested the subject, and his constant 
encouragement and confidence in its possibilities made many 
difficulties seem inconsequential. Professor Roger B. Merriman 
gave abundantly of his sound scholarship and of his inspiring 
enthusiasm for Spanish history, two contributions which have 
been of inestimable help to me, as they have been to many others 
among his pupils who have had the rare privilege of intimate as- 
sociation with him in studies in this field. Professor Edwin F. 



PREFACE XI 

Gay has been in close touch with this investigation since its in- 
ception some seven years ago, and any merits which it may have 
as a contribution to economic history are due entirely to his 
sympathetic understanding of the problems encountered, and 
to his unfailing interest in the progress of the work in spite of 
his many serious and urgent duties during the war. 

To my wife the work owes more than any words of mine can 
express. Every page, I might almost say every line, has benefited 
from her patient scrutiny and judicious criticism. 

J.K. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 
April, 1919. 



^ 



CONTENTS 



PART I ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTER I 
ORIGINS 3 

The pastoral industry of the Moors. The origins of the merino sheep. 
Sheep raising in mediaeval Spain. The meetings or meslas of shepherds 
for the disposal of strays. 



CHAPTER II 
-.MIGRATIONS ..................... 17 

Sheep highways in Mediterranean countries. The Castilian cafiadas. 
Traffic routes of the Teamsters' Gild of Castile. Organization and size of 
the Mesta flocks. On the march. Wool clipping. 



x) 



CHAPTER III 
MARKETING 30 

Wool marketing hi Italy and Aragon. Early exports of Spanish wool to 
England. Organization of the export trade by Ferdinand and Isabella. 
The Burgos Consulado or Trade House. Its foreign branches. Its con- 
tact with the Mesta at the Medina del Campo fair. The Mesta and the 
trade with the New World. Organization of the domestic wool trade. 
Dealing in ' futures.' Middlemen. Trade policies of the Hapsburgs^L 



CHAPTER IV 
INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 49 

Ordinances. Meetings. Elections. Membership. The President and 
other officers. Legal staff. Fiscal agents. Proportion of large and small 
owners. Shepherds; their duties and privileges. 



xiii 



xiv CONTENTS 



PART II JUDICIARY 

CHAPTER V 

ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 67 

Itinerant officers in mediaeval Europe. Judicial protectors of migratory 
flocks in Italy and in Aragon. Sheep protection in mediaeval Castile. 
Inter-class litigation. Early relations of 'the entregador with the crown. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 86 

Functions of the entregador. Inspection and protection of the canadas. 
Restraint of marauders. Supervision of pastures, enclosures, and com- 
mons. Conflicts with the Cortes and with towns. Exemptions from the 
entregador's visitations. Residencias or hearings of complaints. Re- 
strictions upon entregadores by higher courts, Cortes, and town leagues. 



CHAPTER VII 
DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 117 

Hostility of the Cortes hi the seventeenth century. Appeals to the chan- 
cillerias. Inefficacy of royal aid to the Mesta. Collapse of the entre- 
gador system in the eighteenth century. 



PART III TAXATION 



CHAPTER VIII 
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION .... 139 

Significance of sheep dues as a pre-feudal tax on movable property. Town 
or local sheep taxes hi North Africa, Provence, the Pyrenees, Aragon, 
Valencia, Navarre, and Portugal. Royal or state sheep taxes in southern 
Italy, Aragon, Valencia, and Navarre. 



CHAPTER IX 

MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 161 

Early local taxes. The montazgo and the portazgo. Effect of the Moorish 
wars. Beginning of large scale sheep migrations, standardized taxation, 
and fixed toll points. 



CONTENTS XV 



CHAPTER X 

LOCAL TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA (1273-1474) 176 

Fiscal clauses of the Mesta charter of 1273. Policies of Alfonso X (1252- 
84) and Sancho IV (1284-95). Aggressive fiscal administration of Al- 
fonso XI (1312-50). Sheep taxes during the civil wars of the later 
Middle Ages. Extravagant tax concessions to the town and liberal ex- 
emptions of the Mesta. Concordias or tax agreements. 



CHAPTER XI 

LOCAL TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA (1474-1516) 208 

Fiscal reforms. Tax inquisitors. Fiscal duties of the corregidores. Stan- 
dardization of local sheep tolls. Political aspects of the tax situation. 



\ LOCA 



CHAPTER XII 



L TAXES UNDER THE HAPSBURGS AND EARLY BOURBONS 
(1516-1836) ... 227 

Effect of the rising of the comuneros (1500-21) upon the fiscal affairs of 
the Mesta. Royal agents defend the Mesta. Sheep taxes of the Military 
Orders and of the Church. Diezmos. Fiscal disorders under the later 
Hapsburgs. Local taxes in the eighteenth century. 



CHAPTER XIII 

MEDIAEVAL ROYAL SHEEP TAXES 254 

Share of the crown in local taxes. Moorish sheep tolls. The servicio de 
ganados or subsidy from domestic animals. Origin of the servicio y mon- 
tazgo. Royal sheep tolls during the period of fifteenth-century profligacy. 
The tax schedule of 1457. 



CHAPTER XIV 

ROYAL SHEEP TAXES OF THE AUTOCRACY 270 

Reforms of Ferdinand and Isabella. The crown and the fiscal rights of 
the Military Orders. Hapsburg exploitation of the pastoral industry. 
The Fuggers and the Mesta. Bankruptcy of the monarchy in the seven- 
teenth century. Reforms of Charles III. 



XVI CONTENTS 



PART IV PASTURAGE 

CHAPTER XV 
|-j ^^EARLY PASTURAGE PROBLEMS 297 

The pasturage privileges of migrants in Mediterranean countries. Pas- 
turage customs of mediaeval Castile. Commons. Enclosures. Defor- 
estation. Sheep walks. Pastoral industry not a menace to agriculture 
and enclosures in the Middle Ages. 



CHAPTER XVI 

-- THE SUPREMACY OF THE MESTA'S PASTURAGE PRIVILEGES . 314 

Agrarian England of the early Tudors compared with agrarian Castile of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. Pastoral mercantilism. Enclosures in England 
and in Castile. The pastoral policy of the Catholic Kings. Deforesta- 
tion. Posesifrn or perpetual leasing of pasturage. Collective bargaining 
for pasturage by Mesta members. Agriculture vs. grazing hi the reign of 
Charles V. Growth of the non-migratory pastoral industry. Repres- 
/ /f- sive measures against agriculture. 



II- 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE COLLAPSE OF THE MESTA'S PASTURAGE PRIVILEGES . 331 

Pasturage legislation of Philip II. Decrees of 1566, 1580, and 1582. 
""- - Futile agrarian programme. Chancillerias defend agriculture and en- 
closures. Opposition of royal creditors and others to the privileges of 
the Mesta. Exploitation of the lands of the Military Orders. Extrava- 
gant pretensions of the Decree of 1633. Spread of enclosures during the 
seventeenth century. Mesta propaganda against agriculture. Collapse 
of ancient pasturage privileges in the eighteenth century. Culmination 

of the enclosure movement. 

^* 

CONCLUSION ....... ............ 351 



APPENDICES 

A. ORDINANCES or THE TOWN MESTA OF UBEDA, 1376 . 361 

B. EXTRACTS FROM THE ORDINANCES OF THE TOWN MESTA 

OF GRANADA, 1520 364 

C. A ROYAL CONCESSION REGARDING STRAYS, 1304 . . 368 

D. COMMISSION OF AN ENTREGADOR-IN-CHIEF, 1417 . . 371 

E. EXEMPTION OF THE TOWN OF BUITRAGO FROM THE 
JURISDICTION OF ENTREGADORES, 1304 374 

F. PROCEDURE IN THE COURT OF AN ENTREGADOR, 1457 . 376 

G. ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS TO ENTREGADORES, 1529 . . . 382 
H. CREDENTIALS OF A MESTA REPRESENTATIVE, 1528 . 388 
I. ORDINANCES OF THE SERVICIO Y MONTAZGO OR ROYAL 

SHEEP TOLL, 1457 39 1 

J. ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS TO A SHEEP TAX INQUISITOR, 

1489 - * 39 8 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . 401 

GLOSSARY 423 

INDEX 429 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

MESTA CHARTER OF 1525 Frontispiece 

MAP SHOWING HIGHWAYS, TOLL POINTS, AND PASTURAGE 

AREAS 19 

URN USED IN MESTA ELECTIONS 52 

SHEEP TAX DECREE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, 1488 218 
MESTA CHARTER OF 1443 264 



xvii 



ABBREVIATIONS 



Acad. Hist. 
Arch. Ayunt. 
Arch. Hist. Nac. 
Arch. Mesta. 
Arch. Osuna. 
Berlin Kgl. Bibl. 
Bib. Nac. Madrid. 
Brit. Mus. 
Bull. Ord. Milit. 

Alcant. 
Butt. Ord. Milit. 

Calat. 
Cardenas. 



Colmeiro. 
Concordia de 1783. 

Cortes. 
Expediente de 1771. 

Gonzalez. 
Larruga. 

Munoz. 

Nov. Recop. 
Nueva Recop. 

Paris Bib. Nat. 
Quad. 1731. 



(The numbers refer to items in the Bibliography.) 

Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. 
Archive del Ayuntamiento. 
Archive Historico Nacional, Madrid. 
Archive de la Mesta, Madrid. 
Archive del Duque de Osuna, Madrid. 
Konigliche Bibliothek, Berlin. 
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. 
British Museum, London. 
Bullarium Ordinis Militiae de Alcantara. Ortega, 
Brizuela, and Zuniga, eds. Madrid, 1759. 
Bullarium Ordinis Militiae de Calatrava . Ortega, 
Baquedano, and Zuniga, eds. Madrid, 1761. 
Francisco de Cardenas. Historia de la Pro- 
piedad territorial en Espana. Madrid, 1873-75. 

2 VOls. 

Manuel Colmeiro. Historia de la Economfa poli- 
tico, en Espana. Madrid, 1863. 2 vols. 
Memorial ajustado del Expediente de Concordia 
que trata el Honrado Concejo de la Mesta con la 
Diputacidn . . . de Extremadura. Madrid, 1783. 
2 vols. 

Cortes de los antiguos Reinos de Le6n y de Castilla. 
Real Academia de la Historia, eds. Madrid, 
1861-1903. 5 vols. 

Memorial ajustado hecho en Virtud de Decteto del 
Consejo del Expediente consultivo . . . entre D. 
Vicente Paino y Hurtado de Estremadura y el 
Honrado Concejo de la Mesta. Madrid, n. d. 



25-32 
48-61 
33~3S 
17-24 
62-68 



69-70 
127 
128 



Tomas Gonzalez. Coleccidn de Privilegios, 

Franquezas,yFueros. Madrid, 1829-33. 6 vols. 

Eugenio Larruga. Memorias politicas y eco- 

ndmicas sobre los frutos, comercio, fdbricas, y 

minas de Espana. Madrid, 1785-1800. 45 vols. 

Tomas Munoz y Romero. Coleccidn de Fueros 

municipales y Cartas pueblas. Vol. i (no others 

published). Madrid, 1847. 

Novisima Recopilacidn (codified by Charles IV, 

1805). 

Nueva Recopilacidn (codified by Philip II, 

1567). 

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. 

Andres Diez Navarro. Quaderno de Leyes y 

Privilegios del Honrado Concejo de la Mesta. 

Madrid, 1731. 

xviii 



79 
132 

78 
83 

85 

84 
122 

142 
71 

77 



PART I 
ORGANIZATION 



THE MESTA 



CHAPTER I 

ORIGINS 

The pastoral industry of the Moors. The origin of the merino sheep. Sheep rais- 
ing in mediaeval Spain. The early meetings or mestas of shepherds for the dis- 
posal of strays. 

AMPLE evidence of an extensive sheep raising industry in Spain 
and of the high quality of Spanish wool is found in the earliest 
sources of recorded history in the peninsula. A widely prevalent 
pastoral life, including the practice of semiannual migrations, is 
believed by some investigators to have existed in times as remote 
as the primitive Iberian period. 1 The Roman era has left several 
specific references to the reputation of the fine wools of Turde- 
tania and Baetica, which comprised the region of the Guadal- 
quivir valley. 2 In general, however, the wool of this period was 
quite different in quality and nature from the merino of later 
times, and notably so in color, for the earlier fleece was a reddish 
brown. Furthermore the wool of Roman Spain had an unusually 
long, smooth staple, which did not resemble the famous short, 
crinkled product of the merino flocks of later years. This differ- 
ence provokes the inquiry as to the circumstances of the change 
and the origin of the merino. 

The origin of the merino sheep has been much debated, and yet 
very little substantial evidence has been produced thus far to sup- 
port any of the views advanced. The notion that the name as 
applied to the sheep comes from the maiorinus or merino, a royal 
magistrate of mediaeval Castile, who, according to some writers, 

1 The most scholarly examination of this early period is to be found in J. Costa, 
Estudios Ibfricos (Madrid, 1 89 1-95) , pp. i-xxxii. See also Paredes Guillen, Historia 
de los Framontanos Celtiberos (Plasencia, 1888). 

2 References to the writings of Varro, Strabo, Columella, and Martial (himself 
a Spaniard) in this connection, are given in Diez Navarro's introduction to the 
Quaderno or Mesta code of 1731; see Bibliography, no. 77. 

3 



4 THE MESTA 

served as a ' judge of the sheep walks/ 1 may be dismissed at once. 
There is not the slightest indication in any of the Castilian codes 
that this official, either as the classical maiorinus or the Romance 
merino, ever performed any duties concerned with sheep. 2 If such 
had been the case, he would certainly have been used to draw the 
industry under the control of Alfonso X, Alfonso XI, and other 
monarchs with ambitions for centralized government. Equally 
nebulous is the naive conception that the name is due to the sup- 
posed introduction of sheep from across the sea (marina), as the 
dowries of the English brides of Castilian kings. Eleanor Plan- 
tagenet, queen of Alfonso VIII (1158-1214), and Catharine, 
daughter of John of Gaunt and queen of Henry III (1390-1406), 
were commonly believed to have brought to Spain the progenitors 
of the famous breed. 3 

The most plausible view, however, is that the merinos were in- 
troduced by and named after the Beni-Merines, one of the North 
African tribes which figured in the Berber movement into Spain 
during the Almohad period (1146 ff.). 4 It is quite certain that 
the merino breed was not known in Spain before that time, for 

1 Chronicle of James I of Ar agon, tr. by John Forster (London, 1883), ii, p. 707; 
Covarrubias, Tesoro, s.v. Merino. 

2 Arch. Hist. Nac., Indice de los documentos del Monasterio Sahagun (Madrid, 
1874), cites documents showing the change from the Latin form to the Romance. 
Blancas, Comentarios de las Cosas de Aragon (1588), offers some curious theories 
as to the origin and early functions of the maiorinus or merino. His duties as a 
royal judicial and administrative officer in the towns are outlined in the Fuero 
Viejo, lib. i, tit. 5, ley n, and tit. 6, leyes i, 2; Siete Partidas, part. 2, tit.Q, ley 23, 
and part. 7, tit. i, leyes 2, 5; Ord. de Alcald, tit. 32, leyes 45,54, 555 and ley 4, tit. 
20; Leyes del Estilo, ley 222; and in the Ordenanqas reales por las quotes . . . los 
pleitos civiles y criminales (Salamanca, 1500), lib. 2, tit. 13. 

3 Diez Navarro, op. cit., p. n; Acad. Hist., Ms. est. 27, gr. i, E-io: Banez de 
Ribera, Planta de . . . Espinar (1649). See also Alonso Cano, "Noticia de la 
Cabana real " (p. 408, below), whose views were accepted by many later observers, 
among them Ponz, Laborde, and Bourgoing (see Bibliography) . Even the usually 
accurate Capmany seems to have lapsed on this point (Cuestiones crUicas, p. 9). 
Cano's essay exists in manuscript in the Brit. Mus., Eg. 505, fols. 1-40, and in the 
Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 17708, no. 4. Parts of it were printed in the BiUioteca gen- 
eral de Historia, Ciencias, . . . (Madrid, 1834), pp. 5-32. 

4 Huart, Hist, des Arabes (Paris, 1912-13), ii, p. 212; Ensayo de la Sociedad 
Vascongada de los Amigos del Pais (Victoria, 1768) ; Lasteyrie, Histoire de la Intro. 
Merinos (Paris, 1812); Eguilaz y Yanguas, Glosario de Palabras . . . de Origen 
oriental (Granada, 1886), p. 450; Colmeiro, i, p. 282. 



ORIGINS 5 

the famous Moorish classic on agrarian life in the peninsula, Abu 
Zacaria Ben Ahmed's " Book of Agriculture," l written shortly 
before the coming of the Beni-Merines, makes no mention of any 
sheep resembling the merino. Then, too, the marked similarity 
of some ancient practices in the handling of migratory flocks in 
Spain and in those sections of Africa from which the Beni- 
Merines came, indicates a distinct association of the Castilian 
industry with that of the Moors. 2 The fact that the greater part 
of the mediaeval pastoral terminology of Spain was Arabic is 
further evidence on the same point. Such examples may be cited 
as zagal and rabadan (shepherd's assistants), rafala (a pen for 
strays), morrueco (breeding ram), ganado (domestic animal), 
cabana (herd, sheepfold, shepherd's cabin; the term was left in 
southern Italy by the Saracens as capanna), and mechta (winter 
sheep encampment, probably related to mesta). 

In this connection it should be noted that the word merino 
as applied to sheep or wool did not appear in Castile until the 
'middle 'of the fifteenth century. Among the earliest instances of 
it were those in the tariff schedules issued by John II in 1442, 
and by Henry IV in 1457, in which duties were fixed for cloth *j> 
made of ' lana merina.' 3 In the two thousand odd documents of 
the Mesta archive bearing dates previous to 1600 there are less 
than a dozen references to ' merino wool ' as such. In fact, the 
name does not seem to have come into general use until the latter 
part of the seventeenth century. This refutes the theory that 
the name originated in the pastoral functions of an early mediae- 
val judge, the merino or maiorinus. If the activities of that of- 
ficial had had anything to do with the naming of the merino 
sheep, the term would have been applied to the animal far back 

1 This author is sometimes cited as Ebn el Awam. The best edition is that of 
Banqueri, Madrid, 1802, 2 vols. See Ramirez, Bibliografia agrondmica (Madrid, 
1865), p. 207, no. 517. 

2 The methods used in mediaeval Spain to select breeding rams, to castrate and 
to prepare sheep for slaughter, and to clip and wash the wool, were strikingly like 
those of the North African tribes, and were, in fact, commonly believed by the 
Spanish herdsmen to be of Berber origin. Cf . Manuel del Rio, Vida pastoril (Ma- 
drid, 1828), passim. 

3 Brit. Mus. Add. Mss., 9925, p. 96; Liciniano Saez, Apendice d la Crdnica del 
Rey Juan II (Madrid, 1786), p. 109. 



6 THE MESTA 

in the Middle Ages, when the maiorinus first appeared, instead 
of at the very close of the mediaeval period. Similarly, a theory 
that ' merino ' is derived from a combination of certain early 
Iberian and primitive Navarrese words 1 is disposed of by the 
much later date of the appearance in Castile both of the species 
and of its name. 

Furthermore, from the earliest times the Spanish stock had 
been periodically improved by the introduction of African rams, 2 
and from the thirteenth century onward by the investigation and 
application of Berber pastoral practices. During the later Mid- 
dle Ages every lull in the Moorish wars found the more able 
Spanish monarchs alert to improve native stock by crossing with 
North MricaruuiimaK This subject was of particular interest to 
such progressive administrators as Peter IV of Aragon (1336-87) 
and Cardinal Ximenes (1436-1517). The latter was especially 
persistent in turning the attention of his royal patrons to the 
resources and possibilities of the adjoining North African coast. 
In this he was ably assisted by Palacios Rubios, the gifted legal 
adviser of Ferdinand and Isabella, who, during his twelve years 
of service as President of the Mesta, gave invaluable aid by 
facilitating importations from Africa and by codifying old regu- 
lations on breeding. 3 After the extensive introduction of Berber 
stock, every effort was made to eliminate the so-called churro. 
This was the ancient native Iberian species, which produced the 
reddish Turdetanian wool known to the Romans. By_c.areful 

^breeding and selection the pure merino strain was strengthened 
and spread, and the famous white, kinky staple gradually found 

_ its way overseas and became Spain's great contribution to inter- 
national trade and to the pastoral industry of the world. 4 Thence- 

1 Costa, Estudios Ibtricos, pp. xv-xvi. 

2 ColumeUa's classic work on ancient agriculture, De Re Rustica Libri XII, vii, 
2, 4, mentions the importation of African rams into Spain for breeding purposes. 

3 Ensayo de la Sociedad Vascongada, pp. 128-129; Zapata, Noticia de lanas 
finas (Madrid, 1820); Paris Bib. Nat. Res. Oa 198 ter. no. 33: a carefully pre- 
pared anonymous account of early sheep importations from Africa into Spain. 

4 On the methods used by the herdsmen to improve the churro wool and to de- 
velop the merino stock, see Gaceta de Madrid, 10 August 1846; Semanario de 
Agricultura, no. 125 (Madrid, 1799), p. 330; and Mohedano, Historia literariade 
Espana, iv, p. 338 (Madrid, 1772). 



ORIGINS 7 

forth the merino became the pampered favorite of kings; every- 
thing was done to meet its needs; perennial pasturage was pro- 
vided in different parts of the realm, in order that the rigors of 
the climate might be avoided; and finally the formidable organi- 
sation of the Mesta was developed to insure the further protec- 
tion of the favored animal. The churro, the unkempt, despised, 
meagre-fleeced native stock, was neglected and survived only in 
the non-migrating flocks, the object of scorn and abuse from the 
itinerant herdsmen. It seems reasonably certain, then, that, like 
so many other elements contributing to the development of Spain, 
economic as well as cultural and political, the..merino and many 
features of the migratory sheep industry were introduced by the 
Moors.. 

It must not be presumed, however, that the whole industry was 
unknown in Spain before the Moorish period. The practice of 
semiannual sheep migrations in the peninsula goes back to the 
times of the Goths, and probably even to the times of the aborig- */ 
inal Iberians, whose wandering shepherds were reported to have 
rendered valuable assistance to the Carthaginians in their marches 
across the peninsula. 1 Various reasons have been advanced for 
the early appearance and rapid increase of the transhumantes, 
canariegos , caminantes, pasantes, or pasajeros, as the migrants 
have been called. It has been suggested that the constant state 
of warfare between Moors and Chris* ians was largely responsible 
for the development of this form of movable property, which 
might readily be taken out of danger in times of hostility. 2 The 
devastation wrought by plagues, notably the Black Death jof 
1343-50, has also been held responsible for the spread of the in- 
dustry over the depopulated territory. The Mesta, according to 
this view, was " the child of pestilence, to be classed with the 
locust and syphilis as one of the three great curses of humanity, 
all bred by the hated Berber infidels, and, like them, sweeping out 
of Africa and bringing further devastation to Spain in the wake 

1 Costa, Estudios IbSricos, p. ii. On the evidence of Visigothic sheep highways 
and communal pastures for migratory flocks, seeFwero Juzgo (Lex Visigothorum), 
lib. 8, tit. 4, leyes 26-27, ami tit. 5, ley 5, which are discussed below (p. 18). 

2 Sugenheim, Geschichte der Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft (1861), p. 42; Mufioz, 
pp. 39-41; Canciones de mio Cid, v, pp. 280-291. 



8 THE MESTA 

of the Black Death." 1 But in this, as in many other respects, the 
effects of the Great Plague have been considerably overestimated. 
There is ample evidence that Castile was producing an unusually 
high grade wool of the merino type fifty years before the Black 
Death, and that the latter did not usher in any radical change in 
the agrarian life of the countiy, but at the most only gave oppor- 
tunity for the extension of an already firmly established and 
widely prevalent industry. 2 

The.xeal cause for the development of sheep migrations was the 
same in Spain as in other Mediterranean countries, namely the 
sharp contrasts of climate and of topography which made semi- 
annual changes in pasturage desirable. 3 Curiously enough, the 
Spaniards themselves were among the last to appreciate the in- 
fluence of these factors. Although most of their writers on pas- 
toral subjects previous to the eighteenth century understood the 
advantage of perennial pasturage for the merino, that phase of 
the migrations was regarded by them as purely incidental. The 

j I long marches were considered primarily as a conditioning process 

I which kept the aniirifrls ^m-dya.nH_snypH 



wc 
quality 



of the wool. 4 



A vivid illustration of the inadequacy of this opinion is found 
in the effort to introduce the Mesta into colonial Spanish America. 
In fact, the inability of the sixteenth-century Spaniards to ap- 
preciate the real cause or basis of this industry explains another 
of the many economic misconceptions of those redoubtable 
pioneers in overseas administration. It has been frequently re- 
marked that the colonial experience of a nation serves to reveal 
the fundamental character of the institutions and civilization of 
the motherland. A new light is thus thrown upon old world 
practices, laws, and organizations as they are worked out amid 

<f * Sarmiento, in Semanario de Agriculture, no. 16 (Madrid, 1765), pp. 273 ff.; 
reprinted in part in Ponz, Viage (2d ed., Madrid, 1784), viii, pp. 190 ff. See also 
another paper by the same author in Acad. Hist., Sarmiento Mss. v, pp. 311-313. 

2 The town charter (fuero) of Sepulveda, which appeared shortly after 1300, 
classifies the various wools of Castile and gives that of Segovia first place, a position 
which it continued to hold for centuries after. Segovia was long the centre of the 
merino wool trade; in fact, by the middle of the thirteenth century it had become 
one of the four headquarters of the Mesta. See below, p. 50. 

* See below, pp. 68 ff. 4 Partida i, tit. 20, ley 9. 



ORIGINS 9 

strange surroundings and applied to unaccustomed conditions. 
No better illustration of this fact can be found than the de- 
termined attempts of the conquistadores to legislate the old 
Castilian Mesta into existence in the New World, quite regard- 
less of insurmountable topographic and climatic obstacles. The 
first of these experiments were made in Santo Domingo, the 
oldest permanent European colony in America, in the early 
years of the sixteenth century, when the Mesta was at the height 
of its prestige in Castile. The results were ludicrous failures, be- 
cause, as the learned Bishop Fuenleal, president of the audiencia 
of Santo Domingo, later pointed out, the island had no such vast 
stretches of pasturage, in regions with sharply contrasting cli- 
mates, as had made sheep migrations necessary and possible in 
the mother country. 1 The same outcome followed the introduc- 
tion of the Mesta code into New Spain or Mexico by Cortez and 
his successors, many of whom were especially familiar with the 
migratory pastoral industry, because their homes were in the 
pasture lands of Estremadura and Andalusia. 2 In Mexico, as in 
Santo Domingo, all efforts to introduce sheep migrations were 
frustrated by the absence of favorable geographic conditions and 
by the greater attraction of other industries, notably mining. 
The only part of the Mesta code which survived was the ancient 
arrangement for the semiannual meetings to dispose of stray 
animals. 

In the course of the pastoral history of Castile, during the 
early Middle Ages, there appeared in various towns certain stated 
meetings of the shepherds and sheep owners of a given locality, 
These gatherings were usually called two or three times a year to 
administer such clauses of the local fuero or town charter as per- 
tained to the pastoral industry, and especially to assign stray 
animals to their rightful owners. All townsmen interested in the 

1 Alonso de la Rosa, Memoria sobre la manera de transhumacion (Madrid, 1861: 
32 pp.)- This monograph gives the text of Fuenleal's communication, with, the 
comments made upon it by Icazbalceta, the famous Mexican historian. 

2 Adas de Cabildo de Ayuntamiento de Tenuxtitlan, Mexico de la Nueba Espana 
(Mexico, 1859), iv, pp. 313-314: ordinances of the town council of Mexico City, 
1 537-42, introducing the laws of the Castilian Mesta; see also Recop. Leyes Indias 
(Madrid, 1774, 4 vols.), lib. 5, tit. 5, leyes 1-20. . 



10 TEE MESTA 

industry were required to attend the meetings, and because of 
the extensive jurisdictions of some cities Seville, for example, 
controlled seventy-six towns and villages the attendance ran 
up to hundreds and even thousands in the larger centres. The 
right to vote in the meetings was limited in most cases to those 
owning fifty or more sheep, women being eligible to membership 
on an equal footing with men. 1 No distinctions were drawn be- 
tween migratory and non-migratory flocks. These assemblages 
or concejos were called mestas, probably because of the fact that 
the strays to be disposed of had become mezclados or mixed with 
strange flocks. 2 Other derivations of the name have been sug- 
gested, such as " the amistad or amity prevailing among the 
shepherds." 3 The ancient use of the name mechta, among the 
nomads of the Algerian back country, to indicate their winter 
sheep assemblages or encampments, 4 suggests further possibili- 
ties for speculation as to the Berber origins of the name mesta 
and of this practice of periodic meetings of migratory sheep own- 
ers. Occasionally the strays themselves were called mestas, 
though this was not common; * they were usually designated as 
westerns 6 or as mostrencos, the general term applied to all owner- 
less property. 

The business transacted at these local mestas comprised all 
matters pertaining to the pastoral industry. 7 Shepherds were 
engaged for the year, beginning on June 24, and uniform wages 
were agreed upon. The herdsmen were also to be supplied with 
food by their employers and were allowed to maintain certain 
animals of their own with the master's flock free of pasturage and 
other charges. The old gild spirit of strict regulation to prevent 
competition among owners for the services of shepherds was 
everywhere in evidence. Bargaining- Jbetween sheep owners and 

1 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Badajoz, 1560. 

2 In Caceres the meeting was called otero: Ulloa, Privs. Cdceres, tits. 395, 426, 
461 of the twelfth-century fuero. 

3 Covarrubias, Tesoro, s.v. Mesta. 

4 Bernard and Lacroix, L'fivolution du nomadisme en Algerie (Paris, 1906), p. 82. 
6 Ulloa, op. tit., p. 83; Urefia and Bonilla, Fuero de Usagre, cap. 463. 

6 Connected with ' mustang,' the half-wild horse of our southwestern cattle 
ranges. 

7 See below, p. 58, on wages of shepherds. 



ORIGINS 1 1 

herdsmen outside the mesta meetings and any arrangements or 
inducements not authorized by the assemblage were punishable 
with heavy fines. Particular attention was paid to brands, which 
were in many cases carefully recorded by the town or by the local 
mesta. Unauthorized alterations of brands and the sale or se- 
questration of strays were severely punished. 1 

It is evident from the law code of Visigothic Spain that such 
local gatherings to distribute the stray animals in the town pound 
were common at least as early as the sixth or seventh century. 2 
There is no indication, however, that the name mixta or mesta 
was associated with the custom until the twelfth century. 3 
These regular meetings of herdsmen and sheep owners were prev- 
alent not only in Castile but throughout the peninsula during 
the Middle Ages. In Navarre they were called meztas 4 and in 

1 See below, Appendices A and B, for texts of ordinances of the town mestas of 
Ubeda (1376) and of Granada (1520). Ordinances of other local mestas are found 
in Gonzalez, Colec. de Privs., vi, pp. 142-145 (Alcaraz, 1266); Ulloa, Privs. de 
Cdceres, pp. 78 ff. (twelfth century fuero) ; Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 714, pp. 208-210 
(fuero of Plasencia, thirteenth century) ; Boletin Acad. Hist. Madrid, xiv, pp. 302- 
355 (fuero of Ucl6s, 1179; tits. 192-195); Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 121 ff., citing 
excerpts from the fueros of Sepulveda; Valverde Perales, Ordenanzas de Baena 
(Cordova, 1907), pp. 127-136; Ordenanzas para . . . Toledo (Toledo, 1858), 
pp. 4-14; Ordenanzas de Sevilla (Seville, 1527), fols. 115-123; Arch. Mesta, Gi, 
Granada, 1533 (early mestas of Ubeda and Granada); Arch. Simancas, Diversos 
Castilla, Mss. 993-997 (data on the local mesta of Alcaraz) ; Paris Bib. Nat., Mss. 
Esp. 66 (ordinances of the mesta of Baeza, with regulations for local flocks which 
migrate); T. D. Palacio, Documentos del Archivo General de la Villa de Madrid, i 
(cf. index, Mesta). In 1612 a census of local mestas was undertaken by the national 
organization; cf. Arch. Mesta, Prov. iv, 30. 

2 Fuero Juzgo, lib. 8, tit. 4, ley 14. Paredes Guillen, Framontanos Qeltiberos, 
p. 101, accepts this as the origin of the Mesta itself, though there is no indication 
of anything more than meetings of local shepherds for the above mentioned purposes. 

3 Arch. Hist. Nac., Sala vi, caj. 408, Docs. Reales de Beruela, 1125: "si vero 
ganatum vestrum cum alio extraneo mixtum fuerit ..." The name seems also 
to have been applied to lands of mixed or dual jurisdiction. In this connection two 
references will suffice to indicate the change from the Latin to the Romance form: 
Arch. Hist. Nac., Tumbo del Mon. de Lorenzana, fol. 128, no. 185 (A.D. 933) 
" per suos terminos antiques de ambas mixtas usque in petras negras; " and fols. 
128-129, no. 186 (A.D. 1112) " illo canto est per rio Malo et per ambas mestas." 
Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuente el Sauco, 1511, contains a similar use of the word in a 
sixteenth-century pasturage suit, which shows the persistence of this ancient mean- 
ing of the term down to modern times. 

4 Nov. Recop. Leyes Nav. (Pamplona, 1735, 2 vols.), lib. i, tit. 24; Cuaderno 
Ley es Nav.: Cortes 1817-1818 (Pamplona, 1819), ley 54. 



12 THE MESTA 

Aragon ligallos or ligajos. 1 In these kingdoms the Castilian form, 
mesta, was not adopted until the middle or close of the eighteenth 
century. 

Jit is highly important to note that these local mestas had 
nothing whatever to do with migratory sheep as such. They were 
concerned only with the assignment of stray animals, both mi- 
gratory and sedentary, to their rightful owners, and with the 
sale of all unclaimed strays or mestenos. The receipts from such 
sales were usually, though not always as will be explained be- 
low deposited in the town treasury. If there chanced to be 
migrants among the local flocks, they were subject to the rules of 
the town mesta; which in addition, in some cases, was accustomed 
to hold meetings and draw up rules to govern their migratory 
practices. These meetings, and sometimes the rules adopted by 
them, were called the rahala or rafala. 2 Among the towns whose 
flocks were so organized the most prominent was Soria, whose 
herdsmen were to become the founders and leaders of the national 
Mesta. 3 

In 1273, when Alfonso the Learned brought " all of the shep- 
herds of Castile " into one national association and gave them a 
charter, it was quite natural that he should use the name already 
connected with meetings of herdsmen and sheep owners, and call 
! the organization the " Honorable Assembly [concejo] of the Mesta 
of the Shepherds." 4 The ordinances of the local mestas were 
evidently examined with care, and many of their chief features 

1 Arch. Corona Arag6n (Barcelona), Escrituras Jayme II, Ms. no. 187: charter 
of a local ligallo of sheep owners in 1317; Ordinaciones de la Comunidad de Teruel 
(Saragossa, 1685), p. 121; Docs. Ined. Arag., xl, p. 128 (1333); Ordinaciones de la 
Mesta de Albarrazin (Albarracfn, 1740, 42 pp.); Borao, Voces Aragonesas (Sara- 
gossa, 1884), p. 266. 

2 Illustrations are found in Ureiia and Bonilla, Fuero de Usagre, pp. 153-161, 
and in Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres, tits. 396-408; the former was patterned in part after 
the latter. See above, p. n, n. i, reference to the pastoral regulations of Baeza. 

3 Urena and Bonilla, Fuero de Usagre, p. 307, cite a line (c. 122 a, ed. Ducamin) 
from the classic verses of the Arcipreste de Hita referring to the " Rehalas de 
Castilla con pastores de Ssoria." In Caceres the rafala was made up largely of 
migratory herds of horses. See also Concordia de 1783, i, fol. 121, on such pastoral 
organizations in the twelfth century. 

4 The details of this charter of 1273 are discussed below, pp. 78 f., 176 ff. 



ORIGINS 13 

were incorporated into the later codes of the national body, 1 and 
this resulted inevitably in serious friction and confusion. 

As the national Mesta grew in_ strength and importance it / 
undertook to assert claims upon a,ll stray sheep in the realm 
these animals jvere, a^coonik^to the local f ueros themselves, 

mestenps_ and Jheref ore under the jurfe I5L_ 

other jword^ 

that it had preempted the name of the older local pastoral associa- 
tions; it .undertppk to capit^ 

ever expediency required. It appointed Qf&cet$.caRed,alcald 

Mesta i alcaldes de corral } or dcMtt^fegucdrjjfo to .serve jnjv 7 arious_ 
^a^rilhsoY districts with jurisdiction over all strays found in the 
migratory herds. 2 Tte 
earlier centuries of the Mesta, particularly with the enforcement 

LJEJDS2:^^ 

brands _.so _as to _ja^t^_,t_he_,djsposal of mestenos? Where the. 

local flocks were sedentary v no oUfficulties developed ; the officers 
9ilhe.town jnestas . &sposed of ^^^ 

of the Rational Mesta, juntil they became arrogant and ambitious 
und^the^atronage ^ of the sixteenth-century autocrats, were in- 
terested only in the mestenos of the migrants. ^During the reign 
of Ferdinand and Isabella, however, the local sedentary pastoral 
industry began more ^d more to_ assume important proporU 
The local flocks, as we shall see later, undertook limited over- 
night migrations beyond the riberas or borders of the town juris- 
diction, and the strays from these riberiegos soon attracted the 
attention of the Mesta officials. 

1 See below, pp 55, 74, 75. 

2 See below, p. 55. In the sixteenth century the number of such alcaldes 
was greatly increased and each was given a district of ten square leagues. Their 
functions were similar to those of the ' hog reeves ' of colonial New England. 
The custodian or pound keeper in actual charge of the strays was called the 
reusero. 

3 Early laws on branding are found in the Fuero Juzgo, lib. 8, tit. 5, ley 8, and 
Quad. 1731, pt. 2, tit. 20, ley i. 

4 It was commonly the practice for a town to grant as a concession the right to 
dispose of all mostrencos within its jurisdiction. Abraham el Barchilon held such 
a concession in Burgos in 1287: Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. 242. See below, Appen- 
dix C, for the text of a mostrenco concession, dated 1304. 



14 THE MESTA 

/Previous to the reign of the Catholic Kings the disposal of mes- 
/tefios or mostrencos had not caused any serious difficulty. The 
\ officials of the towns and of the Mesta handled those of their 
\respective flocks, sedentary and migratory. Occasionally, how- 
ever, royal officials disposed of unclaimed stray animals, on the 
theory that the king as lord of the whole realm had title to all 
ownerless property. 1 On a similar basis, the lords of various 
towns laid claim to all or part of the local mostrencos as one of 
their seigniorial privileges. 2 The marked increase of the pastoral 
industry during the first half of the sixteenth century, the grow- 
ing importance of the Mesta, and the new claims to mostrencos 
advanced by the increasingly powerful church element all served 
to make this question of the disposal of mostrencos one of the 
difficult problems of the pastoral industry at that time. 

.The accounts of the Mesta after about. 15 25 show steadily 
growing returns from the farming out of mostrenco privileges in 
jyarious districts. During the reign of Charles V the incomes 
from this source contributed largely to the affluence of the Mesta 
treasury in that period. 3 But the penury and weakening admin- 
istrative powers of later monarchs gave various rivals of the Mesta 
an opportunity to obtain titles to stray animals in different parts 
of the country. The towns, military orders, and nobles began to 
reassert their claims to local mostrencos, of which they had been 
deprived by the avidity of the Mesta during the earlier decades of 
the century. 4 JThe most formidable of its rivals was the church, 

1 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 13126: a grant of the mostrencos of Burgos by the 
crown to certain royal creditors ("1287). Cortes, Toro, 1371, pet. 17: protests re- 
garding the disposal of the mostrencos by royal officers. Cf . Jordana, Voces Fore- 
stales, p. 1 86. 

2 Arch. Osuna, Mss. B6jar, caj. 6, no. 52; caj. 9, nos. 61, 63: royal recognition 
of the title of the Dukes of Be" jar to all mostrencos on their estates. Ibid., Mss. 
Infantazgo, caj. 3, leg. 2, no. 19, and leg. 5, nos 7, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25: a series of 
fifteenth and sixteenth century agreements between the Mesta and the Dukes of 
Infantazgo, by which the latter received a third of the proceeds from the sale of 
mostrencos on the ducal estates and the Mesta two thirds. 

8 See below, pp. 284-285. 

4 Arch. Burgos, Ms. 4332, and Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Mss. Reales 341: 
royal orders of 1580 ff. confirming claims to mostrencos in spite of protests from the 
Mesta. Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 65-82: summaries of a series of royal decrees, 
mostly of the period 1561-99, assigning sedentary mostrencos to local authorities 
and restricting the Mesta's authority to strays of the migratory flocks. 



ORIGINS 1 5 

which had been granted title to certain mostrencos by the Cath- 
olic Kings in 1484, 1496, and 1502 as a means of assisting the 
fund of the cruzada, the propaganda work for the Faith against 
the Moors and the pagans of the New World. 1 The Mesta fought 
this concession vigorously, but without success; in fact, the 
campaigns of the devout Philip II against Turks, Protestants, 
and American pagans resulted in further concessions of mostrenco 
rights to the church and corresponding losses to the Mesta. By 
the middle of the seventeenth century there remained for the 
latter only the right to such stray animals as were actually in the 
migrating flocks at the time of the semiannual meetings. 2 The 
ancient right of local mestas to deal with mostrencos, which had 
gradually been encroached upon and absorbed by the national 
Mesta, was thus taken from that body and returned to town 
mestas, churches, and other local bodies. 

These, were, then, the successive episodes or elements out of 
jarhich the Mesta emerged and from which it drew inspiration: 
the. migratory sheep industry of Iberian and Visigothic times, the 
sheep and the pastoral customs of the Berber invaders, and lastly 
the mediaeval town mestas, or gatherings of shepherds to dispose 
of stray animals. Each of these factors contributed toward.the 
origin of the Castilian Mesta. in the latter half of the thirteenth 
century, and had a fundamental influence upon its character and 
later history. 

The course of that history and the importance of the Mesta 
may best be studied under two general headings: first, the inter- 
nal organization of that body; and secondly, its external rela- 

1 Sol6rzano, Politica Indiana, bk. iv, cap. 25. The decree of 1484 gave to the 
' commissioners of the cruzada ' a fifth of all mostrencos, incomes from bull fights, 
and properties of persons dying intestate. Ulloa, Privs. Cdceres, pp. 308-311. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 107, contains a series of documents, 1496-1640, on the 
conflict over the mostrencos. The claims of the church are set forth in Concordia 
de 1783, ii, fol. 70. The introduction into America of these ecclesiastical titles 
to mostrencos is illustrated in a representation of the bishop of Linares on the sub- 
ject, from the Archive del Gobierno de Saltillo, prov. Texas, no. 370 (1784), a copy 
of which is in the library of Professor H. E. Bolton, Berkeley, California. The laws 
regarding the disposal of mostrencos in the eighteenth century are found hi a printed 
folder in Brit. Mus. 8228. 1. 13, i, fols. 345-352, and Hi, fols. 137-149. 



1 6 THE MESTA 

tions with the crown and with landowners, both private and 
public. The first of these headings, the internal affairs of the 
Mesta, will require an examination of the practices connected 
with the sheep migrations, the use of sheep highways, the organi- 
zation of the flocks, the marketing methods employed in dispos- 
ing of the wool, and the constitution of the Mesta itself, its officials 
and their duties. The second, the external relations of the organ- 
ization, will involve a group of three problems judicial, fiscal, 
and agrarian which reflect the position of the Mesta in Spanish 
history and throw light upon the real significance of its long annals 
as an illustration of the ancient and universal conflict between 
herdsman and husbandman. 



CHAPTER II 

MIGRATIONS 

Sheep highways in Mediterranean countries. The Castilian canadas. Traffic routes 
of the Teamsters' Gild of Castile. Organization and size of the Mesta flocks. On 
the march. Wool clipping. 

THE first feature to be noted with reference to the general organ- 
ization of the migratory pastoral industry in Castile is the system 
of special highways for the use of the flocks. These sheep walks 
occur in all of the countries where the industry is found. South- 
ern Italy was traversed by the early Roman calks and their 
successors, the tratturi. 1 In Provence, Algeria, and the Balkans 
there were similar routes some of them probably pre-Roman 
reserved for the wandering flocks. 2 In the Spanish kingdoms 
these highways were known by different names: the cabaneras of 
Aragon, the carreradas of Catalonia, the azadores reales of Valen- 
cia, and, most important of all from the present point of view, the 
canadas of Castile. 3 

The antiquity of the sheep walks in Castile is a question which 
has caused much discussion. It has been contended that the 
curious framontanos (pre-Roman stone images of pigs, rams, and 
bulls) found in many parts of central Spain marked the routes 
of certain Iberian sheep highways, which were later followed by 

1 See below, p. 69. 

2 Densusianu, Pastoritul la Popoarele Romanice (Bucharest, 1913); E. de Mar- 
tonne, " La vie pastorale et la transhumance dans les Karpates m6ridionales," in 
Zu Friedrich Ratzels Gedachtnis (Leipsic, 1904), pp. 225-245; Fournier, "Les 
chemins de transhumance en Provence et in DauphinS," in Bull, de geog. hist, et 
descrip., 1900, pp. 237-262; Cabannes, "Les chemins de transhumance dans le 
Couserans," ibid., 1899, pp. 185-200; Bernard and Lacroix, L'fivolution du noma- 
disme en Algerie (Paris, 1906), p. 69. 

8 In some parts of Castile these routes were called galianas, cordones, cuerdas, 
and cabaniles. The canadas were sometimes merely local sheep walks, running but 
a short distance into the suburbs, but this use of the name was unusual. Ordenanzas 
de Lorca (Granada, 1713), p. 29 (in Berlin Kgl. Bibl., no. 5725); Acad. Hist., 
Sempere Ms. B. 125, no. 17. 



1 8 THE MESTA 

the great Roman roads. 1 A similar theory has also been applied 
to some of the early can air es or sheep roads of Provence. 2 This 
hypothesis, so far at least as Spain is concerned, has been quite 
effectively controverted with evidence which indicates that the 
monuments in question were either religious or sepulchral, 3 and 
not in any way connected with sheep raising, even though the 
migratory pastoral industry was probably prevalent among the 
Iberians. 4 The first unmistakable proof of definitely marked 
sheep highways does not antedate the sixth or seventh century, 
when we find the Visigothic Fuero Juzgo 6 prescribing the reser- 
vation of certain passageways for the migrants. These roads are 
further identified by a quantity of data from the early Middle 
Ages on the taxation of migrating flocks at certain points, 6 thus 
establishing the use of regular fixed routes, which, by the close 
of the twelfth century, were known as canadas. 7 

Strictly speaking, the canadas were only such segments of the 
sheep walks as adjoined cultivated ground. Jhose parts of the 
routes which lay across open, untifed land were n^t mark%Loff 

or specifically designated. Tn common iisag^ V>nwpypr J HIP narnp 

cafiada was applied to any route used by the flocks in their migra- 
tions jrom northern highlands to southern valleys. Only in the 
narrower legal sense was the can ad a. defined a.s the measured 
^passageway between the cultivated areas: the orchards, vine- 
yards, and grain fields. In the royal privilege of 127.3,. given to 
the Mesta by Alfonso X, the width of this passageway was to be 
" six so gas of forty-five spans each." which was equivalent to 
ninety varas, or about two hundred and fifty feet. 8 These were 

1 Parades Guillen, Historia de los framontanos Celtiberos (Plasencia, 1888), with 
an interesting map of these Iberian highways, as marked by the framontanos. 

* See below, p. 143. 

* By far the most scholarly contribution to this discussion has been that of Leite 
de Vasconcellos, Religioes da Lusitania (Lisbon, 1897-1913, 3 vols.), iii, pp. 15-43, 
with an extensive bibliography. 

4 See above, pp. 3, 7. 

* Lib. 8, tit. 3, ley 9; tit. 4, leyes 26-27; aQ d tit. 5, ley 5. See also Concordia de 
1783, ii, fol. 301 v. 

* See below, pp. 161 ff. 

7 L6pez Ferreiro,Fmw de Santiago (Santiago, 1895, 2 vols.), i, p. 366; Bib. Nac. 
Madrid, Ms. 714, fols. 340 v, 342: Privilegio de Segovia, 1208. 

8 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 20; Nueva Recop., lib. 3, tit. 14, ley 4, cap. 22. 



MIGRATIONS 1 9 

the canadas reales, or royal sheep highways, of which there were 
three principal systems: the western, or Leonesa, the central, or 
Segoviana, and the eastern, or de la Mancha. 

The first named ran south of Leon through Zamora, Sala- 
manca, and Be jar, where it was joined by a branch of the second 
or Segovian system, coming down from the northeast by way of 
Logrono, Burgos, Palencia, Segovia, and Avila. From Bejar the 
Leonesa extended southward to the rich Estremaduran pasturage 
below Plasencia, Caceres, Merida, and Badajoz, with branches 
running down along the banks of the Tagus and Guadiana. It 
should be noted that this route did not stop abruptly at the 
border, but ran on into Portugal. Although the Mesta's Castilian 
codes and charters could not be enforced in the neighboring king- 
dom, nevertheless there had been for centuries, before the wars 
of 1641 put an end to the practice, a mutual recognition of migra- 
tion privileges for the flocks of each kingdom in the lands of the 
other. 1 The second Canada system, the Segoviana, had, in addi- 
tion to the above mentioned branch along the northern slope of 
the Guadarrama range from Logrono to Bejar, another route 
which was the most used of all Castilian sheep highways. This 
Canada also started at Logrono, crossed the important summer 
pastures near Soria and lay along the southern slopes of the 
Guardarrama by way of Siguenza, Buitrago, the Escorial, and 
Escalona. It was the principal artery of travel for the thousands 
of animals which wintered each year on the plains near Talavera, 
Guadalupe, and Almad&i, and in the valley of the Guadalquivir. 
The eastern route extended from the highlands of Cuenca and the 
Aragonese border southwest across La Mancha 2 and the upper 
Guadalquivir to the lowlands of Murcia. 3 In addition to these 

1 Arch. Mesta, L-2, Le6n, 1549. 

2 The valiant Don Quixote's famous encounter was doubtless with tramkumantes 
from Cuenca. 

8 These details and the data for the accompanying map are from Arch. Hist. 
Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, iii, 163 (1306), 165 (1308), 220 (1339); Acad. Hist., 
Ms. -127, fols. 249-256 (1332); Cortes, Palencia, 1313, pet. 45, and Burgos, 1315, 
pet. 32; Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 299 v. There is an excellent map of the modern 
railway lines now used by Spanish migrants and of some of the ' anciennes routes ' 
by Fribourg in the Annales de Geographic, May, 1910; but his data for the ' old ' 
routes is evidently from eighteenth and early nineteenth century materials. 



20 THE MESTA 

caiiadas reales there were, of course, many lesser branches and 
connections, some of which came to be called cordeles and veredas. 
In the eighteenth century these were respectively one-half and 
one-quarter the width of the Canada real. 1 

The protection of these highways from encroachments on the 
part of adjoining landowners was intrusted to entregadores, the 
wandering judicial protectors of the Mesta, whose itineraries lay 
along the canadas. 2 It can be well imagined that the landowners 
were under an unusual temptation to inclose a neighboring strip 
of land which lay unoccupied and unused during all but a Tew 
weeks of the year. The maintenance of a right of way for the 
flocks was, therefore, a matter of constant concern to the Mesta 
members and the entregadores. The integrity of the Canada sys- 
tem was the first prerequisite for the success of the whole industry; 
hence the solicitude with which that system was watched and 
defended, and hence the relentless litigation and the repeated 
guarantees on the part of the Mesta's royal patrons. 3 Evidence 
of the efficacy of these efforts in defence of the canadas is found in 
the frequency and vehemence of complaints by the deputies in 
the Cortes. The chief object of these protests was the illegal 
extension of the highways by the entregadores. 4 Ferdinand and 
Isabella were particularly solicitous in their provisions for the 
protection of the canadas. In 1489 they issued the first of a series 
of decrees which increased the penalties for enclosing the canadas 
and strictly forbade any delays to the flocks because of alleged 
trespasses on lands adjoining those highways. 5 

During the middle decades of the sixteenth century, when the 
Mesta was enjoying its greatest prestige, the administration of 
the canadas was given particular attention. In 1551 careful pro- 
vision was made for the filing of reports by the entregadores after 
their inspection of the routes. 6 Furthermore, the crown issued 

1 Nov. Recop. t lib. 7, tit. 27, ley n. 3 See below, pp. 88-90. 

* Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 20 (1284); see below, pp. 86-87. 

4 Cortes, Burgos, 1315, pet. 32; Valladolid, 1322, pet. 62; Madrid, 1339, pet. 32; 
alladolid, 1351, cuaderno primero, pet. 44; Madrid, 1528, pet. 126. 

6 John II had issued a similar but less emphatic decree in 1454: Quad. 1731, 
pt. i, pp. 140-163, 195. 

Arch. Mesta, Acuerdos (minutes of annual meetings), 19 Feb. 1551. These 



MIGRATIONS 21 

several important decrees which protected the rights of way of the 
Mesta, especially by guaranteeing to the flocks definite routes 
across commons and unoccupied lands. 1 y This measure was 
directed against the military orders and certain large cities, 
notably Toledo and Madrid, which for centuries had successfully 
confined the sheep strictly to their canadas and prohibited their 
movements elsewhere within the jurisdiction of the town or order 
in question. 2 

This problem of the sheep marches in tmcultivated regions and 
along unfixed routes, as contrasted with the well marked per- 
manent canadas, involves two types of routes. Firsts/there were 
certain temporary ways, called canadas de hoya, which lay across 
the segments (hojas) of land left fallow each year in accordance 
with a modified three-field system. 3 The intention of this arrange- 
ment was apparently to aid the agricultural interest by fertilizing 
the soil of the untilled strip, as well as to provide a passage for the 
migratory herds. More important/than these, however, were the 
routes followed quite arbitrarily by the flocks across the open and 
waste lands, to which they claimed access by right of their royal 
privileges. Their lines of march in such regions were variable 
and indefinite, in contrast with the carefully bounded and 
policed canadas. It was, therefore, inevitable that the Mesta 

entregador reports (deslindes or apeos) fill over 60 volumes of manuscript and cover 
the period 1551-1796. 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 167-169, 196 (1561-67). 

2 Arch. Ayunt. Madrid, sec. 2, leg. 358, no. 49: a series of litigations between 
Madrid and the Mesta, of the years 130x3-48, in which the latter's right to cross open 
lands of the city was denied, because there was no Canada across such lands. Simi- 
larly the Mesta was required to obtain the permission of the archbishop of Toledo 
to open a Canada over certain waste lands of the archbishopric: Arch. Mesta, 
Prov. i, 2 (1431). The documents of a like case with the Duke of Infantazgo are 
found in Arch. Osuna, Jadraque, caj. 4, leg. 13, no. i (1502). See also Arch. Ayunt. 
Cuenca, leg. 6, no. 89 (1518) : the brief submitted by Cuenca in a case against the 
Mesta, to force the latter's flocks to keep within the canadas and not to use the 
common lands. 

3 Arch. Mesta, C-6, Castrillo, 1712: several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century 
documents on this subject. The Mesta codes are silent on the practice, which seems 
to have originated in long accepted custom and tacit agreement between the parties 
concerned. See below, p. 320, for a discussion of this topic with reference to the 
pasturage problem of the Mesta. 



. 



22 THE MESTA 

should come into constant conflict with the towns over alleged 
trespasses in commons and unenclosed local pastures. 1 

No description, however brief, of the system of national sheep 
highways would be complete without at least a mention of an- 
other and scarcely less important network of highways which was 
used by an organization closely allied to the Mesta. This body 
was the Cabana Real de Carreteros, or Royal Association of 
Teamsters. It received its first official recognition in 1497, when 
Ferdinand and Isabella endowed it with a set of privileges not 
unlike those enjoyed by the Mesta. This charter of 1497 guaran- 
teed to the teamsters freedom from nearly all local taxes while on 
their journeys about the country, the protection of a special 
judicial officer (juez conservador) , and the right to pasturage on 
the common and waste lands in all parts of the realm. 

This last point brought the Carreteros into frequent conflict with 
the Mesta. In 1730 there was fought out between the two a 
notable suit, in the course of which the former revealed the whole 
system by which goods were transported about the country. 2 
This gild of the Carreteros had been favored with royal privileges, 
it appears, " because of its value to commerce within the country 
in times of peace, and as an equipment for the transfer of baggage 
in time of war." Charters were granted to the teamsters' organ- 
ization in 1497, 1499, 1516, and I553- 3 Its members came from 
Madrid, Valladolid, Toro, Zamora, Salamanca, and Tordesillas, 
in other words, the same highland towns of northern Castile 
where most of the Mesta members lived. 

Most interesting of all, however, is the picture of the domestic 
commerce of Castile as it was carried on in the ox-carts of the 
Carreteros over a regular system or schedule of routes. Accord- 
ing to a statement introduced in the above mentioned suit on 
behalf of the teamsters, " they usually spent the winters south of 
Toledo, where their oxen rested and regained their strength until 
April. On the first stage of their annual journey they carried 
loads of charcoal from the woodlands of Toledo to Talavera, the 

1 See below, p. 319. 

8 Arch. Mesta, Prov. iii, 49. 

* Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 28, leyes 1-6. 



MIGRATIONS 23 

home of the famous potteries, where they arrived about June. 
Thence they journed as far south as Seville [presumably with 
tiles, terra cotta ware, etc., for shipment to America]. They then 
started north across the Guadiana valley, bringing salt as far as 
Coria and Plasencia. Thence their route lay southeast to the 
highlands of Alcudia with wood for the mines of Almaden, whence 
they carried quicksilver to Seville for transportation overseas to 
the Mexican mines. Another circuit, after the wintering near 
Toledo, led northward to Madrid, to which point grain was 
brought and exchanged for wool at Segovia. This wool was taken 
up to Vitoria; and the carts were there loaded with iron for the 
north coast, where they took on salt and carried it to Vierzo and 
Ponferrada [in the upland sheep country west of Leon]. Then 
they returned eastward to Poza, near Burgos, where salt was 
loaded for Valladolid, Salamanca, and other parts of Castile." 
This picturesque, though practically unknown, system of internal 
trade has further interest because of its connection with the pas- 
toral industry, notably in the transportation of wool and salt, and 
in the use of wayside pastures by the oxen. In 1750 the privileges 
enjoyed by Mesta members in the use of town commons were 
extended to the Carreteros. 1 This decree was confirmed and ex- 
tended several times by Charles III (1759-88), who, it appears, 
was as anxious to encourage the organization of transportation 
within his realm as he was eager to destroy the Mesta. 2 The 
teamsters' association continued to handle the bulk of the 
domestic commerce of Castile until well into the nineteenth 
century. 

We may now turn from this curious organization of migratory 
ox-cart traffic to the more intricate details of the flock migrations 
of the Mesta. The preparations for the southward march of the 
Mesta flocks, which began about the middle of September, did 
not include any of the formalities common to the beginning of the 

1 Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. no. 3119. 

2 Arch. Hist. Nac., Mss. Consejo de Castilla, leg. 158, no. 4; leg. 227, no. 9; 
leg. 434, no. 3; leg. 752, no. i; leg. 817, no. 26; leg. 819, no. 2; leg. 877, no. 45 J 
leg. 1446, no. 8. The last three of these are dated 1797-1818. As is explained be- 
low (pp. 132, 293, 345), the hostility of Charles toward the Mesta contributed 
largely to the downfall of the organization. 



24 THE MESTA 

march of migrants in other countries. 1 In Castile the only cere- 
mony was the daubing of the sheep with almagre, a reddish earth, 
thought by some writers to be intended as a dressing for the wool, 
and by others as a mark of ownership to minimize the confusion 
during the breaking up of the encampments. The animals of 
each owner were branded with his mark, and were kept together 
on the march. 2 All of his flocks, pack train, horses, cows, and 
swine, taken together as a group, were known as his cabana. 3 

/ The cabana real, however, meant, not the flocks of the king, but 
\ the entire pastoral industry of the realm as governed by the 

\ king's decrees. This definition was used to check the military 
orders and powerful ecclesiastics when they undertook to form a 
great cabana not subject to those decrees. 4 Each cabana was 
under the general charge of a chief herdsman (mayoral), and was 
divided into flocks or rebanos of about a thousand head each. 5 
Smaller flocks were called hatos, manadas, or pastorias. 6 The 
rebano included five rams (morruecos) and twenty-five bell- 
wethers (encencerrados) , and was in charge of a herder with four 
boys as assistants (zagales, rabadanes) and five dogs (mastines). 

1 The details here given on the practices of the migrants while on the march are 
from Manuel del Rio, Vida pastoril (Madrid, 1828), a curious account by a shepherd 
who dedicated his observations on his trade to the Mesta; Cano, op. cit.\ William 
Bowles, Introduccidn d la Hist. Natural . . . de Espana (1782), pp. 520-530. See 
also Bertaux and Yver, "L'ltalie inconnu," in Le Tour du Monde, 1899, pp. 270 ff., 
on practices of migrants in southern Italy, and Martonne, op. cit., on pastoral 
festivities in the Carpathians. 

2 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 244 (1499). There is no ground for the theory, some- 
times expressed, that the name Mesta originated in the mixing of the flocks of dif- 
ferent owners at the outset of the migrations. 

8 Ibid., pt. i, p. 49 (1347). The name cabana was also applied to the cabin of 
a shepherd. See above, p. 5. 

4 Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 27, ley u. 

6 In documents of the thirteenth century the rebano is frequently called the 
grey, cf. Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-1, Fueros, privilegios . . . municipales, i, p. 422 
(Alarcon, 1252). A law of 1563 which stipulated that the rebano be made up of 
a hundred instead of a thousand head, seems to have had no effect: Cerbantes, 
Recopilacidn de reales Ordenanzas de Basques, p. 652. 

8 Arch. Osuna, B6jar Mss., caj. 33, no. u (1457). The horses, oxen, or mules 
of a given locality were frequently herded together for short migrations. In 
Aragon and Navarre such herds were called adulas, dulas, or viceras: Jordana, Voces 
Forestales, p. 10; Borao, Voces Aragonesas, pp. 145, 353. 



MIGRATIONS 25 

The latter were looked after with special care; in fact, they are 
still given the benefit of every consideration both by modern 
Spanish law and by all interested in the pastoral industry. The 
food allotment was the same as that for the shepherds. Injuries 
done to them were punishable by fines ranging upward from five 
sheep. The possession of a stray sheep dog was illegal, unless 
authorized by the Mesta at one of its annual meetings. 1 

The rebano was accompanied by several beasts of burden which 
carried the equipment: the long net which served as the sheepfold 
at night, the leather bottles and primitive cooking utensils, the 
food for men and dogs, the salt for the flocks, and the skins of 
animals which died on the march. 2 The quota of salt was about 
a hundredweight for each rebano, nearly all of which was con- 
sumed in the upland pastures. One of the most cherished of the 
Mesta's exemptions was that which freed it from the heavy salt 
tax. 3 

The few animals destined to be sold as mutton were given salt 
frequently in order to have them drink much water, which was 
supposed to fatten them. The use of mutton, however, was very 
uncommon in Spain, probably because migrations made the 
merino very tough 4 and because it was regarded as of greater 
value for its wool. In place of mutton, much pork was eaten, 
both because of its high quality, which was due largely to the 
abundance of acorn fodder, and because its consumption re- 
moved suspicions of Judaism. 5 It is curious to note that in a 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 222. The present day Asociaci6n General de Ganaderos, 
the successor to the Mesta, devotes considerable attention to the maintenance of 
the better breeds of sheep dogs. The Castilian sheep dog was a short haired, heavy, 
muscular animal, capable of withstanding the fatigue of the long marches and of 
defending his charges against wolves and thieves, both of which were plentiful. 
Good types of these animals are shown in some of Velasquez's paintings. 

* Arch. Osuna, Bejar Mss., caj. 58, no. 19 (1634): an inventory of one of these 
flocks. 

8 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 99, 101-102 (1528, 1571, 1592). 

4 The breed retains this characteristic today, even in regions where no migra- 
tions are undertaken. 

6 J. C. Dunlop, Memoirs of Spain during the Reigns of Philip IV and Charles II 
(1834, 2 vols.), ii, p. 399. Sorapan, in his Medicina Espanola (1616), pp. 130 ff., 
endeavored to increase the use of mutton by recommending its supposed medicinal 
qualities. 



26 TEE MESTA 

series of menus prepared in 1529 by a cook of Charles V, three- 
fourths of the 140 items or courses mentioned were meat and 
fowl, but only four of these were mutton. 1 The whole organiza- 
tion of the Mesta was shaped toward the growing of wool, and any 
consideration given to the production of meat was only incidental. 

The animals at the head of the rebano, as it set out upon its 
long march, were the sick and delicate sheep, the breeding ewes 
(parideras) , and the rams (morruecos) . These were the favored 
ones, which were thus given first access to the pastures along 
way. They were subject to special exemptions from confiscation 
for tolls and taxes, as were also the bellwethers (mansos or 
encencerrados) . 2 

Any comment upon the number of migratory sheep in Spain 
must begin with the immediate dismissal of the extravagant and 
quite unauthenticated estimates of Caxa de Leruela, 3 Bourgoing, 4 
Laborde, 5 Randall, 6 and others, who picture the Mesta as being 
made up of from 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 sheep in the sixteenth 
century. These imposing figures, we are assured, shrank in the 
seventeenth century to 2,500,000, largely as a result of the 
reforms enforced by the Cortes. 

Previous to the sixteenth century, few reliable figures can be 
cited on the size of the migratory herds. 7 Fortunately, however, 
the account books of the Mesta, which are available from 1512, 
contain valuable statistics on this topic. Each year, at the winter 
meeting of the Mesta, the accounts of the previous year were 
balanced and dues were assessed. These dues were based upon 

1 Acad. Hist., Sempere Mss., Papeles varies Earn. Polit. 6-127. See also Mar- 
tinez Montino, Arte de Cocina (many eds., 1653 ff.) ; Labat, Voyages en Espagne et en 
Italic (1730, 8 vols.), i, pp. 242-243. 

2 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 16-18 (1285); Arch. Mesta, C-io, Cafialeda, 1488; T~3, 
Toledo, 1555; Provs. i, 15 (1496), 57 (1554), 59 ( I S39); "> 2 3 (1636); Arch. Osuna, 
Santillana Mss., caj. 9, leg. i, no. 7 (1426). 

3 Restauracidn de la Abundancia de Espana (Naples, 1631). Leruela, who was 
an entregador in 1623-25, was endeavoring to show the havoc wrought in the in- 
dustry by the reformers of his tune. 

4 Tableau de V Espagne moderne (2d ed., Paris, 1797, 3 vols.), i, p. 89, note. 

6 Itineraire descriptive de VEspagne (3d ed., Paris, 1827-30, 6 vols.), v, p. 248. 
' Fine Wool Sheep Husbandry (New York, 1863), pp. 6-7. 

7 The accounts of the royal sheep toll in the Arch. -Simancas, Cuentas, Servicio, 
y Montazgo, are fragmentary before the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. 



MIGRATIONS 2J 

the debit balance, which was distributed among the members in 
accordance with the number of sheep- that each possessed. That 
number was ascertained by representatives (procuradores) of the 
Mesta, who were present at the royal toll gates along the canadas. 
During the greater part of the sixteenth century, when the Mesta 
was at the height of its strength "and importance, this pro rata 
assessment was fixed as accurately as possible. After 1566 the 
tendency was to form only a rough estimate of the flocks and use 
that as a basis for the assessment. The results of this count will 
serve to indicate the average size of the Mesta flocks during its 
most prosperous period: l 



1477. 


...2,694,032 


IS3I- 


.. .2,521,200 


1547- 


2,693,302 


1512. 


. . . 2,590,661 


1532. 


. . . 2,600,000 


1548. 


...2,738,677 


1514. 


...2,895,471 


1533. 


...2,500,000 


I549- 


. . . 2,705,000 


1515. 


. . . 2,745,546 


I534- 


. . . 2,600,000 


I55L 


...2,227,182 


1516. 


...2,775,250 


I53S. 


. . . 2,380,000 


1552. 


...2,863,750 


1517. 


...2,860,632 


1536. 


. . . 2,495,797 


ISS3. 


...2,857,214 


1518. 


. . . 2,934,057 


IS37. 


. . . 2,066,554 


ISS4. 


. . . 2,750,000 


I 5 I 9- 


...3,177,669 


1538. 


. . . 2,650,914 


1555- 


...2,372,000 


1520. 


...3,027,608 


1539. 


. . . 2,905,548 


ISS6. 


. . . 2,622,890 


1521. 


...2,538,270 


iS4o. 


. . . 2,678,947 


ISS7. 


. . . 2,180,074 


1523- 


.. .2,822,264 


iS4i. 


...2,528,590 


1558. 


1,903,636 


1524- 


...2,543,961 


IS42. 


...2,711,213 


ISS9. 


...1,746,811 


1526. 


-.3,453,168 


1543. 


...2,780,764 


1560. 


...2,034,911 


1527. 


...2,853,648 


I544- 


.. .2,302,018 


1561. 


...2,128,797 


1528. 


.. .3,014,440 


IS4S- 


. . . 2,580,000 


1562. 


...1,673,551 


1529. 


. . . 2,613,000 


1546. 


...2,712,548 


1563. 


. . . 2,303,027 


1530. 


...2,528,883 











Two points of fundamental importance are brought out by 
these figures : first, in no year did the number of sheep equal even 
half of the estimate of the writers cited above; and second, the 
decline began long before the reforms of the early seventeenth 
century were undertaken. At no later period was the average of 

1 The figures for 1477 are from the Censo de Poblacidn (Madrid, 1829), p. 108. All 
are given as ' sheep,' though they include a few cows, horses, goats, and swine, which 
were resolved into ' sheep ' on the basis of six sheep for one cow or horse, with goats 
and swine counting the same as sheep. The number of these was so few, however, 
that this point does not materially detract from the value of the figures. During 
the first half of the sixteenth century the ' sheep ' rating of these animals averaged 
between 250,000 and 300,000 a year. The figures given for the years 1532-35, in- 
clusive, are evidently estimates. 



THE MESTA 



thes 



;se figures ever surpassed. In other words, the transhumantes 
toere most numerous during the first decade of the reign of Charles 
FV, and their numbers fell off steadily after the zenith had been 
passed. These figures place the beginnings of Mesta decadence 
in the period 1550-60, which is more than a century earlier than 
the time when the collapse of the organization is commonly be- 
lieved to have begun. The reasons for this discrepancy are of 
fundamental importance in the history of the institution; we 
shall consider them in detail later on. 

The question of the distance traversed by the sheep before they 
reached their southernmost destinations is one which may be dis- 
posed of here. The flocks from Leon and Soria travelled between 
three hundred and fifty and four hundred and fifty miles from 
their summer feeding grounds, while those from Segovia and 
Cuenca usually journeyed one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
miles. 1 In traversing the highways between cultivated lands, the 
daily march was sometimes as much as fifteen or eighteen miles; 
but across open country the speed was usually only five or six 
miles a day. In general, a month sufficed to cover the distance, 
and the last of October usually found all of the transhumantes in 
their winter camps on the rolling pastures of Estremadura and 
Andalusia, or the sunny Mediterranean lowlands. The lambs 
were born soon after the arrival in the southern pastures, and in 
the following March they were ready to be branded on the nose 
with the owner's mark, and to have the future breeders among 
them sorted out. 

While on their way to the southern pastures and during the 
winter months there, the sheep owners occasionally disposed of 
animals in wayside town markets. The ever increasing number 
of sheep thus sold, which were called merchaniegos, illustrates one 
phase of the very important influence of the Mesta upon_tbe 
growth of national markets, the spread of trade from local and 
metropolitan districts into jarger areas. 2 While in the southern 

1 Arch. Mesta, P-6, Puertos, 1605 : details of migrations from Burgos to Me"rida 
and the Portuguese border. Ibid., P-6, Puebla de Montalban, 1562; T~3, Toledo, 
1589; V-4, Villalpando, 1500; Y-2, Yscar, 1503; and Z-i, Zamora, 1758. 

2 See below, pp. 30 ff. 



MIGRATIONS 29 

pastures, the shepherds occasionally bought non-migratory sheep 
in neighboring towns. These animals, called chamorras, were 
used to provide mutton and cheaper grades of wool to be sold 
on the northbound march. 1 

The departure from the southern plains began about the mid- 
dle of April, and the sheep were clipped in sheds along the way. 
Each rebaiio, as it arrived at its clipping station, was kept over 
night in close quarters, so that the wool might be softened by the 
perspiration, and thus the clipping be easier and the fleece, which 
was sometimes sold in the grease, heavier. The clippers worked 
in corps of one hundred and twenty-five, each corps being able to 
dispose of a rebano of a thousand head in a day. The wool, if 
not sold in the grease, was then washed, and taken away to be 
stored in one of the central lonjas, or warehouses, of which the 
largest was in Segovia. Finally it was removed to the great fairs, 
especially that at Medina del Campo, or to the north coast ports 
for shipment to Flanders and England. After the clipping there j 
came a short interval of rest for recuperation and acclimatizing, 
and the journey was then resumed in slow stages. By the last of 
May or early June the flocks were once more in their home 
pastures in the northern uplands around Soria, Segovia, Cuenca, 
and Leon. 

1 Arch. Mesta, Servicio y Montazgo, leg. 2, no. i, Esteban Ambran, 1707-08. 



\ 



CHAPTER III 

MARKETING 

Wool marketing in Italy and Aragon. Early exports of Spanish wool to England. 
Organization of the export trade by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Burgos Con- 
sulado or Trade House. Its foreign branches. Its contact with the Mesta at the 
Medina del Campo fair. The Mesta and the trade with the New World. Organi- 
zation of the domestic wool trade. Dealing hi ' futures.' Middlemen. Trade 
policies of the Hapsburgs. 

WHEREVER the migratory sheep industry appeared, the herds- 
men soon carried on a thriving trade in the markets and fairs 
along the routes of the flocks. The southbound autumn journey 
of the migrants usually coincided with the period of town fairs of 
the harvest season, and large sales of pastoral products were 
usually made. A large part of the supplies necessary for the 
shepherds and their charges were secured in the near towns in 
exchange for wool, skins, meat, and cheese. The sheep owners 
among the Berber nomads were always active traders. 1 In the 
uplands of southern France and in Navarre, trade between passing 
shepherds and wayside townsmen had become so active that it 
was necessary to regulate it carefully, in order to prevent the sale 
of stolen animals by the shepherds, and to check possible viola- 
tions of strict gild rules by local merchants in their dealings with 
the herdsmen. 2 The Navarrese towns protected themselves 
against these intrusions of strangers in the local markets by assess- 
ing taxes or lezdas upon goods thus brought in. 8 

The pastoral products of the migrating herds in southern Italy 
had, from the early Middle Ages down to the eighteenth century, 
been sold exclusively at the annual fair in Foggia under strict 
royal supervision. This was the solution of what to the mediaeval 

1 Bernard and Lacroix, Nomadisme en Algerie (Paris, 1906), p. 207. 

2 Cavaillfcs, " Une f6dration pyr6ne"ene sous 1'ancien regime," in the Revue 
historique, cv, p. 29; Alonso, Recop. Fueros Nav. (Madrid, 1848, 2 vols.), ii, pp. 353 ff. 

3 Yanguas, Die. Antigiiedades Navarra, ii, p. 200; Coello, Impuestos de Ledn y 
Castilla, p. 650; Munoz, i, p. 239. 

30 



MARKETING 3 1 

mind was undoubtedly one of the chief objections to the whole 
practice of large scale sheep migrations, namely the inevitable 
promiscuity of unregulated marketing activities. The difficulties 
in the way of imposing the time-honored trade regulations upon a 
large and mobile group of producing merchants, or rather market- 
ing producers, were all too obvious. The operations of these 
itinerant trader-herdsmen covered all corners of the realm; and 
it was undoubtedly this very characteristic, and the consequent 
impossibility of enforcing any of the exacting stipulations which 
were held by mediaeval public opinion to be so indispensable in all 
economic relations, that led to the insistence upon the restriction 
of all their marketing to one point. It has been said that the con- 
centration of the winter products of the migrants in the royal 
warehouses at Foggia, for sale under the supervision of crown 
officers, was largely for fiscal purposes. More especially, how- 
ever, was it intended to facilitate the inspection of quality, the 
maintenance of prices, and the regulation of supply which were 
the essence of the local market in the later Middle Ages. 

In the case of the ^a^gojr^ejnigrants, attempts were made to 
check their marketing activities by severe restrictions, and espe- 
cially by the imposition of keavy export duties, not upon the 
sheep, since these would supposedly return to Aragon, but upon 
the supplies carried by the shepherds. 1 Such measures, it was 
hoped, would prevent trading in goods the export of which was 
forbidden, and would, in general, minimize a form of commerce 
which, because of its movement through sparsely settled border 
towns, was difficult to regulate. After the union of Castile and 
Aragon this curiously mediaeval policy was continued. A cus- 
tom house was maintained at Huelamo in the Castilian province 
of Cuenca, on the main route of the Aragonese flocks to their 
southern pastures. Even the movements of the flocks and their 
supplies a short distance across the border were carefully observed 
and restricted. In order to guarantee their return, all animals 

1 On several occasions the Aragonese kings undertook to assess tariffs upon the 
sheep, but they were promptly reminded of certain acknowledged exemptions. 
Cf . the arguments by an attorney of the Saragossan Casa de Ganaderos in 1693, in 
a broadside beginning, " Seiior, Don Juan Franco y Piqueras "; also Brieva, Coke, 
de Ordenes, p. 131, n. 3. 



32 THE MESTA 

and pastoral products had to be registered, and the collection of 
heavy registration fees caused frequent quarrels between the ex- 
asperated herdsmen and the overzealous royal collectors. 1 

In Aragon the migratory sheep industry lacked that national 
organization which gave the Castilian shepherds such power in 
their dealings with the crown's tariff collectors. The Aragonese 
migrants were split up into various local units the mesta of 
Albarracin, the Casa de Ganaderos of Saragossa, the ligajo of Cala- 
tayud, the cofradia of shepherds of Letux, etc. As a result of this 
lack of cohesion and unity of action, the marketing activities of 
the migrating herdsmen could readily be checked both by the 
crown and by the leagues or comunidades of pasturage towns. 2 
Gild rules were imposed by the central government, establishing 
certain regulations to govern the marketing of wool and its 
products. 3 Nevertheless, there was a fairly active trade carried 
on by the Aragonese herdsmen, who brought down dairy products 
for the coast cities and wool for export and for the Valencian cloth 
factories. This trade between the Aragonese highlanders and the 
southeastern seaboard sprang up immediately after the Moors 
had been driven from the coastal plains during the middle decades 
of the thirteenth century. The customs barriers upon the traffic 
of the Aragonese migrants were not removed until the close of the 
seventeenth century. In 1693 the Royal Council finally granted 
the privilege of free and unrestricted movement across the border. 4 
Thus one of the fiscal relics of mediaeval Spain, the Spain of sep- 
arate kingdoms, contending sectionalism, and closely restricted 
marketing, was swept aside. 

The migratory pastoral industry was evidently a force of con- 
siderable importance in breaking down the confining barriers of 
mediaevalism which had prevented any acceleration of com- 
mercial activity. The long and regular marches of the herdsmen 
and their animals spread the market area for pastoral products 

1 Arch. Mesta, H-i, Huelamo, 1526 ff.: documents of a long series of such 
disputes during the sixteenth century. 
a See below, p. 299. 
3 Parral, Fueros deAragdn, ii, pp. 403, 414: For. Regni Arag., lib. 4, tits. 627, 

633-634. 

* Arch. Mesta, H-i, Hu61amo, 1695. 



MARKETING 33 

beyond the restricted local areas and even beyond the national 
frontiers. 

The Castilian towns displayed this same spirit of hostility 
toward the marketing activities of the migratory shepherds. The 
universality of portazgos and similar taxes upon goods brought to 
local fairs and markets by strangers l was due, in part, to the 
widespread movements of the migrating flocks. The latter were, 
however, by no means friendless in their wanderings. From the 
earliest times, royal charters were issued in favor of the migrants 
of loyal towns or monasteries, granting them unrestricted and 
untaxed entry into local markets in a large part or the whole of 
the realm. 2 In some rare instances, the favored flocks were 
granted exemption from the royal customs duties levied at the 
frontiers. 3 

The first known charters of the Mesta those of 1273 and 
1276 guaranteed to the members of that organization the right 
to trade their pastoral products for supplies in wayside markets, 
and to dispose of not more than sixty sheep from every flock in a 
given town, regardless of local ordinances prohibiting trading by 
strangers. 4 This was one of the most jealously guarded priv- 
ileges of the Castilian migrants; confirmation of it was secured on 
every favorable occasion, not only from the crown 5 but also by 
written agreements with the towns themselves. 6 

It should be carefully noted that the Mesta itself entered into 
no commercial relations, owned no sheep, and took no part in 
marketing any pastoral products. It was simply a protective 
designed to facilitate the operations of its members, 



1 See below, p. 165. 

2 Munoz, i, p. 509: fuero of 1133; Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres, p. 115: edict of 
1293; see also below, p. 168. 

3 Gonzalez, vi, p. no: an exemption of 1258 in favor of the flocks from Alicante 
which crossed the Aragonese border. 

4 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 38-41- 

6 Ibid., pp. 23, 42-45, 61: charters of 1285, 1295, 1347, 1395 ff. See also Nov. 
Recop., lib. 9, tit. 4. 

6 Arch. Mesta, T-2, Toledo, 1376: a concordia or agreement between the Mesta 
and Toledo, granting the former certain privileges in the markets of the latter. 
Similar agreements were made with such important metropolitan markets as 
Granada and Seville. 



34 THE MESTA 

to plead their cases at court, and to secure for them every possible 

advantage. But although the Mesta took no direct part in mark- 

l eting wool, its persistent activity on behalf of its members was 



undoubtedly the chief reason, not only for the remarkably early 
nationalization of wool and sheep marketing throughout Castile 
and the breakdown of mediaeval local restrictions upon this 
traffic, but also for the far more important development of an 



\ organized, large scale export trade in wool. 

The history of the Spanish wool trade is yet to be written. It 
is a phase of EuropeancommeraanGstory which for its signifi- 
cance and diverse and widespread influence has long merited far 
more attention than it has received. 1 Here we may note only cer- 
tain aspects of this extensive subject, namely the part played by 
the Mesta in encouraging that trade and in the introduction of 
merino wool into the markets of the world. 

At least as early as the twelfth century there had grown up a 
more or less irregular exportation of Spanish wool to England. 
In 1172 Henry II of the latter country had attempted to protect 
the interest of the English wool growers by forbidding this traffic. 2 
A century elapsed, however, before an overseas wool trade was 
undertaken by the Spaniards with any regularity; and then, 
within a generation after the founding of the Mesta, the fine 
Castilian wools were beginning to appear in the ports of England 
and Flanders. It was soon found necessary to establish a factory 
or trading post of Spanish wool merchants at Bruges. 3 Further- 
more, the customs reports of the incoming trade of Southampton, 
Sandwich, and Portsmouth, from 1303 onward, note the arrivals 

1 There is a wealth of untouched material upon this subject in the town archives 
of such north coast ports as Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Santander, and of the 
important interior wool markets of Burgos and Segovia. The archives of the 
ancient consulados of some of these cities are also prolific in manuscripts on this 
topic. Simancas documents upon the fairs of Medina del Campo are an obvious 
source of further data, since that city was one of the points of concentration for 
outward bound wool shipments. A beginning has been made in the study of the 
east coast wool trade by Ventalld Vintr6's Historia de la Industrie lanera Catalana 
(Barcelona, 1907). 

2 Adam Anderson, Origin of Commerce, i, p. 127; ii, p. 350; John Smith, 
Chronicon Rusticum, i, p. 69. 

3 Cartidaire de Vancien consulat de VEspagne d Bruges. 



MARKETING 35 

of various consignments of the Spanish staple almost every year. 1 
These shipments evidently came from ports on the north coast of 
Spain San Sebastian, Santander, and Bilbao where the 
wools of Mesta flocks were concentrated for shipment each sum- 
mer after the northward migration. As a result of this rapidly 
growing trade, various cofradias or gilds of merchants and ship- 
ping interests were soon organized in the north coast cities. 2 

It is evident, then, that an active export traffic in wool was 
noticeable at least fifty years before those middle decades of the 
fourteenth century which were marked by the vigorous patronage 
of Alfonso XI and the devastations of the Black Death. It will 
be recalled that Alfonso and the Plague have commonly been 
held responsible for the introduction of sheep migrations on a 
large scale and for the rise of the Mesta. The Great Pestilence 
may have cleared the land for more pasturage and the support of 
Alfonso XI undoubtedly helped the Mesta, but it is certain that 
a rapidly growing Castilian sheep raising industry was making 
itself felt in the foreign wool markets many years before the days 
of the great Alfonso and the epidemic of i348~5o./ While^the 
development of the overseas wool trade was perhaps too early in 
the history of the Mesta to permit us to ascribe it entirely to 
the appearance of that body, nevertheless the two events are evi- 
dently associated. The Mesta, as will be explained later, grew in 
power, and the wool exportations expanded, because the industry 
which both represented was steadily increasing in importance. 
Castile had, in fact, by far the most active and productive pastoral 
industry of any country in Europe in that period. Instead of re- 
ceiving her first highbred sheep from England, as has been some-j 

0N. S. B. Gras, Early English Custottis System (Cambridge, 1917), 32, 35, 37, 
39, 43- 

2 Cf . Eloy Garcia de Quevedo y Concell6n, Ordenanzas del Consulado de Burgos f S' 
(Burgos, 1905) , and Ordenanzas de la Ilustre Universidad Casa de Contratacion y Con- tx 
sulado de San Sebastidn (Oyarzun, 1814), drawn up in 1511 for the newly organized 
Consulado of Bilbao. In each of these cases, however, the origins of the organiza- 
tions can be traced back to the early fourteenth century. See also the Documentos 
. . . para la Historia de Pontevedra, iii (1904), containing the ordinances of a 
similar gild in Pontevedra. These mediaeval codes were used as models for the 
f rdinances of the merchant gilds of Saragossa (1771) and Valencia (1776). 






_ 



36 THE MESTA 

times alleged, she had long been " famous ... for fine cloth, be- 
fore the English knew what it was to be clothed." l 

In order to prevent the development of foreign competition in 
the fine wool trade, the strictest rules were laid down by the na- 
tional Cortes, at the behest of the Mesta, prohibiting the exporta- 
tion of sheep from Spain. 2 Migratory flocks crossing the frontier 
on their annual migrations into Portugal, Aragon, or Navarre 
were required to register in order to insure the return of all ani- 
mals. Heavy penalties were levied upon any herdsman within 
twelve leagues of the borders if he could not produce a registration 
card for his sheep. 3 The export ofjhe wool itself camejo be re- 
stricted in the course of the fifteenth century, when the native 
cloth factories had become important enough to demand con- 
sideration. In 1442 schedules of cloth prices were promulgated 
so as to protect the coarser native fabrics. Seven years later, 
heavy import tariffs and frequent prohibitive edicts were used to 
check the importation of foreign goods. Finally, jn 1462, the 
exportation of more than two-thirds of the wool clip for any given 
year was prohibited. 4 Charles V later undertook to limit the 
supply for foreign trade to a half of the annual clip, with a view 
toward further encouraging the native cloth industry. This 
brought forth, however, such vehement protests from the Mesta, 
and from the merchant gild of Burgos, where the exportable wool 
was gathered for overland shipment to the north coast ports, that 
the original proportions of two-thirds for export and one-third for 
home consumption were restored. 

The energies of the Mesta leaders, who were never far from the 
court, had been concentrated more and more, toward the close of 
the fifteenth century, upon the necessity of expanding the over- 

1 Smith, Chronicon Rusticum, i, p. 69. 

2 Cortes, Palencia, 1313, pet. 17; Burgos, 1315, pets. 17, 18; Valladolid, 1322, 
pet. 43; Madrid, 1339, pet. 5. 

3 Nueva Recop., lib. 6, tit. 18, ley 21. 

4 Nueva Rccop., lib. 6, tit. 18, ley 46; Cortes, Toledo, 1462, pet. 27; Laborde, 
Itineraire descriptif de VEspagne (3d ed., 1827-30), v, p. 330; Las premdticas 
que S. M. ha mandado hazer . . . (Alcala, 1552). The last-named volume com- 
prises a rare collection of edicts concerning the wool trade during the period 1440- 
1551. A copy of it is in the Paris Bib. Nat. (Res. F. 1257: 9) See also Monterrosc 
Prdctica para escribanos (Madrid, 1545), p. 143. 



MARKETING 37 

seas wool trade. This was, according to their arguments, an indis- 
pensable source of royal revenue, a certain means of making 
England and Flanders the debtors of Castile, and, in short, of 
capitalizing most advantageously the leading natural resource of 
[the peninsula. </ 

It was during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella that this 
policy of aggressively promoting wool exports received its greatest 
encouragement. It became the keynote of the commercial pro- 
gramme of those royal devotees of mercantilism. With their 
characteristically shrewd appreciation of Spanish regard for ! 
tradition, they ostentatiously turned to the past, avoided abrupt 
innovation, and veiled the coming of their wool trade campaign 
by confirming the edict of 1462. As we have noted, the latter 
document undertook to conserve the supply of Spain's ' classic 
staple ' as the basis of a native textile industry. As time went on, 
however, it gradually became apparent that, for the first time in 
history, the commercial affairs of the Spanish kingdoms were 
administered upon a carefully planned policy aimed persistently 
at one definite purpose, namely, the exportation of those raw 
materials for which the greatest quantities of gold and foreign 
commodities could be secured in return. 1 

The first step of Ferdinand and Isabella in this programme was 
in connection with the organization of the wool export trade. The 
efficiency of the Spanish factories at Bruges, London, La Ro- 
chelle, and Florence was given careful attention and the mer- 
chants interested in them were endowed with special privileges. 2 
The importation of foreign cloths into Castile, which had long 
been extensive and had now taken on increased activity as a 
corollary to the heavy wool exports, was at first encouraged. It 
was not until after Isabella's death (1504) that Ferdinand ma3e 
some attempts to develop a natjve_woollen cloth industry. He 
introduced elaborately detailed gild regulations and even pre- 
scribed a form of domestic or ' putting out ' system, whereby 

1 Further details of this mercantilism of the Catholic Kings may be found in 
Haebler, Wirtschaftliche Blute Spaniens, pp. 6-7, and in Ansiaux, " Hist. econ. de 
1'Espagne," in Revue d 1 economic polilique, June, 1893, P- 5 2 &- 

2 Nueva Recop., lib. 3, tit. 13, ley i. 



38 THE MESTA 

successive manufacturing processes were completed in turn by 
different groups of workmen, operating through intermediaries 
not unlike the entrepreneurs of the seventeenth-century English 
cloth industry. 1 

The expulsion of the Jews in 1492 made necessary a further 
impetus to the exportation of wool and other available raw ma- 
terials. This was due to the fact that the Jews formed the largest 
group of merchants in Spain familiar with money economy, and 
handled most of the operations of foreign exchange. The interval 
between their expulsion and the coming of the Flemish and Italian 
satellites of the Emperor Charles a gap of nearly thirty years 
was a period of confusion in the affairs of Castilian merchants. 
It was inevitable, therefore, that the latter should be encouraged 
by their sovereigns to turn to the exploitation of the wool trade 

I as one of the obvious means of adjusting their foreign obligations. 
This was the situation which in 1494 brought into existence the 

^famous Consulado ox foreign trade house of -Burgos, to be fol- 
lowed in 1511 by the establishment of a similar institution at 
Bilbao on the north coast. After the edict of expulsion of 1492, 
business, particularly the wool export trade, had become hope- 
lessly clogged. Litigations were being delayed, apparently be- 
cause of inadequate experience with the mechanism of foreign 
trade, until, in the words of the decree of 1494, " some commercial 
suits bade fair to become immortal." The Consulado was there- 
fore founded at Burgos on the lines of certain trade administrative 
courts of Barcelona and Valencia. According to the decree, the 

1 Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 27, ley 6; tit. 28, ley i, and tit. 29, ley 6; Prescott, 
Ferdinand and Isabella, pt. 2, chap, xxvi; Capmany, Cuestiones crit., pp. 25-72. 
Guicciardini, Opere, vi, pp. 275-276, makes mention of some attempts to promote 
a cloth industry in 1512; see also Clemencin, Eldgio, p. 244; Cortes, Madrid, 1515, 
pet. 14; and the city ordinances of Seville, approved by Ferdinand and Isabella 
in May, 1492, regulating the operations of 31 weavers in that capital: Ordenanqas 
de Sevilla (Seville, 1527), fols. 206-211. The latter were elaborated by Ferdinand 
in 1511 into a code of 118 paragraphs specif ying details on wool- washing, widths 
and weights of cloth, adulteration, dyeing, inspection, and the distribution of the 
cloth in successive stages of completion among various crafts: cf . Ramirez, Prag- 
mdticas, fols. clxxvii-clxxxiv. Upon earlier regulations of the native cloth industry 
and the restriction of the sale of foreign cloths, see Ramirez, fols. cxvii-cxix 
(1494-1501). 



MARKETING 39 

institution was intended " to expedite shipping by organizing the 
exportation of goods in fleets, to prevent fraud and theft by mer- 
chants and intermediaries," and, in short, to build up an efficient. * 
marketing organization to handle the raw materials of northern y 
Castile, especially the wool from the Mesta flocks. 

The establishment of this export house, coming as it did upon 
the heels of the first extensive codification of the laws of the 
Mesta itself, 1 was clearly a part of a broad plan to build up for the 
whole wool industry, from pastures to market, a comprehensive 
organization to facilitate the exploitation of this great resource. 
The details of the operations of the Consulado were carefully 
defined, and the specifications were strictly enforced by the 
watchful Isabella and her agents. The prior and Consulado of 
Burgos were to be under royal supervision, and were to have 
charge of the loading and allocation of the ships belonging to the 
fleets (flotas). After these vessels had assembled at north coast 
ports, notice was sent to wool growers of Burgos, Segovia, Lo- 
grofio, and the other home towns of Mesta members, announcing 
the time when and where their wool for export was to be gathered. 
The ships used were to belong only to native Spaniards. Fac- 
tories or selling agencies were to be maintained in Flanders, 
France, and England at specified points; and thefactores were to 
carry on all their operations according to instructions from the 
Burgos office, to which they were to send their accounts each year 
for auditing. The books were then to be sent to the great fair at 
Medina del Campo in charge of a committee of merchants, two 
representing the Burgos office and two the wool growers and mer- 
chants of other towns. The committee was then to assign the 
proper shares of the profit to each of the growers and merchants 
contributing wool for the transactions of the Consulado. These 
claims of Mesta members upon shares in the profits of the wool 
trade were frequently used, during the financial difficulties of the 
first Hapsburgs, as securities for heavy loans to the crown by the 
Mesta. 2 It is clear, then, that although the latter had no share 

1 See below, p. 49, on the code of Malpartida, 1492. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, Feb., 1537, Aug., 1537, Feb., 1544: the accounts of 
such transactions. See also below, pp. 279 ff. 



40 THE MESTA 

directly in the development of improved marketing methods, it 
supplied a considerable part of the machinery needed by the 
sheep raisers to carry out their part in the new arrangements. 
In the end, the Mesta profited heavily in the large sums it was 
able to raise from the Medina bankers during the sixteenth cen- 
tury, thanks to the annual liquidation of the wool export obliga- 
tions at the great fair. 1 

further feature of interest in connection with this matter of 
the organization of the wool trade is the fact that the shipping 
department of the Consulado of Burgos became the immediate 
model for the more famous Casa de Contratacion at Seville. 
This ' House of Trade ' was established in 1503, for the manage- 
ment of the transatlantic Jfofos, and in fact the whole of the 
trade with the New World. 2 The experience of the Spanish mon- 
archs in organizing their wool export had, in fact, been almost 
their only training in dealing with such a problem of commercial 
administration. Out of this successful experience there grew the 
conviction that large scale overseas traffic was best handled by the 
flota or fleet system a device well known long before this to the 
Venetians and other traders and by a concentration of foreign 
trade management in a single institution having both judicial and 
administrative functions. 

Simultaneously with this unusual interest in the organization 
of exporting, came an appreciation of the necessity for more care- 
ful attention to the promotion and regulation of internal market- 
ing. The easy-going Henry the Impotent, Isabella's brother and 
predecessor, had lavished various commercial concessions upon 
his favorites. The diezmo del mar, or export tax collected at the 
ports, was bestowed in 1469 upon one of the courtiers, who pro- 
ceeded to reap a rich harvest in wool export taxes. 3 This valuable 

1 The full text of the 1494 edict is found in Ramirez, fols. cxlvi-cxlviii. See also 
Clemencin, Eldgio, p. 249; Haebler, op. cit., p. 50, n. 9; Ventall6, op. cit., passim] 
Altamira, Hist, de Espana, ii, pp. 490-500; T. Guiard y Larrauri, Hist, del Con- 
sulado de Bilbao, vol. i (1913); Garcia de Quevedo y Concell6n, Ordenanzas del 
Consulado de Burgos. 

2 Cf. C. H. Haring, Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies (Cam- 
bridge, 1918). 

3 Haebler, op. cit. y pp. 113, 119. 



MARKETING 41 

source of income was not regained by the crown until 1559. 
Henry had also disposed of monopolies covering the domestic 
trade in certain pastoral products, notably hides, but these con- 
cessions were soon revoked by Ferdinand and Isabella. 1 Con- 
structive legislation was then undertaken in order to buildup 
internal commerce within and between the now united kingdoms 
of the peninsula. A series of decrees was issued modifying the 
previously prohibitive customs duties and restrictions upon 
trade across the Castilian-Aragonese border. 2 These measures 
were particularly welcome to the Mesta herdsman, whose migra- 
tions into Navarre and Aragon were much hampered by the 
refusals of the royal agents at the puertos secos, or border customs 
houses, 3 to allow any supplies to be carried by the shepherds 
without payment of diezmos, or export duties. In some cases 
these restrictions had even been interpreted so as to prevent 
the flocks themselves from leaving Castile. Arrangements were 
now made for the registration of flocks crossing the frontiers and 
for the assessment of nominal tariffs, or none at all, upon such 
animals as were sold before returning to Castile. 4 An edict was 
also issued establishing standard grades and weights for the wool 
trade throughout the kingdom a measure which was epoch- 
making in the commercial history of Spain and was profoundly 
significant in the development of the pastoral industry. 5 

Even more important evidence of the improvement in market- 
ing methods is found in the regulation of what had been regarded 
as the questionable operations of middlemen (revendedores) 6 and 
dealers in wool l futures.' The latter class had been most obnox- 
ious, especially because of the " dangerous atmosphere of chance 
which was about all their transactions, " according to the Mesta 

1 Cortes, Toledo, 1480, cap. 79. 

2 Ramirez, op. cit., fols. xc-xcii, cxxxiii, cxlv-cxlvi (1488-1503). 

3 For a brief account of these puertos secos see Ripia, Rentas Reales, iv, pp. 180 ff . 

4 Cortes, Toledo, 1480, pet. in; Arch. Mesta, A~5, Alcazar, 1487, exempting 
all supplies and animals en route to Murcia from tariffs; similarly, Prov. i, 10 
(1488); C-i, Caceres, 1494, established rules for the registration of flocks crossing 
thCjJPortuguese border. 

lemencin, Eldgio, pp. 248-251; Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 55 (1488). 
* Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 239-240: texts of ordinances of 1511 regulating the 
transactions of wool middlemen. 



42 THE MESTA 

ordinances of 1492, which reflected the mediaeval suspicion of 
such ' non-essential ' services. Then too, the sheep owners were 
hostile toward the middlemen because of the entangling contracts 
into which the latter inveigled Mesta members in order to secure 
future deliveries of wool. For example, in case the clip of any 
wool grower happened to fall below the contracted quantity, the 
deficiency usually had to be filled by the grower from purchases 
made elsewhere, for which exorbitant prices were paid. It must 
be noted, however, that neither the transactions of the revende- 
dores nor the dealings in futures had been entirely prohibited; 
and as Isabella studied the problem, she evidently came to appre- 
ciate the possibilities of the service rendered by those engaging in 
this form of trade. Finally she formally recognized the middle- 
men and approved of their operations, under certain strict reg- 
ulations, because such recognition meant further specialization of 
industry and the segregation of the wool marketers into a sep- 
| arate group so that they might be definitely placed under royal 
supervision. 1 

Even these transactions in wool, however, were usually re- 
stricted to a few important concentration points, such as Medina 
del Campo, Segovia, and Burgos. Not until the close of the Mid- 
dle Ages were itinerant traders given any consideration or security 
under the ordinances of the more remote towns and-villages of 
Castile. This attitude was not altogether unjust, for the smaller 
communities felt a not altogether unmerited suspicion about the 
title of wandering merchants to the goods which they offered for 
sale. 2 The expulsion of the gypsies and of the Moors after the 
capture of Granada had freed the country of many roving ped- 
dlers, whose dealings had given a most unsavory reputation to all 
trading in rural districts. Another step which had greatly facil- 
itated the wayside trading of the Mesta members was the or- 
ganization in 1476 of the national Hermandad, the ' brotherhood ' 
of rural police, which exterminated most of the lawlessness of the 

1 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 5, no. 98 (1498); Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 17 (1498). 

2 The Navarrese law required that proof of ownership should be given by any 
stranger offering sheep for sale in local markets. Nov. Recop. Leyes Nav. (Pam- 
plona, 1735, 2 vols.), lib. i, tit. 20, ley 21. 



MARKETING 43 

country districts. For the first time in Castilian history the 
thinly populated southern plains were safe for honest migrating 
traders. 1 

There was evident, then, for the first time, the development of 
a distinctly national marketing, as contrasted with the older, 
more restricted trading in metropolitan or large city centres. 
The domestic commerce of mediaeval Castile was largely con- 
centrated in a few widely scattered urban districts, which were 
almost completely isolated from one another, except during the 
brief periods of their annual fairs. The evolution of the wool and 
sheep trade from this more or less irregular activity into an un- 
hindered, nation-wide traffic, binding together the various com- 
mercial centres, was the outcome of the nationalizing policy of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. They made full use of the Mesta, its 
itinerant attorneys and entregadores, in order to sweep aside 
the obsolete restrictions by which local prejudice and suspicion 
had prevented the entrance of the migratory traders into town 
markets. In spite of this assistance, however, the wool trade 
continued to be largely an export business because of the lack 
of a native cloth industry, and the shipments were still concen- 
trated very largely in Burgos and the north coast ports, as 
described above. 

The conspicuous feature of this newly stimulated domestic 
trade in pastoral products was the sale of Mesta sheep in the 
markets of towns along the cafiadas. Hitherto the herdsmen 
had displayed little interest in this traffic in live animals. Because 
of the encouragement given by Ferdinand and Isabella, however, 
sheep trading became so general that a new term came into use 
to designate animals offered for sale in wayside towns by the 
Mesta shepherds. These market sheep were called merchaniegos, 
in contrast to the cabaniles, which were animals of the cabanas or 
flocks en route to pasture. 2 With the vigorous support of the 

1 On the activities of the mediaeval town hermandades and the constitution of 
the national body, see Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire, ii (1918), pp. 
100-104. 

2 One of the earliest instances of the term merchaniego is in Arch. Simancas, 
Mss. Diversos Castilla, no. 117 (ca. 1480): " merchaniegos que se mercare en las 
ferias et en los otros lugares fuera de los terminos " a definition showing the use 




44 THE MESTA 

sovereigns and the active cooperation of the corregidores ad- 
ministrative and judicial officers representing the crown in the 
towns the Mesta secured written guarantees from many towns 
allowing the unrestricted and untaxed sale of sheep in the local 
markets. 1 But the most important concession in this connection 
was not from the towns but from the crown. In 1495 a decree 
was issued exempting Mesta members from payment of the 
alcabala, which was a blighting tax on sales and one of the chief 
sources of income for the royal treasury. 2 This proved to be one 
of the most helpful of all the measures enacted by Ferdinand and 
Isabella to encourage the marketing of pastoral products in Spain. 
The results of this systematic campaign were soon evident. The 
number of sheep marketed in various towns along the canadas 
and near the southern pastures rose steadily from about 10,000 a 
year at the beginning of the sixteenth century to 96,000 in I535- 3 
These animals were used, for the most part, to improve local non- 
migratory herds and to build up the estante or sedentary pastoral 
industry. The latter increased steadily in importance during this 
period and eventually became as formidable a rival and opponent 
of the special privileges of the Mesta as were the agricultural 
interests. 4 Similarly, the foreign wool trade had grown with great 
rapidity and reached its height during the reign of Charles V, 
when, according to contemporary observers, it was six times the 
trade of the previous reign 5 not a very definite estimate, it is 
true, but one which adequately indicates the expansion of the 
marketing aspects of the industry. 

of the name to indicate animals taken to market away from the home land of the 
owner. Arch. Mesta, C-6, Castilbayuela, 1482, brings out the same contrast be- 
tween the cabaniles or migrants and the merchaniegos or market animals. 

1 Arch. Mesta, A-o, Avila, 1484; 8-4, Segura, 1487; 8-4, Segovia, 1488; G-i, 
Granada, 1501. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 13. 

8 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, Aug., 1535. 

4 See below, pp. 342-343, for a discussion of the extension of enclosures for the 
benefit of these estante flocks. 

6 " A treatise concerninge the Staple and the commodities of this Realme," an 
anonymous account (ca. 1519-36), probably by Clement Armstrong, of the rivalry 
ireen English and Spanish wool merchants in Flanders, reprinted by Reinhold 
li in Abhandlungen der Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen, xxiii (1878). 



MARKETING 45 

Charles undertook to follow the policies of his illustrious 
grandparents by continuing the promotion of the wool trade. In 
"this he was encouraged by many interested and influential court- 
iers, especially Flemings and north Italians. By 1542, in fact, the 
Genoese had practically gained a monopoly of the wool export 
trade. 1 This was not long retained, however, and the older 
arrangement of marketing through the Burgos Consulado and its 
foreign offices was soon revived. Internal marketing, both be- 
tween the kingdoms of the peninsula and between the various 
towns, was likewise promoted by cutting down tariff barriers and 
local taxes on merchaniegos, or Mesta sheep offered for sale. 2 
Charles was particularly anxious to weld his peninsular kingdoms 
into one economic unit; and to accomplish that purpose he issued 
a series of twelve measures during the years 1529-50, intended to 
facilitate the marketing operations of the Mesta in Navarre and 
Aragon. Tariffs were lowered at the puertos secos, or inland cus- 
tom houses, and the registration of migrants at the border was 
made as perfunctory as possible. 3 The culmination of this policy 
came in 1598 with the removal of some of the custom houses on 
the Castilian-Aragonese frontier. 4 The last tariff barriers between 
Aragon and Castile were not removed, however, until 1714, when 
they were wiped out by Philip V in the course of his Bourbon 
programme of unification. 

The operations of the middlemen (revendedores) were carefully 
watched throughout the sixteenth century to prevent specula- 
tion. 5 The great rise in prices, due primarily to the influx of 
American gold and silver, was at its height in Spain during the 
closing years of Charles's reign (ca. 15405.). Frantic efforts \ 
were made through legislation to check the increaangjQQstsjof \ 
wool and woolen cloth: middlemen were further restricted; town \ 
taxes on sheep were curtailed; and many hasty experiments were 

1 Haebler, op. cit. t p. 168; Ansiaux, op. tit,, p. 544. 

2 Ansiaux, op. tit., pp. 537, 545; Colmeiro, ii, pp. 179, 181. 

3 Arch. Mesta, Provs. i, 26, 28, 29, 36-39, 63, 66, 67, 71, 76; see also Colmeiro, 
ii, p. 542. 

4 Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 31, ley 4, art. 6. 

8 Las prem&ticas que Su Magestad ha mandado hazer (Alcala, 1552); see above, 
p. 65, note. See also Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres, p. 370. 




46 THE MESTA 

made by the Cortes. In 1548, for example, foreign cloth was 
allowed to come in without payment of duties and the exporta- 
tion of native goods was prohibited. In 1555 this policy was 
suddenly reversed; foreign woolens were excluded, and the manu- 
facture and export of the native product encouraged in every 
way. 1 

The decline of the wool trade, both external and internal, began 
to set in as an inevitable accompaniment of the gradual weaken- 
ing of the Mesta. Evidences of this became conspicuous during 
the first two decades of the reign of Philip II, as will be indicated 
below. 2 The wool trade itself was well on the downward trend by 
about i577- 3 Travellers through the wool markets of Segovia, 
Valladolid, and elsewhere noticed the stagnation and the unmis- 
takable signs of disorganization. 4 Philip attempted to exploit the 
wool trade as he had the other aspects of the pastoral industry, 
and the results were equally disastrous. In 1559 he had reac- 
quired the royal diezmo del mar or seaport customs duties, which 
in 1469 had been alienated from the control of the royal exchequer 
by Henry the Impotent. Philip promptly undertook to exploit 
this new source of income by levying a series of heavy export 
duties on wool. 5 These were administered by a corps of energetic 
officials, the alcaldes de sacas or export judges, who realized 
keenly that their income would be commensurate with their 
zeal. It was not long before they became notorious both for their 
wealth and for their ruthless shortsightedness in taxing the wool 
trade practically out of existence. 6 

The marketing activities of the Mesta during its later years 
rapidly declined with the general weakening of its influence and 
power. It stood steadfastly, however, for the removal of local 
restrictions upon trade, and worked persistently, though unfor- 

1 Ansiaux, op. tit., pp. 550-651. f See pp. 114-115, 286-288. 

Vv3 Enrique Cock, Jornada de Tarazona (1592), ed. by Morel-Fatio, p. 46. 

4 Brit. Mus., Harl. Ms. 3315, p. 39. 

6 Arch, de Fomento, Alcala de Henares, leg. 1704: an invaluable collection of 
decrees covering the wool export duties from 1559 to 1 758. Other documents bear- 
ing on the same topic may be found in the Acad. Hist., 6-128, Papeles Varies Econ. 
Hist., doc. 4. 

Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 71 (1560). 



MARKETING 47 

tunately with few results, against the hampering consumes or 
octroi taxes which obstructed the movement of sheep and wool 
into the various local markets. 1 Even the much mistrusted mid- 
dlemen, or revendedores, were encouraged by the Mesta leaders, 
during the latter half of the seventeenth century, in the hope of 
reviving the wool trade. 2 In the last dark decades of the or- 
ganization, before the storms' of Campomanes's attacks of 1770- 
'85 broke against it, the expedient was proposed of organizing a 
company to handle the wool trade, both export and domestic. A 
monopoly concession Was to be secured, and the whole trade was 
to be carefully administered through warehouses scattered about 
in the upland headquarters of the Mesta and agencies at the 
coast ports and abroad. This plan was, in fact, simply an elab- 
oration of the old Consulado of Burgos, which had handled the 
traffic so effectively during the time of the Mesta's greatest pros- 
perity. 3 When an imposing industrial organization called the 
Company of the Five Gilds was founded in Madrid in the middle 
of the eighteenth century with a capital of 16,500,000 redes 
and a programme for world-wide commercial operations, it was 
hoped by the Mesta that the wool trade might be developed by 
the new enterprise. Unfortunately, however, the abilities of the 
exploiters were not of the sort to succeed in such an undertak- 
ing, and the Company never achieved its great ambitions. 4 

As a final humiliation to the Mesta, and to its long cherished 
hopes for a continued monopoly of the high quality wool trade, 
there came the first considerable exportation of merino sheep 
from Spain. The successful establishment of flocks in Sweden in 
1720, and later, on a larger scale, in Saxony and at Rambouillet, 
France, made inevitable the doom of t;he Mesta with its anti- 

1 Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real, Expedientes, leg. 48 (1627); Arch. Mesta, 
Provs. ii, 2 (1627), 15 (1637); iii, 41 (1726). 

2 Arch. Mesta, Provs. ii, 5, 14 (1630 ff.). 

3 Larruga, Memorias, xxviii, pp. 1-87: records of debates on this topic at Mesta 
meetings from 1673 to 1707. Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real, Expedientes, leg. 48 
(1703): tentative plans of such a company drawn up by a President of the Mesta 
for the approval of the Royal Council. 

4 Brit. Mus., Add. Mss. 10,255, PP- I- 7 : " varies papeles tocantes a los Cinco 
Gremios de Madrid." 



48 THE MESTA 

quated export organization, and all of the obsolete practices of the 
Spanish pastoral industry. 1 

1 Extensive accounts of the various experiments with merinos abroad in non- 
migratory flocks and of their early exportation to England, France, and the United 
States are found in Zapata, Noticias del origen . . . de lanas finas (Madrid, 1820), 
and in Carman, Heath, and Minto, Special Report on the History of the Sheep In- 
dustry (Washington, Dept. Agric., 1892), with many references. 



CHAPTER IV 

INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 

Ordinances. Meetings. Elections. Membership. The President and other offi- 
cers. Legal staff. Fiscal agents. Shepherds; their duties and privileges. Pro- 
portion of large and small owners. 

Two characteristics were typical of Spanish political machinery 
during the Middle Ages, namely, its democracy, and the scru- 
pulous attention of its codes and ordinances to the minutest 
administrative details. Both of these features stand out con- 
spicuously in the constitution of the Mesta; in fact, they give 
that institution much of the interest which it has for the student 
of Spanish constitutional history. 

The internal organization of the Mesta its meetings, its 
membership, and its staff of officers was prescribed in the 
ordinances which were codified in 1492 by Malpartida, the able 
legal expert of Ferdinand and Isabella. 1 There were earlier com- 
pilations of Mesta laws, such as that of 1379, but these have not 
been preserved. 2 The code of 1492 was supplemented by one 
drawn up in 1511 by Palacios Rubios, second president of the 
Mesta (1510-22), and, like Malpartida, a famous councillor of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. 3 These ordinances of 1492 and 1511 
summarized the constitutional practices which had been observed 
by the Mesta for centuries: the procedure of its meetings, the 
qualifications and functions of its officials, and the obligations and 
privileges of its members. Let us proceed, then, to an examina- 
tion of these various details. 

In the earlier centuries of the Mesta's history, the sheep owners 
were accustomed to hold three annual meetings. About 1500, 
however, these were reduced to two sessions, each of about twenty 

1 Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 184 v-igS. 

2 Francisco Hilario Bravo, Noticia sucinta del Origen de la Asociacidn (Madrid, 
1849: 15 pp.), p. 15. 

3 Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 198-251. Palacios Rubios was conspicuous in the 
codification of the first laws regulating the trade and government of the colonies 
in America. 

49 



SO THE MESTA 

days' duration, one in the south, in January or February, and the 
other in the north, in September or October. During the years of 
waning prestige and of financial stringency, in the seventeenth 
century, the herdsmen frequently held only one annual meeting, 
and even that was once abandoned when the attacks of the 
Cortes deputies became unusually bitter. 1 The places of meeting 
were designated, in turn, by each of the four centres or head- 
quarters of the Mesta: Soria, Segovia, Cuenca, and Leon. The 
southern and southwestern towns in which the winter meetings 
usually assembled were Villanueva de la Serena, where the Mesta 
kept its archive in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Don 
Benito, Siruela, Guadalupe, Talavera, and Montalban. In the 
northern mountains the customary meeting places were Aillon, 
Riaza, Aranda de Duero, Buitrago, Medina del Campo, Berlanga, 
and Siguenza. 2 It was not until 1740 that Madrid became the 
usual place for both winter and summer meetings, though the 
Mesta archive had been transferred to that city about 1593. In 
the middle of the eighteenth century the voluminous bundles of 
the archive were transferred across the city from the church of 
San Martin to the edifice on the Calle de las Huertas in which 
they are housed today. 8 

The meetings were usually held in a church; but not infre- 
quently they took place in the open fields, and for such occasions 
an ingeniously constructed collapsible and portable altar was 
carried. This contrivance and the accompanying silver service 
are still employed for the mass read before the annual meetings 
of the Mesta's successor, the Asociacion General de Ganaderos del 
Reino. The quorum of the sessions was forty, and the actual 
attendance probably between two and three hundred. This was 
only about a tenth of the herdsmen who were entitled to attend, 
namely all who paid the royal tolls on migratory flocks. Women 
sheep owners were often present, and were given all the privileges 
of membership. 

1 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. i, no. i (1273); Paris Bib - Nat - Rg s- Oa. 198 
ter no. 46 (1616). See also below, pp. 119, 289. 

8 See Map, p. 19. The meeting places from 1500 to 1827 are listed in Matfas 
Brieva, Colec de Crdenes pertenecientes al Ratno de Mesta, pp. viii-xxxi. 

Cf . p. 403- 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE UESTA 5 1 

In all things the votes of the body were taken by quadrillas or 
groups. These were the four units into which the sheep owners 
were districted around the leading pastoral centres of the northern 
uplands Soria, Segovia, Cuenca, and Leon. The quadrilla of 
Soria included the bishoprics of Osuna, Burgos, Calahorra, Sig- 
uenza, and part of Tarazona. That of Cuenca comprised the 
bishopric of that city, and was later (1693) extended to include 
the regions of southern Aragon, around Albarracin and Teruel. 
The Segovian district was made up of the bishoprics of Segovia 
and Svila, and of Valle de Lozoya, Real de Manzanares, and other 
adjoining localities of less importance. The Leon quadrilla in- 
cluded the bishoprics of Le6n and Astorga. In these regions were 
the homes of the transhumantes and their owners, the Mesta 
members. 1 At the Mesta sessions each quadrilla met separately, 
arrived at a decision upon every question to be brought before 
the entire organization, and then expressed its position at the gen- 
eral meeting through the quadrilla leader. The four leaders sat 
two on either side of the President, with the one from Soria in the 
position of honor at his right hand. 2 Occasionally one or more of 
these quadrillas would take independent action without consult- 
ing the general body. 8 

As is explained below, 4 the right to vote in the quadrillas was 
not qualified by any specifications regarding ownership of flocks 
of a given size, as was the case with the historic sheep owners' 
gild of Saragossa. In spite of this liberality, however, the great 
sheep owners among the nobility were occasionally able to bring 
pressure to bear through the President of the organization, who 

1 Bravo, Noticia sucinta, pp. 5-8. The royal privileges of 1273 an d after made 
the Mesta ostensibly include " all sheep owners in the realm," as will be pointed 
out later. This attempt at universality did not, however, affect the fact stated 
above regarding the habitat of the migrants. 

* Arch. Simancas, Mss. Diversos Castilla, no. 1643, is a carefully written opin- 
ion of some Mesta attorney in 1566, in which the local mesta of Soria (see above, 
pp. 9 ff .) is regarded as the model for the national Mesta. This may have been the 
reason for the precedence which Soria enjoyed over the other quadrillas. 

8 Arch. Mesta, Prov. ii, 38: a vote of a subsidy to the king by the quadrilla of 
Le6n in 1647 for certain favors. Ibid., i, 21 : measures taken by Segovia and Le6n 
in 1498 in order to secure special concessions for their flocks at the royal toll gates. 

4 See p. 53- 



52 THE MESTA 

was usually closely associated with them either in the Royal 
Council or at court. Nearly all elections were by lot, the common 
mediaeval Spanish practice of insaculacion. 1 For every post to be 
filled eight names were placed in the urn, two from each quad- 
rilla, and the candidate whose name was drawn was compelled by 
law to accept the office. Bonds were required of all responsible 
officers, and each one had to submit to the residencia, or public 
examination of his official record at the close of his term of 
service. 2 

The most important dignitary of the Mesta, from the point of 
view of its internal organization, was the President. During the 
Middle Ages the presiding officer was probably the chief entre- 
gador or some royal notary, 3 but in 1500 Ferdinand and Isabella 
created the Presidency of the Mesta and assigned the office to the 
eldest member of the Royal Council. 4 His duties, besides the usual 
ones of a presiding officer, were to conduct all hearings of com- 
plaints against entregadores and Mesta officers, to supervise their 
work, and to fill any vacancies in certain lesser posts. In other 
words, he was not only in charge of the internal administration 
of the Mesta, but, because of his control over its itinerant pro- 
tectors, the entregadores, he also dominated the relations between 
the herdsmen and the wayside husbandmen. Equally as im- 
portant as these two functions was his position as the connecting 
link between the central government and the Mesta. 6 

1 See illustration opposite. 2 See below, p. 108. 

3 The chief entregador is shown as the spokesman and presiding officer of the 
Mesta in Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 156 ff. (1379); Arch. Mesta, A~3, Alange, 1455; 
and M-i, Madrid, 1418. 

4 Bravo, Noticia sucinta, says that certain members of the council had presided 
over the Mesta previous to 1500. This is true, since the chief entregador, who 
sometimes served in that capacity, was also a royal councillor (cf . p. 83) ; but there 
are no records of any ' President of the Mesta ' before that year. Brieva, Coleccidn 
de firdenes, pp. viii-xxxi, gives a list of all Mesta presidents from 1500 to 1827. In 
the Paris Arch. Nationales, Collec. Tiran, is a list of the Mesta presidents of the 
period 1670-1772, with interesting comments. 

6 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 209-221, contains the laws prescribing the duties of the 
office. Cf. Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real, Expedientes, leg. 48. no. 3: an eigh- 
teenth-century review of the functions of the President. See also Martinez Salazar, 
Coleccidn de M emorias . . . del Consejo (Madrid, 1764), pp 221-236, and Escolano 
de Arrieta, Prdctica del Consejo Real (Madrid, 1796, 2 vols.), i, pp. 584-587. 




URN USED IN MESTA ELECTIONS 

Now in the possession of the Asociacion General de Ganaderos. The candidates' names were placed in the four 
hollow balls one for each of the quadrillas and these were then drawn from the urn, the old Spanish practice 
of election by lot, called insaculacion (p. 52). One of the regular items in the account books of each session was 
the nominal fee paid "to the boy who drew the lots." The urn dates from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth 
century, and is engraved with the coat of arms of the Mesta, which is also shown on the eighteenth-century tapestry 
in the background. One of the earliest examples of this escutcheon is on the first page of the charter of 1525 (see 
Frontispiece) . The arms consist of the eagle of St. John the Evangelist (adapted from the arms of Ferdinand and 
Isabella; see seal on decree of January, 1488, p. 218), bearing a shield with the castle, lion, and pomegranate of the 
Spanish arms (Castile, Leon, and Granada) , and a ram and bull representing the Mesta. 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA J3 

The appointment of the President was at first for life, but this 
was changed, on the death of the second incumbent in 1522, to a 
two-year term. In the eighteenth century an attempt was made 
by the Mesta to have the life service renewed because of the dis- 
advantages of frequent changes in policy, but the alteration was 
not made. The requirement that the President attend every 
meeting of the Mesta met with protests from the older members 
of the Royal Council when their turns came to make the long trips 
to the remote pasture lands; but there are less than half a dozen 
instances when the custom was not observed. Under no circum- 
stances was the President to be accompanied by his wife, " be- 
cause of the great inconveniences which would be encountered by 
the lady on such a journey." The presidential salary varied 
from 8000 to 14,000 reals a year, and was supplemented by a 
subsidy of 5000 reales " for expenses." 

The dual position of this officer, as senior member of the Royal 
Council and President of the Mesta, gave him an unusually power- 
ful position in the administrative affairs of Castile. On several 
notable occasions, which will be mentioned below, various aggres- 
sive sovereigns and able ministers exercised through this official a 
very effective control over the rural affairs and resources of the 
whole kingdom. So potent a factor did the President become, 
that when Campomanes, the great reform minister, acceded to the 
office in 1779, he was able to fall upon the Mesta and virtually 
destroy it. 1 

The qualification for membership in the Mesta was simply the 
payment of the royal sheep toll or seruicio y montazgo, which was 
ample evidence of active participation in the migratory sheep 
industry. There was no^s^cifi^ationas tojthe numjberpf animals 
to be owned, as was the case in Aragon.^ Theoretically all snep- \cL 

1 See below, p. 345. Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real, Expedientes, leg. 436, no. 9: 
a series of interesting reports on the Mesta, prepared by Campomanes during his 
presidency, 1779-82, containing many suggestions of the reforms which later ap- 
peared in the famous indictment of the Concordia de 1783. 

2 Ordinaciones de la Casa y Cofadria de Ganaderos . . . de Zaragoza (1640), p. 7: 
citizenship in Saragossa and the possession of thirty-five horse or cows, or a hundred 
sheep or goats, were the requirements for membership in this organization, which 
was founded in 1218. 



54 THE MESTA 

herds, down to the youngest assistants, were ' members ' of the 
Mesta, but this was only true in the sense that they enjoyed its 
protection. They did not sit in the meetings, though they had 
the privilege of presenting complaints and propositions to the 
organization through their masters, the sheep owners. 

Membership dues were assessed on the basis of the number of 
sheep owned by each member. This number was ascertained by 
the procuradores or agents of the Mesta, who were stationed at the 
royal toll gates to protect the members from unscrupulous col- 
lectors and to keep account of the herds. The assessment was not 
levied until the annual budget was presented at the January 
meeting, when the per capita rate was determined on the basis of 
the number of sheep counted and the amount to be raised. In the 
sixteenth century this rate was usually from 50 to 150 maravedis 
per thousand sheep, 1 but it was subject to a five or six fold increase 
in the years when a subsidy was voted to the crown. 2 In the lat- 
ter part of the seventeenth century the practice was introduced of 
making the assessment the same size as the royal toll, namely five 
sheep out of every thousand, or their money equivalent. Owners 
who were delinquent in their payments for more than a year were 
barred from membership. 3 

The financial affairs of the organization were administered by a 
board of contadores and receptores, whose accounts were audited 
each year by the President, assisted by other officials. Any defal- 
cations had to be repaid threefold by the delinquent treasurer or 
accountant. 4 If a deficit was revealed, as frequently happened 
during the sixteenth century when heavy subsidies had to be 
voted to the crown, the accounts were balanced by a pro rata 
assessment levied upon the sheep as they passed northward in the 
spring. Among the debit items of each year, besides the usual 
salaries and travelling expenses for attorneys and other officials, 
were contributions either in cash or in heavy silver ornaments to 
the shrine of the patroness of the Mesta at Guadalupe, and 
occasionally, during the reign of Philip II, to the Escorial. 5 In the 

1 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, 1517-95, passim. * Ibid., iii, 5. 

2 See below, p. 280. 6 Bibl. Escorial, Ms. et iii, 22. 
1 Arch. Mesta, Prov. iii, 47. 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 55 

decadent period of the later Hapsburgs some of the annual debit 
charges degenerated to contributions of " shirts for the poor " in 
certain towns whose political support was sorely needed by the 
Mesta, and even to " chocolate, sweets, and drinks for the 
President." 

The receipts were largely made up of parts of the condemna- 
tions and fines levied by the entregadores and of the profits from 
the sale of unclaimed lost sheep (mestenos or mostrencos) a sug- 
gestion of the original functions of the local Mestas. Among 
other receipts were the profits from occasional investments 1 and 
the achaques or fines levied upon members and their shepherds for 
violations of rules regarding branding, segregation of diseased 
animals, and similar matters. The receipts from mestenos and 
achaques were usually farmed out. The collectors, or achaqueros, 
seem to have been unusually zealous officers, who were not always 
careful to restrict their assessments to Mesta members, and their 
operations were, therefore, the subject of frequent disputes be- 
tween the Mesta and the towns. The difficulties were settled, as 
a rule, by agreements or concordias by which the achaqueros were 
allowed, subject to certain restrictions, to seek out Mesta mem- 
bers in the towns. 2 

Of the various officials charged with the administration of the 
Mesta's internal regulations, the most important were the alcaldes 
de quadrilla or alcades de mesta. Two or more of these officers 
were elected by each quadrilla for terms of four years. They 
were sheep owners of experience and good standing, " chosen 
because of themselves and not of their animals." They were 
intrusted with the general administration of all laws concerning 
the actions of the members, but their special function was the 
care and disposal of the stray sheep. 3 In case of dissatisfaction 
with their decisions, appeals could be addressed to a board of 
alcaldes de apelaciones who sat at each session of the Mesta. 

1 See below, p. 284. Data on investments in real estate and in various govern- 
ment concessions are found in Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, January, 1566 and Septem- 
ber, 1591. 

2 Cf. Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. 747 (1595); Arch. Ayunt. Madrid, sec. 2, leg. 
358, no. 58 (1700); Arch. Mesta, T-2, Teba, 1659; T~7, Tureno, 1663; Z-i, 
Zamora, 1600. See above, p. 13. 



56 THE MESTA 

The interests of the members were also protected by various 
procurations, or representatives. There were, for example, the 
procuradores de Corte, or de chancitterias, a formidable array of 
legal talent which was kept in constant attendance near the 
sovereign and at the high courts to protect the interests of the 
sheep owners. The procuradores de puertos were in attendance at 
the royal toll gates to prevent extortion by the collectors and to 
levy pro rata assessments upon the flocks, as was explained above. 
The procuradores de dehesas acted as the representatives of the 
Mesta in arranging leases for its members, and by concerted 
action were able to gain very considerable advantages in their 
collective bargaining with the landowners. 

One phase of the pastoral industry to which the Mesta or- 
dinances gave special attention was the strict regulation of the 
duties and behavior of the shepherds. 1 These frequently lawless 
individuals were the cause of constant trouble, not only with the 
townspeople along the canadas, but even with their masters the 
sheep owners. Every precaution was taken, therefore, to safe- 
guard the interests of the owners and to minimize the possible 
sources of trouble. No shepherd was allowed to leave his sheep 
untended, to sell them, or to alter any brands; he was never to buy 
wine while on duty, 2 nor to indulge in any " violations of good 
morals." The number and obligations of their boy assistants 
(rabadanes and zagales) and dogs were carefully stipulated, the 
latter being allowed the same food rations as a man. 8 

The life of the shepherds was by no means one of privation and 
hardship. They and their families, who sometimes, though not 
usually, accompanied them on their migrations, were assured of 
special royal protection against the annoyances of town bailiffs. 4 

1 The shepherds were usually called pastores or cabanos, though they were some- 
times specially designated according to the animals in their charge: vaquerizos or 
vaqueros (cowboys), cabrerizos (goatherds), porquerizos (swineherds), boyerizos 
(oxherds). 

2 In the course of the seventeenth-century campaign against the spread of 
vineyards at the expense of pasturage, the Mesta held forth at great length upon 
the demoralization caused among its shepherds by the sale of wine. 

8 See above, p. 25. 

4 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 8 (1413, 1421). 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 57 

They could not be imprisoned because of any debts owed by their 
masters or by the Mesta, and they were exempt from military 
service. 1 The enforcement of the latter rule was insisted upon by 
the Mesta, especially during the Portuguese revolution of 1640- 
41 and the war of the Spanish Succession. In fact, from 1640 to 
1726 there were many such exemptions which relieved the shep- 
herds from conscriptions (quintas). Any non-migratory herds- 
man, in order to benefit by this protection, had to have charge of 
more than a hundred local (estante) sheep. Furthermore, in order 
to avoid abuse of the privilege, it was prescribed that for each 
hato or flock of 400 sheep there were to be only one shepherd and 
two assistants, and at least one of the latter had to be under six- 
teen years of age. The shepherds were expressly allowed to carry 
arms as a protection against wolves, gypsies, and other marauders. 
In this connection, it may be noted that gypsies were a source of 
constant complaint from the Mesta. In 1499 that body was 
largely instrumental in securing the royal decree which expelled 
them from the country. 2 This edict apparently had little or no 
permanent effect, however, for the gypsy problem occurred again 
in later years. Throughout the later decades of the sixteenth 
century the expulsion or suppression of the wandering zincali was 
taken up as one of the conditions of various subsidies voted to the 
crown by the Cortes and by the Mesta. 3 

Occasionally special guards were appointed by the crown or by 
neighboring towns to protect the shepherds and their charges 
while on the march. 4 These provisions were also intended as a 
check upon a common custom among the townspeople in the 
southern and western pasturage regions, where festivals, espe- 
cially on Christmas eve, included expeditions outside the town 
walls by crowds of merrymakers. Such celebrations invariably 
resulted in much loss and discomfiture to the herdsmen and their 

1 Ibid., pt. i, pp. n, 59; Arch. Mesta, Provs. ii, 43, 51; iii, 44. 

2 Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real, Expedientes, leg. 48 (1499). 

8 Arch. Mesta, Provs. i, 104 (1641); ii, 25, 27; Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 14 (1533). 
On other marauders, see below, p. 89. Entregadores were also given special per- 
mission to carry arms as a protection against gypsies: Nueva Recop., lib. 3, tit. 14, 
ley 4, cap. 3. 

4 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 104. 



5 8 THE MESTA 

flocks. 1 Another curious form of annoyance suffered by the Mesta 
was from the visits of itinerant winesellers among the shepherds, 
whose services to their masters after such visits " were worse than 
valueless." 2 

In addition to the privileges just mentioned, the herdsmen were 
exempt from summons as court witnesses; nor were they required 
to leave their flocks in response to any other calls from local 
officials, unless special permission had previously been granted by 
the Mesta. 3 Furthermore, they were to pay the royal taxes 
(servicio, sisas, millones, and pechos) only in their home towns. 4 
It is evident, then, that the written laws undoubtedly made the 
migratory shepherds one of the most favored of all the classes of 
Castilian society; and the Mesta saw to it that these laws were 
effectively enforced. 

The wages of the migratory herdsman were nearly all paid in 
kind at the close of his year's services, which, like those of the non- 
migratory shepherds, 5 began on St. John the Baptist's day (24 
June). 6 The legal wage in the middle of the fourteenth century 
was twelve bushels (fanegas) of grain, one-fifth of the lambs born 
in the flock during the year, one-seventh of the cheese produced 
by his charges, and also six maravedis in coin for every hundred 
sheep in his care. 7 He was allowed to keep without charge a 

1 These festivities were called mojaraches or momarraches. In Plasencia the name 
of rey pdjaro was used, probably with reference to masquerading costumes imitating 
birds. See below, p. 427. Arch. Mesta, P-3, Plasencia, 1542, gives an account of 
the harm inflicted by such parties upon the neighboring shepherds and their flocks. 
Cf. Y-i, Yecla, 1559. Personal injuries to shepherds by such roysterers were 
punishable by a uniform fine of fifteen sheep. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 77 (1567). See above, p. 56. 

3 Ibid., iii, 31 (1722): a revival of an older decree. 

4 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 16 (1285); Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. 2, no. i (1347). 

6 See above, p. 10. In addition to the references given there on local mestas and 
sheep regulations, see the many clauses on shepherds in the fuero of Alarcon, 1252 
(cited above, p. 24, n. 5), which may have served as a model for the Mesta charter 
of 1273. 

Cortes, ii, p. 84, Valladolid, 1351. 

7 Ibid., p. 85. The value of the maravedi is one of the most perplexing prob- 
lems in Spanish economic history. The usual basis for an approximate estimate is 
34 maravedis = i real = 25 centimes, but the great difference in the purchasing 
power of the maravedi in its day and of the centime in its, is far too large and im- 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 59 

certain number of sheep of his own 1 with the master's flocks, and 
was given the fells and carcasses of any animals killed by accident 
while on the march. These rates of compensation varied greatly, 
of course, in different times and places, but the general principle 
of payment in fractions of the produce, always excepting wool, 
was common until the sixteenth century, when it began to go out 
of use. 2 

With the above details in mind regarding the status and priv- 
ileges of the individuals who may be called members of the Mesta, 
the question naturally arises as to the actual number of such 
persons. This query is by no means so readily answered as it is 
asked. Curiously enough, the otherwise prolific archive of the 
Mesta is almost entirely lacking in material on the subject. There 
are no rolls of members or receipts for dues, nor do the minutes 
show any individual votes, since all such expressions of opinion 
were by quadrillas or districts. The only available sources bear- 
ing on this point are a few records of tolls paid by members, with 
indications as to the size of their flocks. 

The usual observation on the problem has been that most of the 
Mesta members were great nobles and ecclesiastics, with a scat- 
tering of small owners who migrated only occasionally. 3 It was 
undoubtedly true that the Mesta had among its members a few 
owners of large flocks of migrants. Such great names as those of 
the Dukes of Bejar and of Infantazgo, and the monasteries of the 
Escorial and of Guadalupe, appear frequently in the records of its 
transactions during the centuries of its long life. But to say that 
these large owners were typical of the industry, and that they 
dominated all but a minor fraction of the migratory flocks, is far 
less than half the truth. Even the meagre evidence available on 
the subject shows that the flocks of these great cabanas were only 
a small part of the total number of transhumantes, and that by 

portant a factor to be disposed of here. Cf. N. Sentenach, " El Maravedf " in 
Revista de Archives, xii (1905), pp. 195-220, 

1 The shepherds' animals usually made up about ten per cent of the total flock. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Acuerdos, 12 Sept., 1517: resolutions on the prevalence of pay- 
ments in money. 

3 Cf. Bourgoing, op. cit. t i, p. 115; Pons, op. tit.; and Laborde, op. tit. 



6o 



THE MESTA 



far the larger share of the Mesta sheep belonged to small owners, 
who themselves moved up and down the canadas each year lead- 
ing their few hundred animals. These men were the real life and 
sinews of the Mesta. 

One of the very few bits of useful evidence on this question of 
the proportion of large and small owners is to be found in docu- 
ments submitted at a trial in 1561. The case involved certain 
tolls paid by the Mesta members who leased the lands of the 
Order of Calatrava in southern Castile; and in the course of the 
hearing the Mesta attorneys presented a list of the names of all 
sheep owners who visited those pastures. 1 While this list affords 
only a momentary glimpse of a part of the Mesta membership, it 
is valuable because it is one of the very few extant examples of 
such specific information. A tabulation of the data contained 
therein reveals certain significant facts regarding the ownership 
of the flocks which visited the Calatrava pastures in 1560: 



Size of flock 


Number of 
owners 


Number of 
sheep 


Per cent of 
total sheep 


Under 50 


36* 


17.160 


22 


50100 


228 


l8,774 


1C 


100500 


30 


8,7<?<? 


16 


5001000 


t; 


2,980 


6 


Over looo 


2 


1,782 


ii 










Total 


638 


^3,4 <>I 


IOO 











These figures scarcely require comment. Over two- thirds of the 
sheep here enumerated were owned in flocks of less than a hun- 
dred, whose owners acted as their own shepherds. Although the 
sheep represented in these figures formed but a small fraction of 
the two million which migrated to southern pastures that year, 
they may, nevertheless, be fairly regarded as typical of the migra- 
tory flocks in general. The pastures here mentioned were visited 
by animals from a wide region of northern highlands which com- 
prised all classes of pastoral interests possibilities, in other 

1 Arch. Mesta, C-2, Campo de Calatrava, 1561. See Map. These lands of 
Calatrava made up about one-sixth of the southern pasturage region. 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 6 1 

words, for a large variety of large and small ownership. Further- 
more, the year was a normal one, without drought or pestilence 
to affect conditions; in fact, the Mesta was at that time just 
passing the zenith of its prosperity; it was a period when the 
migratory sheep industry was at its best, with untrammelled 
opportunities for all kinds of owners. Although this fragment 
of evidence is small, nevertheless it indicates clearly the marked 
predominance of small owners. 

Conspicuous instances of the great flocks belonging to the 
nobility or to wealthy churches and monasteries were always 
readily cited by the opponents of the Mesta : the 30,000 head of 
the monastery of Santa Maria del Paular, or the 40,000 of the 
Escorial, or the 25,000 of the Duke of Bejar; but these examples 
were very few, and at no time represented the typical form of the 
industry. In the eighteenth century, the raising of migratory 
sheep had been reduced to its most concentrated state, because 
of the prolonged and bitter popular hostility which had over- 
whelmed many of the smaller owners. But even at that late 
period (ca. 1740) over 75 per cent of the total number of trans- 
humantes in the country were owned by some 40,000 sermnos, 
or ' highlanders,' in flocks of less than 5000 head. The remaining 
20 to 25 per cent belonged to a small number about sixty of 
noblemen and .rich ecclesiastics of Madrid. 1 A similar conclusion 
is reached by an eighteenth-century English investigator, who 
estimated that about 220,000 merinos were owned in flocks of 
30,000 to 40,000 by nobles and churches, 200,000 were held in 
flocks of about 20,000 each, while over 3,500,000 were owned in 
smaller units. 2 It is evident, then, that the Mesta was very 

1 Expediente de 1771, pt. 2, fol. 42 v. See also Arch. Mesta, Servicio y Montazgo, 
leg. 2-3 (1708-46) : accounts of the royal sheep toll, with names of the owners and 
sizes of their flocks. In those years the monasteries of the Escorial and of Guada- 
lupe, and the Dukes of Bejar and Alcudla owned all together about 75,000 trans- 
humantes, of the 2,100,000 in the realm. Similar figures are shown in the evidence 
presented by the opponents of the Mesta to Campomanes, Charles Ill's reform 
minister, in 1780-83. Cf. Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 156 v, 161 v, and tables at 
end of volume. 

2 An Account of the Merino Sheep and of their Treatment in Spain . . . written 
by an English Gentleman many years resident in Spain (Concord, New Hampshire, 
1813), p. 128. 



62 THE MESTA 

largely an organization of middle class sheep owners, with a con- 
siderable proportion of the poorer pastoral element during its 
earlier years, and with perhaps a slight tendency toward more 
concentrated ownership during and after the latter part of the 
sixteenth century. At no time, however, in its long history was it 
in any sense a combination of large owners. 

In general the internal organization of the Mesta was simple, 
efficient, and, because of its concentration under the President 
and the quadrilla heads, eminently fitted for the work with which 
it was entrusted. The whole purpose of the Mesta required, 
\ above all things, concerted action, whether it be in the prosecu- 
tions of its itinerant legal staff, in its financial obligations to the 
crown, or in its collective bargaining with pasturage owners. As 
we proceed to examine the history of each one of these three fun- 
damental interests or activities of the organization judicial, 
fiscal, and pastoral the efficient functioning of the internal 
mechanism just described will become evident. It was not until 
the demoralization of the eighteenth century that the institution 
became encumbered with throngs of notaries, superfluous at- 
torneys, and bailiffs. The curse of empleadismo which has long 
been one of the plagues of the Spanish body politic then settled 
upon the ancient gild of the sheep owners, and bankruptcy, 
followed by disintegration, soon overwhelmed it. 

While study of the internal organization of the Mesta might 
be interesting and instructive, because of the light which it throws 
upon a practically unexplored field of economic history, namely the 
industrial and gild life of Spain, it is the external relations of the 
institution which reflect its real importance in the evolution of 
Spanish society. From the time when the name of the Honorable 
Assembly of the Mesta of Shepherds was first inscribed on the 
parchments of the thirteenth century, until the organization was 
converted into the present-day Stock Owners' Association in 1836, 
it was always the zealous and able guardian of the welfare of its 
members in their relations with those whom they met on their an- 
nual marches. As has been indicated above, these relations fall into 
three main categories, namely, judicial, fiscal, and pastoral, using 
the last in the limited sense of pertaining to pasturage. These 



INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 63 

were, of course, by no means mutually exclusive; the chief func- 
tions of the itinerant judiciary of the Mesta, for example, involved 
the protection of the flocks from extortionate tolls and pasturage 
rentals. A historical survey of each of these activities will present, 
far more effectively than a study of formal charters and bulky 
ordinances, a fair and accurate picture of the part actually played 
by the Mesta in the economic history of Castile. 



PART II 
JUDICIARY 



CHAPTER V 

ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 

Itinerant officers in mediaeval Europe. Judicial protectors of migratory flocks 
in Italy and in Aragon. Sheep protection in mediaeval Castile. Interclass litiga- 
tion. Early relations of the entregador with the crown. 

" There is no grandee of Spain who has so many judges and sheriffs to 

defend him as has the sheep." 

SORAPAN, Medicina Espanola (Granada, 1616), p. 131. 

THE administration of justice and the maintenance of order in 
rural districts involved problems which taxed the ingenuity of the 
ablest mediaeval monarchs in western Europe. Henry I of Eng- 
land (1100-35) met the difficulty by creating justices in eyre (in 
itinere), whose intermittent circuits were made more regular by 
Henry II (1154-89). At about the same time there appeared in 
France and Normandy various baillis, enqueteurs, and sen- 
eschals, 1 who served as the more or less itinerant representatives 
of the crown in outlying towns and country districts. In addition 
to these officials, who acted as the executive and judicial spokes- 
men of the sovereign, there were on both sides of the Channel 
other less conspicuous dignitaries, who kept order in the remote 
parts of the kingdoms, adjusted disputes between conflicting 
rural interests, and carried the power of the law down to the 
lowliest of the population, the herdsmen, the peasants, and the 
huntsmen. For example, the forest laws of mediaeval England 
provided for a regarder, who covered a fixed itinerary at regular 
intervals and settled the conflicting claims of woodsmen, hunters, 
and others within his jurisdiction. 

The available information upon any of these more or less 
obscure officials is all too meagre. Their work was done remote 
from the glamour of the court. Their functions offered no field 
for picturesque and striking episodes to catch the eye of any 
chronicler. There are no precise and extensive records avail- 
able upon their contributions to the administrative machinery 

1 Haskins, Norman Institutions (Cambridge, 1918), pp. 167-168, 183-186. 

67 



68 THE MESTA 

of Henry I of England or to the constructive regime of Philip 
Augustus of France. 

On the other hand the detailed annals of the Castilian entre- 
gador, which we are about to examine, reveal the striking possi- 
bilities of such itinerant magistracies from the point of view of 
strong kingships and centralized administration. The history of 
the entregador suggests pertinent queries on the pastoral and 
judicial evolution of rural England and France which have yet 
to be answered. What part did the itinerant officers have in the 
administration of the sheep industry in those kingdoms ? What 
did their operations mean to royal prestige, to the exchequer, and 
to the general welfare and agrarian economy of the realm ? 

Of the numerous corps of officials around whom the Mesta 
slowly crystallized as a unified national institution, perhaps the 
most important, and certainly the most conspicuous, from the 
very beginning of his office under Alfonso the Learned down to 
| its closing years, was the alcalde entregador, or ' judge of awards.' 
J. This itinerant judicial and administrative officer formed the 
means of contact between the Mesta and the outer world. He 
was its shield of defence in the earlier centuries of its growth, its 
sharp weapon of offence and power in the period of its suprem- 
acy under the first Hapsburgs, and in the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth centuries the heavy, useless weight which chiefly caused 
its discredit and decline, leading finally to its extinction. 

In order that we may be better able to understand this Castil- 
ian office, let us turn to other lands for a brief preliminary con- 
sideration of some foreign types of itinerant magistrates for flocks 
and herds. The pastoral industry in all the Mediterranean 
peninsulas tended to assume certain common characteristics. 
This was true largely because of similar conditions of climate 
and of topography, which brought about the ancient custom of 
annual migrations between winter pastures in the lowlands and 
summer encampments in the highlands. Chief among these com- 
mon customs were the use of fixed routes ^reserved for the semi- 

j^ .-fa***""""'""^*"* 1 ****' ^^^^MMttMMBaMttMMMMM** 

annual migrations/ the communal ownership or regulation oi 

1 See above, p. 18. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 69 

pasturage, and the traditional hostility between herdsmen and 



msbandmen, which resulted in the creation of specially delegated 
judicial officers for the protection of the former. 

The organization of the migratory pastoral industry was older 
and much more carefully worked out in Italy and Spain than in 
the eastern peninsula. Among the Romans there was a detailed 
and well adjusted system for regulating the semiannual sheep 
migrations during the age of Cicero and Varro, and indeed for 
some centuries before their time. 1 Provision was made for road- 
side pasturage and particularly for the use of large tracts of public 
lands as grazing grounds. What is of importance for us in the 
present connection, as early as 192 B.C. the practice was observed 
of assigning a special magistrate to the southern pasturage dis- 
trict to keep order there and to look after the public domain. 
There was also a praetor to supervise the calles or routes used by 
the herds. 2 These practices of the migratory sheep industry were 
not in the least interrupted by the fall of the Roman empire. 
They were continued during the Middle Ages and in the thirteenth 
century were, in fact, drawn together by Frederick II into a well 
regulated, centralized organization. 3 In the later Middle Ages 
this body came to the attention of the Aragonese rulers of south- 
ern Italy, who recodified its laws and gave it the name of Dogana 
delta mena dette pecore di Puglia* It is significant that the chief 
of this institution, the ' magnificent doganiere,' bore a striking 
resemblance to thejusticia of the Casa de Ganaderos of Saragossa, 
the l house of the cattle owners/ which Aragon had known since 

1 H. F. Pelham, Essays (Oxford, 1911), p. 303. 

9 Ibid., pp. 302, 306. References on this topic from Strabo, Varro, Columella, 
and other classical writers may be found in Pauly-Wissowa, Encyclopaedic, iii 
(Stuttgart, 1895), col. 289. 

3 Sombart, Die romische Campagna (Leipsic, 1888), pp. 43-48, 83-87; Huillard- 
Breliolles, Hist. Diplomat. Frid. II, iv,pt. i, p. 159; and Bertagnolli, Vicende dell' 
agra in Italia (Florence, 1881), p. 244. 

4 Bertaux and Yver, " L'ltalie inconnue," in Le tour du monde (1899), pp. 272- 
274. Craven, Excursions in the Abruzzi (1838), i, pp. 266-270. Swinburne, Travels 
in the Two Sicilies (1783), i, pp. 140-143, deals particularly with the fiscal aspects 
of the institution in the sixteenth century. According to Dominicus Tassonus, 
Observations Jurisdictionales (Naples, 1716), pp. 130-131, the name Dogana and 
possibly the institution itself had Norman origins. Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae, 
ii, col. 525, gives a more nearly correct Saracen derivation of the name. 



70 THE MESTA 

the year 1218, and possibly earlier. In the Italian Dogana the 
herdsmen were answerable to their officials and judges not only in 
matters of pastoral concern, but in all offences against civil and 
criminal law as well. This responsibility, and the form and sever- 
ity of the penalties imposed, suggest the old institution of the 
Aragonese conquerors' home country. 1 

Charles Ill's long Neapolitan experience with this form of 
organized pastoral industry for it was flourishing in the eigh- 
teenth century, as indeed it is today in a modified form was 
of inestimable assistance to him in his great struggle with the 
Castilian Mesta. One of the interesting points revealed in the 
exhaustive investigations of the Mesta by his great minister, 
Campomanes, was the similarity of the judicial protector of the 
Italian herdsmen to the Castilian alcalde entregador. Each of 
these two officers was declared to be a case of " a grant of extraor- 
dinary jurisdiction, equivalent to placing a sword in the hands 
of a madman." 2 

As early as 1129 the citizens of Saragossa had been given the 
right of unrestricted pasturage through Aragon. This privilege 
was incorporated in a charter embodying various more or less 
vague concessions of the kind commonly granted at that time to 
monasteries, cities, and other contributors toward the expenses of 
the war of reconquest. Toward the close of the twelfth century 
a gild or fraternity of sheep owners of Saragossa was organized, 
and by 1218 it had been formally recognized as the ^SS^&fifflK" 
dfros? Both the name and the organization are in existence 
today, and the Casa is now as much the head of the sheep and 
cattle industry of Aragon as it was seven hundred years ago. The 
justicia of this body is an excellent illustration of that character- 
istic union of judicial and administrative functions so often met 
with in Spanish constitutional history. 4 It should be carefully 

1 The punishment for trespasses outside of pastures, for example, was the same 
in both countries: ten years in the galleys. 

9 Expediente de 1771, pt. i, fol. 138 v. 

8 Archive de la Casa de Ganaderos (Saragossa), legajo 139, no. i. There is a 
carelessly made copy of this document in the Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 8702, fols. 31- 
32. 

4 Cf . the corregidor, the local alcalde, the chief of the audiencia, and many others. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 71 

noted that this officer is not to be confused with the more widely 
known national justicia of Aragon, with whom the former had no 
official connection. The sheep owners'. juAticia served in the dual 
capacity of president or director of the gild of cattle owners of 
Saragossa and as the judge in all cases in which they were in- 
volved: a double function in the fullest sense, since neither of the 
two positions was subordinated to the other. His iurisdiction was 
recognized by the charter of 1218 in criminal cases " involving all 
thieves and marauders . . . who molest any herd from Saragossa 
wherever it might be at the time." This authorization was in- 
terpreted by the Casa to be valid in all parts of the kingdom 
" whether in lands held from the crown, or from any religious 
body, or from a temporal lord ... in all things and cases con- 
cerning the herds, herdsmen, and cattle owners of Saragossa." 
In IJ5JI, on the payment of 800 florins in gold to the king, the 
justicia's jurisdiction was extended to include civil as well as 
criminal cases a most important step, which made that official 
the sole judicial arbiter for one of the largest classes or groups in 
the population of Aragon. The sweeping claims of these grants, 
though frequently questioned, were never successfully opposed 
until well into the eighteenth century. Royal confirmations were 
given in 1534, 1545, and idoy, 1 and in spite of repeated attacks by 
powerful nobles and ecclesiastical organizations, the justicia's 
position was not affected. 

The office of justicia was always declared to be an indispensable 
adjunct to the work of the Casa: if deprived of it the gild would 
have been compelled to maintain agents and attorneys in almost 
every hamlet to look after the litigation brought against it before 
the local justices. The peculiarities of the migratory sheep in- 
dustry made necessary the creation of an unusual type of judicial 
protector for the flocks; hence the justicia of the Aragonese Casa 
de Ganaderos and the entregador of the Castilian Mesta. In this 
connection there is, however, an important difference between the 
two which should be noted. The Aragonese official's hearings 

1 Manifiestase el derecho que tiene el justicia . . . para exercer jurisdiccidn (Sara- 
gossa, ca. 1680). Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 8702, fols. 85-89, gives the texts of parts 
of these documents. 



\ 



72 THE MESTA 

were held at such times and places as suited his convenience, 
usually in the house of the organization in Saragossa. He was 
required, however, to make at least one annual visit to the moun- 
tain pastures in order to hear the complaints of the poorer high- 
land herdsmen, 1 to insure the accessibility of pastures, and to 
open the cdbaneras or highways for sheep. 2 

This Aragonese justicia cannot, however, be described as an 
itinerant officer, as was the Castilian entregador, whose duties, as 
we shall presently see, led him over a much larger territory and 
into problems far more complex and extensive. There was an- 
other vital distinction between the two. In the exercise of his 
office the Castilian inflicted only pecuniary penalties, whereas his 
cousin in Saragossa had full power to use the lash, mutilation, 
exile, and even capital punishment, with no appeal open to the 
accused. It was not until 1646 that death penalties were re- 
quired to be confirmed by a higher court. 3 This finality of the 
justicia's decisions gave him a distinctly higher standing than 
that of his Castilian counterpart, the chief cause of whose loss of 
prestige was the rise of the two appellate chancillerias at Val- 
ladolid and Granada in the later sixteenth century and after. 

A further contrast is to be found in the qualifications of can- 
didates for the two magistracies. It was required of the Ara- 
gonese official that he be a citizen of Saragossa in full legal 
standing, a stock owner with a flock of at least four hundred sheep 
during the four years preceding his election, and he must at some 
time have served as a lieutenant or assistant to a justicia. 4 The 

1 Ordinaciones de la Casa de Ganaderos (Saragossa, 1640), pp. 29-30. There were 
many editions of these ordinances, the first printed one being issued in 1462, ac- 
cording to the prologue to the one of 1640. This would make it one of the first 
books printed in Spain. Later editions followed in 1500, 1589, 1640, 1661, 1671, 
1686, 1717, 1805, and 1817. 

2 Memorial Ajustado al Expedients introducido per el Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza 
en el Pleyto . . . de la Muela . . . sobre dehesas (Saragossa, 1770), p. 19. 

3 This point of superiority of the power of the justicia over that of the entre- 
gador was discussed in a print of the petition presented by the Casa against the ex- 
tension of the laws of the Castilian Mesta into Aragon, which begins " Senor, 
los Justicia, Consejeros, Cofadres . . . de la Casa ..." (8 pp., n. t. p., ca. 
1707). 

4 In the eighteenth century the property qualification was raised to one thousand 
head. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 73 

absence of any such wise specifications in the case of the entre- 
gador had much to do with the unpopularity and inefficiency which 
were so constantly apparent in the history of that office. To con- 
clude this brief comparison, we may note that both of these judges 
reported at the semiannual meetings of their respective organiza- 
tions, to answer queries and complaints regarding their transac- 
tions and sentences. The stipend of each was roughly one-third 
of his pecuniary condemnations, supplemented in the seventeenth 
century and after by a fixed salary. 

After the middle of the seventeenth century the powers of the 
Saragossan justicia were considerably modified. The change 
made in 1646, providing for appeals from the death sentences im- 
posed by that official, was the first of several steps to restrict his 
activities. Philip V's cedula of 13 April 1709 introduced other 
limitations, 1 and from that time onward the justicia served more 
and more as an administrator. His jurisdiction as a judge was 
checked by appeals and curtailed by assignments to local or 
national officers, until by imperceptible gradations he merged 
into the secretary of the present-day organization: a series of 
changes which synchronize with and are strikingly analogous to 
those undergone by the entregador in Castile. 

The history of the justicia has been an important but almost 
unknown episode in the economic and constitutional develop- 
ment of the peninsular kingdoms; the points that have been 
here mentioned deal only with such salient features as furnish 
illustrations of contrast and comparison with the entregador. 
Strongly intrenched behind the ancient privileges of the capital 
of his realm, the justicia of the Saragossan sheep owners' gild 
stands beside the more noted national justicia of Aragon as 
another example of that union of autocratic powers and high 
responsibility which was so characteristic of certain officials in 
the eastern Spanish kingdoms. 

There is ample evidence of the ex^fcflfiftflf a migratory pastoral 
industry in the earliest periods of the recorded history of Castile; 
but previous to the founding of the Mesta, in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, there is no indication of any itinerant J 11f |i^ial protector who 
1 Ordenanzas de la Casa (ed. of 1817), tit. 3. 



74 THE MESTA 

might be taken as a predecessor of the entregador. Scores of 
special privileges and charters had been bestowed upon the mi- 
grant herds of cities, monasteries, and nobles during the early 
Middle Ages. In fact, these donations had come to be so com- 
mon by the middle of the thirteenth century that the Partidas, 
the great code of Alfonso X, gave a fixed form in which they were 
to be drawn up. 1 The important point to be noted in the present 
connection is that although this form of pastoral industry, was 
recognized as one worthy of liberal privileges, by which migrating 
herds of many nobles, cities, and ecclesiastical and military orders 
were placed on an equal footing with those of the king, no neces- 
sity had thus far been found for special judges to protect these 
privileges. 

An examination of the town charters, or fueros, of the twelfth 
and early thirteenth centuries reveals a similar situation. Al- 
though most of them contain sections regulating the affairs of 
shepherds and their flocks, there were never any provisions for 
a special magistrate to pass upon disputes between sheep owners 
and the agricultural class. 2 Many of these charters, however, 
contain some legislation regarding the appointment of a special 
judicial officer or alcalde to settle disputes in which both parties 
were herdsmen or stock owners. There was, for example, the 
alcalde de los pastores in Ucles, 3 and the alcalde de rafala or judge 
of the horse fair in Caceres. 4 These officials, who were sometimes 
called alcaldes de corral, from the enclosure in which the stray 
animals were kept, are comparable to the hog reeves and field 
drivers of the English and earlier American town governments. 
Three of the best types of the local judges for non-migratory herds 
are to be found in the administration of the later mediaeval or- 

1 Part. 3, tit. 18, ley 19: " En que manera deuen ser fechas las cartas que manda 
el Rey dar, porque anden los ganados seguros." 

2 See, for example, the ' titulo de los pastores ' in the fuero of Plasencia, Acad. 
Hist., Ms. -126, fols. 219 v ff., also Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 714, fols. 208 ff.; and 
the fuero of Ucles, tits. 99, 192, and 194, in Boletin Acad. Hist., xiv (1889), pp. 302- 
355. Other examples also occur in the same, xxxvii (1900), pp. 367-430, 449-458; 
and in the fuero of Molina, in Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-1/35, fols. 422 ff. 

8 Fuero of Uctes (old. ante), tit. 195: " Qui pennos amparare a los alcaldes de 
los pastores." 

4 Ulloa y Golfin, Privttegios de Cdceres (1676 ?), tit. 401. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 75 

dinances of Seville, Toledo, and Madrid. 1 These alcaldes were the 
source of much trouble to the Mesta because of the conflict be- 
tween them and its officers, the alcaldes de quadrilla, who, it will 
be recalled, 2 were likewise assigned to the hearing of local disputes 
between stock raisers, and to the settlement of questions regard- 
ing the ownership of mostrencos or strays. The jurisdiction of 
these local alcaldes was in every case limited to matters involving 
non-migratory flocks. In no way were they, or any others of the 
many pre-Mesta sheep and cattle reeves, appointed to protect the 
interests and privileges of the migratory flocks. 

As the conquest of the Moore.proceededjoutiiward, stronger 
city governments grew up in the newly conguered^territory, a- n d 
a^ settled agricultural class began to develop in importance and 
power. These new interests were soon voicing protests against 
the roving transhumantes, and consequently the need of a spe- 
cially empowered itinerant magistrate to protect the interests of 
the migrants became apparent. These were the conditions which 
led to the oldest extant charters of the Mesta and the creation of 
the alcalde entregador. 

The complexity of relations between the different classes of the 
very mixed Castilian population of this period had brought into 
existence a number of interracial and interclass judicial officers. 
We find the alcalde de entre los Cristianos y Moros? and the al- 
caldes que acen las entregas de los Cristianos y de los Judios.* 

1 Ordenanqas de Sevilla (Seville, 1527), fols. 115 v-i23 v; Ordenanzas . . . 
de Toledo (Toledo, 1858), pp. 4-14; T. D. Palacio, Documtntos . . . de Madrid 
(Madrid, 1888-1909, 4 vols.), iii, pp. 391-408. The office of alcalde de mesta, or de 
corral, was continued in Madrid until 1836, or forty years after the abolition of the 
entregador: cf. Arch. Ayuntamiento Madrid, sec. 2, leg. 438, no. 5. The same 
office existed in Navarre, with jurisdiction over all stray animals hi the kingdom. 
Nov. Recop. Leyes Navarra (Pamplona, 1735, 2 vols.), lib. i, tit. 24, ley 3. See also 
the ordinances of the mesta of Baena (near Cordova), 1415-1536, in the Antiguas 
Ordenanzas de Baena, ed. Valverde Perales (Cordova, 1907), pp. 127-136; and the 
Ordinaciones de la Mesta de Albarrazin (42 pp., Albarracm, 1740). 

* See above, pp. 13 ff. 

8 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 0-13, fols. 70-71: a privilege to Burgos (1304). 
Archive of the Duke of Osuna (Madrid), Be"jar c. 32, no. 38, f. i, p. 587: the trans- 
fer of the income of such an office in Murcia in 1450. 

4 Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-1/35, fols. 431-433: a privilege to Alarcon (1293); cf. 
Ms. 12-19-3/38, fol. 56, Plasencia (1293). 



76 THE MESTA 

The latter title gives some indication of the origin of the name 
entregador, the * awarder '; and the significance of the title be- 
comes clearer in the light of certain Mesta charters to be con- 
sidered in a moment. He was evidently an officer who awarded 
compensation and made the entrega, or return, of any wrongly 
seized property and excessive exactions. In the case of the ' en- 
tregador between Jews and Christians ' the office was really one 
for the regulation of the relations between money lenders and 
borrowers. The purpose in that case was ostensibly to protect 
the supposedly victimized latter class from usury. 1 

The prevention of extortion and unjust exactions from other- 
wise defenceless victims from the latter's own point of view 
was the essential function of the entregador in every case, whether 
his wards were wandering herdsmen, helpless debtors, or the dupes 
of Moorish peddlers and hucksters. 2 These officials were generally 
appointed by the king from among his courtiers a fact which 
brought forth frequent protests from the towns against ' these 
meddling, mtrudmgforasteros ' (strangers). Such complaints were 
answered with favorable grants of exemption and by the restric- 
tion of the activities of such judicial representatives of the central 
authority as the merinos and the entregadores. 3 

There is no evidence of the existence of the office of alcalde 
entregador of the Mesta previous to the time of Alfonso X; in- 
deed, it was specifically declared by the Cortes of Palencia in 

1 The Cortes debates of the fourteenth century refer frequently to this officer. 
See Cortes, Valladolid, 1293, pet. 12; 1299, pet. n; 1307, pet. 18; Palencia, 1313, 
pet. 30; Burgos, 1315, pet. 30; Madrid, 1339, pet. 8. The fuero of Soria (1256) 
has a section on alcaldes . . . de los Judios; see Loperraez Corvalan, Descripcidn 
Histfrica, del obispado de Osma (Madrid, 1788, 3 vols.), iii, p. 103. 

2 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 0-13, fols. 50-52: a Burgos charter of 1298 " que 
mandamos dar pesquisidores entregadores, tales que scan omes buenos que fagan 
pesquisa [inquiry] por las merindades en racon de las maltuertas e de las tomas e 
de los rouos e del condurijo [?] que se toma sin derecho. . . . 

8 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 0-13, fols. 101-102: a concession to Burgos, 1375, 
ordering judges of this class " que non entreges ni merinedes en ningunas de las 
dichas aldeas (de Burgos), ni fagades y entregas ningunas . . . que non entiendes 
merinar ni facer entregas." Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-2/55, fols. 25-40: a concession 
to Fenestrosa, 1287: " Si merino u otro oficial mayor ficiere o demandare contra 
derecho matenlo; et non peche mas de cinco sueldos." Similar exemptions are to 
be found in Arch. Hist. Nac., Docs. Sahagun, no. 185 (1231), and Gonzalez, v, pp. 
649-654 (i373)- 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTKEGADOR 77 

1313 1 that " there were no entregadores for shepherds in the days 
of King Ferdinand who reconquered Seville [1252] nor in the 
days of other kings before him." The earliest document dealing 
at length with the entregador is a commission of appointment 
issued to the " entregador of the shepherds of the Canada of 
Cuenca," in 1300,2 instructing him to perform his duties " as 
they were in the times of King Alfonso [X], my grandfather, and 
of King Sancho [IV], my father." 

The first mention of the entregador of the herdsman is in the 
earliest of the extant Mesta charters, that of i273.;/l'he reference 
is a casual one, and indicates that the entregador was already 
known at the time the document was drawn up. It may be con- 
cluded, then, that the origin of the office occurred in the first two 
decades of Alfonso X's reign, one of the two or three most pro- 
ductive and significant periods in the juridical history of Castile. 
The creation of the office of entregador synchronized with, or x 

slightly preceded, that of the Mesta; the two events were, in fact, 
closely associated episodes in the administrative unification of 
Castile after the Moors had been driven beyond the southern 
borders of the kingdom. 

It should be carefully noted that the entregador first appears, 
not as a subordinate officer of the Mesta, but as a direct represent- 
ative of royal authority. This is the most significant but far too 
little appreciated characteristic of that magistrate during the 
three centuries previous to the reign of Philip II, which may be 
taken as the first of the two great periods of his history. This 
period of the history of the entregador, though chronologically 
equal to the second, is naturally supplied with less documentary 
evidence, and an analysis of it is, therefore, lacking in the wealth 
of detail which makes possible a more accurate study of the 
second epoch, from the reign of Philip II. In the first period we 
are concerned with the relations between the entregador and the 
first and most important ally of the Mesta, the crown. In the / 

1 Pet. 40. 

2 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, Becerro, fols. 25-27. This document has been printed, 
with some serious errors and omissions, in Benavides, Memorias de D. Fernando IV 
(1860, 2 vols.), ii, pp. 222-224. There is also a copy in the British Museum, Ms. 
Add. 9915, fols. 361-368. 



7$ THE MESTA 

\ % jj second the dominant interest lies in the story of the relations of 
that magistrate with the two bitterest foes of the Mesta, the 
Cortes and the chancttlerias, or high appellate courts. 

The first period comprises the history of the entregador during 
the long centuries of the Mesta's inception and its gradual crys- 
tallization as a national institution under the watchful care of 
the monarchy. The prestige of the Mesta and its itinerant pro- 
tector rose to its greatest height at the close of this period, namely 
during the first two-thirds of the sixteenth century. The crest 
was reached at about the year 1568, when the Mesta took over 
the proprietorship of the office of entregador. The title to the 
incomes of the post had in the beginning belonged to the crown, 
and later to various noble families under royal supervision. After 
1568 the entregadores became internal officials of the Mesta, and 
the greater part of the heavy fines which they levied were paid 
into the treasury of that body. The Mesta was thenceforth the 
lobject of persistent onslaughts from its ancient opponents, the 
local landowning and non-migratory pastoral interests. Begin- 
ning in the first years of Philip IPs reign, these carried on a relent- 
less campaign against the entregadores in the high courts and in 
the national assembly. 

The two periods are by no means mutually exclusive. In other 
words, the year 1568 does not mark the end of the relations of 
Mesta and entregador with the crown; much less does it indicate 
the beginning of the long struggle between the herdsmen and the 
towns in the courts and the Cortes. It is, however, none the less 
clear that the first three centuries of the rise of the Mesta are 
dominated and indeed explained by the connection of that institu- 
tion and its judiciary with the crown. Similarly, in the examina- 
tion of the second period of the entregador's history, we shall 
find the story of the decline and disappearance of the office to be 
centred around the stormy relations between the Mesta on the 
one hand and the Cortes and the chancillerias, or high courts, on 
the other. 

The opening topic of the charter y^f 1273 sheds important light 
upon the essential characteristics ^f the entregador. In discuss- 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 79 

ing those sheep owners and shepherds who did not wish to be sub- 
ject to the laws of the Mesta, it was stipulated that if " anyone 
does not care to be in it [the Mesta] and does not wish to give ad- 
herence as the others [i. e., members] give . . . then your [the 
Mesta's] alcaldes should make him give and should seize him for 
disobedience; and if they do not succeed, I order my entregadores 
to help them and to make the culprits pay double." 1 We have 
here the first indication of a principle which was often enunciated 
by later sovereigns, who appreciated the possibilities of exploiting 
the pastoral industry through their control of the Mesta. The 
latter, they declared, was all-inclusive and all shepherds were sub- 
ject to its laws a doctrine which suggests the attitude of many 
gilds in other countries, and one which was insisted upon by the 
Mesta and its royal patrons on many subsequent occasions. 2 

This earliest reference to the entregador of the Mesta is signif- 
icant because it brings out at once the clear distinction between 
the alcalde de Mesta or internal judge of that body, and the entre- 
gador, the direct representative of the king. In some of the 
later documents the former title has been applied to the entre- 
gador. This fact probably accounts for the failure of practically 
all investigators and critics of the Mesta, both contemporary and 
modern, to point out the important distinction between these two 
very different offices. By far the greater part of the abuse and 
criticism of the Mesta, whether just or unjust, was directed at the 
entregador, as being its chief defender. It is true that the Mesta 
was theoretically more or less in control of that official and re- 
sponsible for his acts. On stated occasions he was required to 
report to the Mesta, as we shall see in a moment; furthermore, 
the proprietary entregador-in-chief, who named the active 
entregadores, was appointed by the king, nominally on the sug- 
gestion of the Mesta. In spite of these facts, however, the entre- 
gadores had a distinctly external position with reference to that 
body. They were essentially crown officers, used as administra- 
tive units by the monarchy and not by the gild of the herdsmen. 

The direct nature of this connection between the entregador 
and the crown is clearly established in many ways. Almost all of 
1 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 4. 2 See below, pp. 262, 264. 



\l 



80 THE MESTA 

the profitspf the office, for example, werepaid fo tfafi fringe save 
for thaFparf which was retained by the entregador as a salary. 1 
Not until the time of Ferdinand and Isabella does the Mesta 
appear as the recipient of a one-third share in the proceeds from 
certain entregador cases. 2 

The entregador acted as the protector of the interests of the 
Mesta in all of its external relations. It should be noted, how- 
ever, that he performed that service by virtue of his authority as 
a direct representative of the sovereign. Therein lay the efficacy 
of his office as an instrument for the establishment of the claims 
of the Mesta against those with whom it came in contact in all 
parts of the realm. For example, the negotiations between the 
Mesta and the Order of Calatrava in 1287, on questions of juris- 
diction, were conducted on the part of the Mesta by a group of 
personeros or representatives who described themselves as " we, 
entregadores of our lord, the king." 3 It was the king and not the 
Mesta who issued any necessary instructions to the entregador, 
the usual reference being to " my entregadores of the shepherds." 

One of the chief reasons for the constant recurrence of com- 
plaints from the Cortes to the king against this official was the 
fact that the latter was regarded as being directly subject to royal 
supervision, just as were such judges and agents as the merinos 
and the corregidores. The entregador was, therefore, singled out 
for criticism instead of some official of the Mesta itself, who was 
probably quite as obnoxious to the protesting agricultural and 
other local interests. This association of crown and entregador 
was further strengthened by a stipulation, made by the sovereign 
in all of the earlier instructions to entregadores, to the effect that 
all disputes as to the extent of their jurisdiction as well as all com- 
plaints against them ' should be heard before the king and no- 
where else.' 4 An exception was made in the case of charges by 

1 The king's monopoly of the profits of the office is well brought out in the royal 
appointment of an entregador in 1306. Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, 
iii, no. 1 63 . Memorial Histdrico, i, pp. 308-3 24, gives an agreement of 1 2 7 7 by which 
Alfonso X leased the entregador fines to Jewish contractors for four years. 

2 The question of the salary of the office is more fully discussed below. 

3 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, i, no. 41, fols. 230-240. 

4 Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, iii, no. 163 (1306). 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 8 1 

Mesta members; these were heard in the semiannual meetings 
of that body. With the elaboration of the judiciary under the 
Catholic Kings, in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth cen- 
turies, this function of hearing appeals from entregador decisions 
was transferred to the two appellate chancillerias. This was, 
quite unintentionally, the first step in the alienation of the Mesta 
from the protection of the crown, the first loosened stone in the 
hitherto impregnable stronghold of its prestige. 

With the above characteristics of the office in mind, it is not 
difficult to understand why the position of the alcalde entregador 
mayor, or entregador-in-chief, who received from the king the 
right to farm out the lesser entregadorships in different parts of 
the country, was one of such high honor and emolument. This 
chief of the staff of active entregadores was usually given his 
office as a mark of special distinction or in exchange for important 
services to the crown, or sometimes for a high purchase price. 
The post was held by persons of noble descent only, and as a rule 
by someone standing in close relations with the king. Under 
Alfonso XI it was held by Inigo Lopez de Orozco and later by 
Juan Fernandez de Arevalo, two commanding figures in the four- 
teenth-century baronage. Peter the Cruel gave it to his sup- 
porter, Fernan Sanchez de Tovar, having deprived the famous 
Juan Tenorio of it. Under John I, Henry III, and John II, the 
office remained in the hands of three generations of the family of 
Gomez Carrillo. In fact, by 1390, or thereabouts, the control of 
the entregadores had become hereditary, always, however, with 
due recognition of the crown as the direct source of all preroga- 
tives and authority vested in the position. The last of the Car- 
rillo family came into possession of the office in 1417, at the age of 
five, 1 and John II therefore named the guardian, Lope Vasquez de 
Acuna, as acting entregador-in-chief. This appointee soon had 
the position conceded to him in his own right, and under Henry IV 
he was succeeded by his descendant, Pedro de Acufia, Count of 
Buendia. 2 The office of chief entregador became the property of 

1 See below, Appendix D: text of the royal commission to Gomez Carrillo, 
30 Nov., 1417. 

2 Arch. Mesta, 8-5, Siguenza, 1792, gives the texts of the royal appointments of 



82 THE MESTA 

the latter title until it was sold to the Mesta, in 1568, for 750,000 
maravedis. 1 

The entregador mayor derived his income from the office by 
farming out certain districts as itineraries to subordinate entre- 
gador es. Nevertheless the crown continued to keep in close 
touch with all such magistrates, even to the extent of occasion- 
ally naming them regardless of the prerogative of the entre- 
gador-in-chief . Such a royal nomination of an entregador for a 
particular district or route was usually made with the consent of 
the Mesta members of that section. 2 The practice of consulting 
these members fell into disuse, however, as the central authority 
represented by the king and the titled proprietor of the entre- 
gadorship grew stronger. Finally, in 1419, when the Mesta en- 
deavored to revive its old prerogative, the Carrillo and Acufia 
families, proprietors of the office at the time, readily secured a 
peremptory royal refusal to the sheep owners' petition. 3 There- 
after the staff of entregadores, both chief and subordinates, was 
even more clearly denned as a corps of distinctly royal officers. 

The powerful nobles named above, who controlled the entre- 
gadores under John II and Henry IV, taking full advantage of the 

these officials from 141 7 onward. On the Count of Buendfa's appointment, see also 
Acad. Hist., Ms. -127, fols. 183-185. There is a brief account of the historic 
Buendfa family in the Boletin de la Sociedad Castellana de Excursiones (Valladolid, 
1901 ff.), iii, p. 143. 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 259. 

2 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, Becerro, fols. 25-27 : the royal letter of appointment of 
an entregador, dated September, 1300: "... los pastores de la Canada de Cuenca 
me enbiaron pedir merced que les diesse por mio alcalde y entregador en la Canada 
de Cuenca a Roy Ferrandez, cauallero de Cuenca, y yo touelo por bien . . . y 
mando que oya las querellas que acaescieren entre los pastores y los de la tierra, y 
les faga las entregas. ..." An appointment of 1308 is similarly worded. Arch. 
Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, iii, no. 165. In another of 1306, however (ibid., 
no. 163) there is no consent indicated on the part of any Mesta members. The 
latter document is further indicative of the crown's immediate control over the 
entregador by the delineation of the jurisdiction of the appointee " . . .en todas 
las canadas, salue en las villas y lugares de la reyna mi madre." This exemption 
of the queen's lands was stipulated hi most of the entregador appointments previ- 
ous to the sixteenth century. There is also a notable concordia or agreement be- 
tween the Mesta and Queen Leonora, dated 1423, on this subject. Arch. Mesta, 
P-6, Puebla de Montalban, 1423. 

8 Arch. Mesta, 8-5, Siguenza, 1792. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 83 

weakness of the crown, had their tenure and jurisdiction secured 
by a series of letters patent which afforded them ample protection 
against the protests of local officials and even of the Mesta itself. 
They seem to have been particularly insistent upon the enforce- 
ment of the old requirement which brought all complaints against 
the entregadores before the king himself: a provision which, after 
all, was not without some reason, since the greater part of the pro- 
tests arose from conflicting exemptions granted by the crown, on 
the one hand to the towns and on the other to the Mesta. 1 In a 
word, the whole tendency of the time was steadily toward the 
concentration of the supervision of the Mesta in the hands of 
officers of the central government. 

The most significant step in this direction came in 1454, when 
the king appointed Pedro de Acufia, " my counsellor and chief 
guard, for many and good services rendered, to be the entrega- 
dor mayor." 2 By this appointment the chief entregador was 
made the means of communication between the crown and the 
Mesta, because of his dual status as personal adviser to the 
sovereign and director of the most important officials of the 
Mesta. Through him were conveyed the royal orders and grants 
of favors to that body. He protected the interests of the crown 
at all Mesta meetings, and brought to those semiannual functions 
a dignity and prestige which they had not previously enjoyed. 

From the Mesta's point of view, the designation of a member 
of the Royal Council as entregador-in-chief was most important. 
It meant that the herdsmen would have a representative con- I/ 
stantly near the sovereign to plead their cause. The inauguration 
of this practice of having some important Mesta official in con- 
stant attendance upon the king gave the sheep owners a markedy 
advantage, which they were to use most effectively in the sixteentn 
century in the struggles with their less favored and unorganized 
opponents. With this state of affairs in mind, we are quite pre- 

1 Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuente Pinilla, 1509: an entregador's commission of 1435 
in which the local judges are threatened with loss of office for failure to present all 
questions of difference between themselves and the entregador before the king. 
There was a similar provision in a commission of 1339: Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatr. 
Docs. Reales, iii, no. 220. 

2 Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuente Pinilla, 1509. 



84 THE MESTA 

pared to understand the significant step taken by Ferdinand and 
Isabella in 1500, when they created the office of President of the 
Mesta, which was to be held by the senior member of the Royal 
Council, the first appointee being Hernan Perez de Monreal. 1 

Another evidence of the bond which was so rapidly strengthen- 
ing between the autocracy and the Mesta was the cooperation 
between the entregador and the corregidor, that l cornerstone of 
the administrative edifice ' of the Catholic Kings. 2 The corregidor 
was instructed to assist the Mesta judge in the exercise of his 
privileges, and in some cases to sit with him in an advisory capac- 
ity. 3 In the seventeenth century, when Spanish royalty had but 
a shadow of its former grandeur, this practice of sending the 
corregidor to reenforce the power of the entregador was resorted 
to in the forlorn hope of restoring some of the old prestige of 
the monarchy and the Mesta. 

The concentration of the control of the Mesta under the various 
branches of the central government was carried further, early 
in the sixteenth century, by certain new provisions concerning 
appeals. 4 The commissions or appointments of entregadores 
issued in 1509, 1516, and 1529 emphasized the function of the 
royal chancillerias and the Council as the only appellate courts 
above the entregador. This set aside once and for all any possible 
remnant of the now almost obsolete claim of the proprietary 
entregador-in-chief to hear appeals in certain minor cases. 5 In- 
deed, the Council seems to have taken particular pains during the 

1 Martinez Salazar, Coleccidn de . . . Memorias del Consejc (1764), pp. 221- 
237, and Escolano de Arrieta, Prdctica del Consejo Real (1796, 2 vols.), i, pp. 584- 
587. See above, pp. 52 ff. 

2 Marie" jol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle (Paris, 1902), p. 172. 

3 Arch. Mesta, R-2, Ruecas, 1497; A~5, Aledo, 1488; B-2, Bejar, 1498; A-9, 
Avila, 1502; Prov. i, 18 (1498). 

4 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 12, no. 5 (1509); Arch. Simancas, Diversos de 
Castilla, no. 909 (1516); Arch. Mesta, C~3, Candeleda, 1534 (1529). A good illus- 
tration of this point is found hi a case which was tried in 1557, when the town of 
Magana, near Soria, appealed from an entregador's sentence to the alcalde mayor 
of Burgos. The Royal Council immediately intervened and ordered that the appeal 
be carried to the chancillerla at Valladolid. Arch. Mesta, 6-4, Burgos, 1557. This 
was before the hostility between Council and chancillerfas had become fully de- 
veloped. See below, pp. in ff. 

1 Arch. Mesta, 8-5, Siguenza, 1792: a commission of 1417. 



ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR 85 

earlier years of the Hapsburg period to emphasize the royal source 
of the authority vested in the entregador . In a decree of 1 5 1 6, for 
example, the city of Plasencia was forbidden to accept as legal the 
sentences of any judges who might call themselves entregadores, 
" unless they are appointed directly by the king." This was espe- 
cially intended to check " certain judges appointed by the Count 
of Buendia [proprietary entregador-in-chief], who are authorized 
to examine only the boundaries of certain caiiadas, whereas the 
entregadores appointed by the king are empowered to supervise 
pastures, enclosures, and all other affairs of the members of the 
Mesta." 1 

The proprietary entregador, or entregador mayor, had thus be- 
come practically a nonentity, save for his title to the privilege of 
farming out certain lesser functions of Mesta administration. 
The change was largely due to the new absolutism of the six- 
teenth-century monarchy. His significance as a royal appointee 
disappeared as the President of the Mesta took over the prestige 
as well as the functions of his office. The transfer in 1568 of the 
ownership of that office from the Buendia family to the Mesta 
marks the end of any external or non-governmental control of 
the herdsmen and their gild. 

1 Arch. Mesta, P-i, Plasencia, 1742. 







CHAPTER VI 

THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 

Functions of the entregador. Contact with town authorities. Inspection and pro- 
tection of the canadas. Restraint of marauders. Supervision of pastures, enclo- 
sures, and commons. Conflicts with the Cortes and with towns. Exemptions from 
the entregadores' visitations. Residencias or hearings of complaints. Restrictions 
upon entregadores by higher courts, Cortes, and town leagues. 

THE first period of the history of the entregador that which we 
have just been examining was concerned with the founding and 
fostering of the office by the crown, and the culmination of its 
/ power under the absolutism of the first Hapsburgs. The second 
period deals largely with the struggle to maintain the prestige of 
the Mesta and its magistrate against the towns and the land- 
's holders, but in this the entregador met with less and less success 
as the waning strength of his once autocratic royal ally slowly 
crumbled away in the seventeenth century. 

This disintegration of the monarchy, and the unchecked opera- 
tion of the ancient Spanish predilection for separatism, spelled 
disaster for so unified and nationalized an institution as the Mesta. 
It was impossible for that body to function without the support 
of a strongly centralized administrative machine. We must, 
therefore, turn to an examination of the vital part played by the 
corps of entregadores in that machine, with special reference to 
the organization of this itinerant judiciary and its contact with 
local interests the number of judges, their jurisdiction and 
functions, and the chief phases of their conflicts with the towns. 
The earliest documents dealing with these magistrates give no 
definite indication of their number, but the references to their 
itineraries, which lay along the canadas, or sheep highways, offer 
a basis for reasonably acceptable conjectures. It is known, for 
example, that two entregadores represented the Mesta in its 
negotiations with the Order of Calatrava, these two being " the 

86 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 87 

ones who were serving at the time for the king." 1 Further ev- 
idence upon the probable number of entregadores in the mediaeval 
period is found in the first extant commission of an entregador, 
which was issued in 1300. The recipient was to serve " in the 
Canada of Cuenca . . . along the routes covered by the flocks 
from that section," 2 and there is ample evidence to show that 
each of the other three great sheep highways was assigned in a 
like manner to an entregador. In 1378 the city government of 
Caceres and representatives of the Mesta agreed upon a contrata 
fixing the jurisdiction of the " entregador for the shepherds of the 
Canada of Leon." 3 Similar references are to be found to entrega- 
dores of " the cafiada Segoviana, the Toledana, and that of Mon- 
tearagon." 4 There was at first, apparently, one entregador for 
each quadrilla or Mesta district, 5 and the highways leading south- 
ward therefrom; but the practice soon developed of making the 
assignments by bishoprics instead of by canadas. This may have 
increased the number of entregadores slightly, though these 
ecclesiastical units were frequently grouped so as to cover districts 
approximately equal to the quadrillas. 6 

During the later Middle Ages the size of the districts assigned 
to the different entregadores varied from one bishopric to ten or 
twelve. In the latter case there was a redistribution or farming 
out to subordinates. 7 As was indicated above, there is no means 
of ascertaining the exact number of active entregadores previous 
to the sixteenth century, but by about 1500 it had become defin- 
itely fixed at six. 8 Their districts were assigned to them by the 
President of the Mesta, namely the senior member of the Royal 
Council: a further extension of the control of the entregador by 

1 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, 1-41, fols. 239-240. 

2 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, Becerro, fols. 25-27. See p. 19. 

3 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 430, fols. 103-108. 

. 4 Arch. Hist. Nac., Calatrava Docs. Reales, iii, 163 (1306). 
6 See above, p. 51. 

6 Acad. Hist., Ms. -127, fols. 183-185, 191-192: assignments of entregadores 
to bishoprics, corresponding to the quadrillas of Cuenca and Soria, dated 1480 and 
1481. 

7 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Baeza, 1432, and G-2, Guadalupe, 1425, give instances of 
entregadores assigned to the bishoprics of Jaen and Plasencia. 

8 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 12, no. 5: a commission of 1509. 



88 THE MESTA 

the central executive. This number was maintained throughout 
the century, but with occasional demands from the Cortes that it 
be reduced to four. 1 

- Though the entregadores themselves were few in number, each 
/ , was accompanied by a large and very active company of bailiffs, 

clerks, notaries, and other assistants, whose petty annoyances and 
exactions of fees made the whole system of the itinerant judiciary 
even more obnoxious to the townspeople. One opponent of the 
Mesta in the Cortes denounced the entregadores and their nu- 
\ merous assistants as an organization for unlimited extortion and 
\ blackmail which supported some two or three thousand persons. 2 

* This was something of an exaggeration, perhaps, but it was never- 
theless indicative of the state of public opinion at the time when 
the Mesta and its judiciary were at the height of their power. 
During the succeeding two centuries the number of entregadores 
gradually declined. In 1589 it had been reduced to four, 3 and the 
effectiveness of these was greatly restricted by the contest of the 
succeeding reign. One of the conditions of the subsidy of 1650 
was that the number of entregadores be reduced to three, " until 
such time as two shall appear sufficient." This step was taken 
" because of the great decline of the sheep industry, which made 
four entregadores unnecessary." 4 Finally, in 1782, just fourteen 
years before the abolition of the office, the number was reduced to 
two. 5 

There were two main functions of the entregadores: first, to 
keep open the canadas and the drinking and resting stations of the 
transhumantes; and, second, to supervise and restrict the en- 
croachment upon public pastures, forests, and waste lands by the 
neighboring landowners and tenants. There was a third duty, 
subordinate to the first two and really a Dart of them, namely, the 
protection of the shepherds from violence and abuse at the hands 

1 Cortes de CastUla, ix, pp. 261-265 (1587). 
z Ibid., xiii, p. 387 (1594)- 

3 Concordia de 1783, i, fol. 75 v. 

4 Escrituras . . . de los Servicios de Millones (1734), fol. 89. Cf. also Concordia 
de 1783, i, fols. 332-333, and Danvila, " Cortes de Felipe IV," in Bol. Acad. Hist., 
xi, p. 479. 

6 Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. no. 5548. 



THE ENTKEGADOR AND THE TOWNS 89 

of the local officials, peasants, highwaymen, and others. The 
actual work of protecting the herdsmen in their migrations was in 
the hands of certain guards, called cabalkros, who were under the 
direction of the entregadores. 1 The guards were detailed partic- 
ularly to look after certain marauders known as golfines, who 
were usually brought before the entregadores for trial because 
of their roving habits and their depredations on the transhu- 
mantes. 2 Lesser duties, such as the disposal of mostrencos, or 
strays, were sometimes performed by the entregadores, but their 
chief task was the maintenance of unobstructed highways and 
pastures for the flocks. 

The duties of the entregadores with reference to the canadas 
were specified in the Mesta charter of 1284: 

. . . they shall keep open the canadas and the highways, and shall make 
seizures for any trespass on them by those who cultivate them or enclose 
them; and the measure of the canadas shall be six so gas de marco at forty- 
five palmos to each soga. This measure has reference to the Canada where 
it passes through vineyards and grain fields; and the entregadores shall so 
mark and maintain it. 3 

1 Cf. Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 6-7. The title was frequently applied to rural peace 
officers, such as the caballeros de la sierra in the Ordenanzas de Granada de 1552 
(Granada, 1672), fol. 7, and in the Ordinaciones de Albarrazin (1647), p. 55. Of a 
similar nature were the montanneros of Soria, described in its fuero of 1190-1214 
(cf. Galo Sanchez, Sobre el Fmro de Soria, Madrid, 1916, and Loperraez Corvalan, 
op. cit., iii, p. 102), the guardas de huertas of Saragossa in the Ordinaciones de Zara- 
goza (1693), fol. 189, and the guardas del verde in the Ordenanzas de Badajoz (1767), 
p. 1 8. These rural guards were the forerunner of the modern Spanish guardia 
civil and the Mexican rurales. 

2 Cf . Arch. Osuna, Be" jar, caj. i, no. 5 : a cedula of 1 292, directing the entregadores 
to check the " dafio y fuerzas y otros malos muchos de los golfines "; Palacio, Docs. 
Arch. Madrid, i, p. 146: an ordenamiento of 1293 regarding " el danno que ffissieren 
los golffines a los pastores." The entregadores were strictly forbidden to assess the 
neighboring towns for any damage suffered hi their vicinity by the Mesta at the 
hands of golfines; cf. Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-3/38, fol. 55. The Military Order of 
Calatrava collected fees from Mesta flocks for the suppression of golfines', cf. Bull. 
Ord. Milit. Calat., pp. 201-202 (privilege de 1343). Further details on this class 
of marauders are to be found in the Revista Penitenciaria, ii, pp. 645-662 (1905); 
Revista de Extremadura, x, pp. 369 ff. (1908); and in Bonilla y San Martin's au- 
thoritative note in the Revue hispanique, xii, pp. 602-603 (1905). 

3 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 20. This measure equalled about 250 feet: cf. Nov. 
Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 22, and ley n, cap. 9; Manuel G6mez Valverde, 
El Consultor del Ganadero (Madrid, 1898), p. 243. 



90 THE MESTA 

^ As we have seen, 1 these routes were really elongated pastures 
reserved exclusively for the passage twice a year of the transhu- 
mantes. The above specification brings out a salient feature, 
namely, that the width of the canadas was definitely fixed only 
when they lay between cultivated areas. When the sheep high- 
way led across commons or waste lands, the flocks were at liberty 
to follow any route they chose. The maintenance of the measured 
stretches of the canadas was almost the only occupation of the 
entregador during the Middle Ages. It was, however, an absorb- 
ing task, for the fine of a hundred maravedis which was cus- 
tomarily levied for encroachments upon the sheep highways was 
not enough to keep back the neighboring peasants and land- 
owners. In fact, trespasses were inevitable, in view of the few 

Nweeks of use to which the canadas were put each year. 

The periodic visitations of the entregadores became so closely 
associated in the minds of the townsmen and wayside peasants 
with the maintenance of sheep walks that the absence of any such 
highways in a given region was naturally regarded as a guarantee 
of exemption from the jurisdiction of the Mesta magistrates. 2 
This principle was fully recognized by the latter, until the period 
when the dominance of the Mesta over the rural life of Castile 
encouraged the officers of that institution to ignore the ancient 
privilege of towns remote from the canadas and to hold court in 
villages which never saw the migrating flocks. 

1 See p. 20. 

2 Arch. Ayunt. Madrid, sect. 2, leg. 358, no. 50: royal privilege of 1345, an- 
nouncing that " within the limits of the jurisdiction of Madrid there is no Canada 
and no judge can trespass therein." Acad. Hist., Ms. -127, fol. 251: royal com- 
mission dated 1330, instructing the entregadores to confine their hearings and awards 
of judgment strictly to the canadas. Arch. Mesta, Prov. iv, no. 7, lists the towns 
claiming exemption from entregador visitations. These exemptions were sometimes 
nullified, however, by entregadores who resorted to their authority to open new 
highways " wherever needed." See Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 0-15 (1376), fol. 251: 
royal commission, dated 1330, instructing the entregadores "que fagan las entregas 
en todas las canadas . . . y las querellas le dieren tambien en las canadas." Arch. 
Mesta, Prov. iv, no. 7, gives a list of the towns claiming exemption from the 
entregadores on this basis. These privileges were sometimes evaded by the entre- 
gadores, who resorted to their power to open new canadas. Acad. Hist., Ms. 
Salazar 0-15, refers to the exercise of that function by an entregador in Granada 
in 1376. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 9! 

It should also be observed that there were frequent exemptions \^ 
in favor of towns which lay along the sheep routes. These im- 
munities were either perpetual or for long period of years and were 
bestowed by the crown as rewards for war time services or were 
sold by it to raise revenue . x Another common restriction upon the 
entregadores occurred in certain town charters which limited the 
jurisdiction of the Mesta judges to offences occurring in or directly 
related to the Canada, and specifically reserving to the local jus- 
tices the matter of dealing with herds which strayed into neigh- 
boring cultivated lands. 2 

Previous to the sixteenth century the canada was mutually 
recognized by the Mesta and the towns as the sine qua non of an 
entregador's visitations in a given locality. Where the flocks 
made use of the ordinary highways, as sometimes happened, they 
were not entitled to the protection of their special judges. 3 This 
was modified, however, under the absolutism of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, when the Mesta had come to be employed as an important 
instrument of the crown in establishing its influence over the local 
administration of the realm. The Royal Council then disre- 
garded this ancient restriction of the entregadores to the canadas, 
and through its senior member, the President of the Mesta, au- 
thorized these magistrates to exercise their office in many parts of 
the country remote from any regular sheep routes. 4 The debates 
of the Cortes during the sixteenth century were interspersed with 
protests against this encroachment of the itinerant judges upon 
the territory of the local justices, who were thereby robbed of one 
of their chief sources of revenue. 5 

1 The town of Buitrago had received such an exemption in 1288 from Sancho IV, 
in recognition of its loyalty to him in his war with his father Alfonso X. Braza- 
corta and Bofiar had been similarly rewarded for the same reason : Arch. Mesta, 
6-3, Bonar, 1762; B-4, Brazacorta, 1752; B~4, Buitrago, 1742. 

2 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 0-15, fol. 87 (1376). 

3 The exemption of the town of Siguenza from the entregador's jurisdiction was 
based on this ground: Arch. Mesta, 8-5, Siguenza, 1792: a privilegio of 1331. 

4 Arch. Mesta, C-2, Caloca, 1739: a sixteenth-century declaration by the Presi- 
dent, authorized by the Royal Council, that the canada was not necessarily the only 
itinerary of the entregadores. 

6 Cortes, iv, pp. 551-552 (1532); v, p. 83 (1538); v, p. 246 (1542); Cortes de 
Castillo, xiii, pp. 322-330 (1594). 



92 THE MESTA 

Although this interference with the jurisdiction and profits of 
the local judiciary was regarded as a serious grievance, the pro- 
tests against it were by no means so widespread nor so vehement 
as those directed against the most important phase of the entre- 
gador's activities, namely his supervision of the pastures used by 
the Mesta flocks. The canadas were clearly defined and of ancient 
origin. They were, therefore, as a rule accepted by the towns 
without protest, and the entregadores exercised their jurisdiction 
over the many minor encroachments on them with little difficulty. 
When, however, the question came up of the Mesta's access to 
commons, fallow strips adjoining tilled fields, and other lands 
which were always open to townspeople but only occasionally to 
strangers, there arose a serious conflict. 

The jurisdiction of the entregador over questions of pasturage 
was limited to the important matter of enclosures. He had 
nothing to do with such topics, for example, as the enforcement of 
the notorious measures of Philip II and his successors, fixing the 
prices of pasturage in favor of the Mesta. Furthermore, he was 
prohibited by royal decree from passing judgment upon the 
equally odious laws of posesion, which established the Mesta's 
perpetual title to tenancy in all fields leased by its members. 1 It 
was, however, the duty of the itinerant magistrate to make care- 
ful observations of all public lands to which the Mesta claimed 
access, and to prevent any enclosures of them either for agricul- 
tural purposes or for the benefit of local, non-migratory flocks 
(estantes). 2 

These lands included the bosqites, or unclaimed wooded areas, 
and the baldios, or waste sections. 3 The earlier royal charters of 
the Mesta opened all such regions to the transhumantes and in- 
structed the entregadores to see that the flocks were not debarred 
from the lands in question. During the Middle Ages the pastes 
comuneSj or town commons, and the rastrojos, or grain stubble on 

1 See below, p. 322. 

2 His compensation for this service was one-third of the fine levied, the re- 
mainder being divided between the Mesta and its prosecuting attorney who ac- 
companied the entregador. Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 289. 

8 Jordana y Morera, Algunas voces Forestries (Madrid, 1900), discusses these 
terms; also see below, pp. 301 ff. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 93 

private fields, were usually recognized as being exclusively for the 
use of local cattle. It was not until the absolutism of the first 
Hapsburgs had made the Mesta much bolder and the entrega- 
dores more arrogant that the local commons were invaded by the 
migrants. A similar fate was suffered by various town pastures 
and enclosures of a special nature: the con ales de mostrencos, for 
the detention of strays; the sanjuaniegos for horse-breeding pur- 
poses; the dehesas boy ales for oxen; the muladares for refuse 
heaps; the colmenares for bee-hives; and the carniceros for meat 
dealers' animals. There had been some litigation on the question 
of the access of migratory flocks to these fields, but the towns had 
generally been able to establish their rights. 1 

During the sixteenth century, however, the Mesta profited to \ >^ 
the fullest extent by the growing power of its ally, the crown, and V 
broke down any effective resistance to its judges. As a result, we 
find the entregadores encroaching upon distinctly local jurisdic- \ 
tion and restricting, under heavy penalties, the enclosure of town 
commons either for arable or for any of the above named special I 
purposes. Although this was in direct violation of their letters of ') 
appointment, the Mesta magistrates continued their excesses in ! 
spite of frequent protests from the Cortes. 2 

As is usually the case, such aggressions were not legalized until 
the practice had been common among entregadores for some 
decades. It was not until 1621 that the Royal Council, the un- 
failing friend of the Mesta, recognized the right of the Mesta 
judiciary to try cases involving the enclosure of parts of town 

1 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 430, fols. 45-48: an exemption granted to Caceres in 
1341, covering its pastures of the above named types. Madrid was able to go even 
further and to establish the jurisdiction of one of its judges over neighboring baldios 
which were usually regarded as coming under the supervision of the crown, and, 
therefore, of the entregador: Arch. Ayunt. Madrid, sec. 2, leg. 303, no. i. On the 
Mesta's access to baldios see also Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 308 v, 316 v. 

2 Cortes de Castilla, v (adic.), pp. 552-553 (1576); ix, pp. 261-265 (1587); 
xiii, pp. 261-262 (1594); xiv, pp. 446-455 (1596); xix, p. 547 (1600). These refer- 
ences contain certain lengthy discussions of the various types of distinctly local 
pastures which should be subject to the jurisdiction of the town justices and not 
to the entregadores. Arch. Mesta, B-2, Baraona, 1774, presents a typical instance 
of the Mesta and its judiciary claiming access to the pasta comun of the town on the 
ground that its very name implied that it was common to all sheep, including 
transhumantes. 



94 THE MESTA 

commons, giving the entregadores one-third of all fines which they 
levied for such offences. 1 Meanwhile the Cortes had continued 
to voice a country-wide protest against this particular form of 
aggression on the part of the Mesta officials. The most forceful 
and convincing evidence, however, was brought against the en- 
tregadores toward the close of the sixteenth century, in an im- 
portant series of reports which had been sent in by a score of 
corregidores and other agents of the central government. These 
men had been sent out to investigate agricultural conditions in 
central and southern Castile and with striking unanimity they 
denounced the interference of the entregadores with the exten- 
f sion of arable lands. They declared that such arbitrary power in 
~ the hands of this unscrupulous itinerant judiciary was unques- 
tionably the most potent factor in keeping down the quantity as 
well as the quality of the agricultural population. 2 Even Philip II 

(and his ministers, patrons though they were of the Mesta and its 
judiciary, could not lose sight of one fundamental principle of 
mercantilism : the tax-paying potentiality of the rural population 
was far too significant an asset to be lightly ignored. It was not 
long, therefore, before the entregadores found themselves em- 
barrassed by unexpected hostility and pressure from the Royal 
Council. 

Curiously enough, the opposition of the Cortes to the entre- 
gador began to weaken at about the same time. The deputies 
were apparently less and less concerned over the attempts of the 
Mesta judiciary to break down local enclosures. The last impor- 
tant discussion of that question by the deputies occurred in i6oo. 3 
One might at first be led to suppose from this either that the 
Mesta had triumphed completely over all opposition or that the 
entregadores had ceased to intrude upon questions of enclosures. 
The real explanation, however, was that there had been dis- 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 290; Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 105. 

x * Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 9372, fols. 31-40. Among the remedies suggested for 
rural depopulation was that the Moriscos should be forbidden to follow their ac- 
customed ' unproductive ' calling of peddling small wares, and should be divided 
up among the rural districts as agricultural laborers. 

3 Cortes de Castilla, xix, p. 547. There are later references to the subject in the 
debates, but this is the last of any significance. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 95 

covered a most effective means of circumventing the mandates of 
the entregador by appealing from his decisions to the chancil- 
lerias or high courts. This we shall take up later. 1 

Before leaving this topic of the jurisdiction of entregadores 
over enclosures, one other aspect of the problem remains to be 
discussed, namely the efforts of the Mesta, through its judges, to 
control and exploit the licensing of enclosures. The commissions 
issued to entregadores in the Middle Ages had authorized them 
to inspect the royal licenses permitting any enclosures of common 
lands. By virtue of this authority the more audacious entrega- 
dores had come to regard themselves as the agents of the crown 
for the granting of such licenses. They soon put into effective use 
this quite unwarranted extension of their powers by employing it 
to secure a further source of income to themselves. 2 Although 
during the weaker monarchy of the fifteenth century they were 
thus able to encroach upon the royal prerogative with impunity, 
they were sharply brought to terms by the ascendant authority 
of the crown in the succeeding period. In 1502 a royal mandate 
was issued to prevent the entregadores from granting such li- 
censes for their own profit. 3 The penalty to be paid by towns or 
individuals who failed to secure the royal license was raised, in 
1509, from one hundred to three hundred maravedis, and was 
increased later in the century " to any figure not exceeding ten 
thousand maravedis." 4 The letters of appointment issued to 
entregadores by Ferdinand and Isabella during this period were 
very clear in their stipulations that the crown alone could grant 
licenses for the enclosure either of special town pastures or of 
arable land. 5 The codified laws which were drawn up later were 
even more explicit: "No person, assembly, or community of any 
sort whatever may make an enclosure without our royal license; 

1 See pp. naff. 

2 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Baeza, 1432: a good illustration of this from Andalusia, 
where the entregador went so far as to draw up the schedule of fines to be collected 
by guards called deheseros from hunters, charcoal burners, and other trespassers 
upon the dehesa boyal, said fines to be paid to himself. 

3 Ibid., Prov. i, 22. 

4 Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 28. 

5 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 12, no. 5 (1509); Arch. Simancas, Diversosde Cas- 
tilla, no. 909 (1516). 




96 THE MESTA 

nor shall the entregadores authorize any such, or confirm any 
that may have been given by others, for all persons, assemblies, 
or communities who would enjoy that right shall come and ask 
for it before us [the crown]." 1 

All of the evidence on this question of enclosure licenses shows 
clearly how the powers of the entregador, so carefully fostered 
both by the crown and by the Mesta, had raised that dignitary, 
by the opening years of Charles V's reign about 1519-25 
to a position of independence and strength never contemplated 
by either his creator the crown or his wards the Mesta 
members; and it was not long before both of these parties were 
taking steps to hold the itinerant magistrate in check. From that 
time onward he was the object of careful observation, especially 
on the part of the Mesta, until finally he became a member of the 
regular official staff of that body. This was accomplished in 1 568 
through the purchase from the Count of Buendia of the proprie- 
tary rights over the office. By that time the entregadores had 
become far too important to allow their continuance outside the 
immediate control of the Mesta . The wisdom of the purchase was 
shown by the fact that the price, 750,000 maravedis, though re- 
garded as excessive at the time, was within a decade equal only to 
a fifth or sixth of the income derived each year by the Mesta from 
the profits of the office. 

In the depression of the economic decay of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, the sale of these licenses for enclosures formed a lucrative 
source of revenue for the crown and occasionally for unscru- 
pulous entregadores. This naturally caused corresponding vexa- 
tions to the Mesta members, because of the resulting curtailment 
of common lands. At the same time the practice gradually de- 
r , veloped into a regular formula for purchasing exemption from 
the visitations of the entregadores, and this practice had much 
to do with the decline in the importance of those officials under 
the later Hapsburgs. 

The once imposing power of the entregadores as arbiters over 
the rural lands of the realm slowly crumbled away, as did the 

1 Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 28. Cf. Escolano de Arrieta, Prdctica 
del Consejo Real (Madrid, 1796), i, pp. 248-251. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 97 

other elements of the office. From the middle of the seventeenth 
century onward, they were less and less a potent factor and more 
and more mere meddlers in the administration of the pasture 
lands. They complained solemnly of the evil of intemperance, 
and cited it as one of the chief arguments against the laying out 
and enclosing of vineyards in what were once Mesta pastures. 1 
They protested feebly against the sale of rastrojos, or stubble, 
" to which the ancient privileges of the Mesta had given the 
flocks free access." 2 Although theoretically the entregadores 
still exercised this function of supervising the pastures of the 
transhumantes down to the abolition of the office in 1796, in prac- 
tice the various local officials had long since taken over the regula- 
tion of all grazing grounds within the jurisdictions of their 
separate towns, whether frequented by migratory or local flocks. 
One of the arguments most commonly presented in defence of 
this step, when such a defence seemed necessary, was that the 
Mesta's prevention of the extension of enclosures into the open 
and waste lands had caused the latter to be covered with under- 
growth to such an extent that they were not only useless as pas- 
turage, but were also a menace to neighboring communities be- 
cause of thieves and wolves that were harbored there. 3 

Throughout the eighteenth century vehement charges were 
brought against the Mesta as a hindrance to the extension of 
agriculture; and in these charges the entregador continued to be 
mentioned. Local authorities had, however, taken over the 
functions of the office, and the pastoral reforms and investiga- 
tions conducted by Charles III and his ministers touched upon 
the entregador only incidentally, to eliminate even a formal 
recognition of that officer as a participant in the administration 
of pasturage. 

1 Arch. Mesta, C-i, Calahorra, 1650. 

2 Ibid., C~4, Capilla Garlitos, 1742. In some parts of Spain today, for example 
in southern Aragon, the fields and vineyards are thrown open after the harvest 
to passing herds, upon payment of a nominal fee. Cf. Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, 
ley 5, cap. 28. See also the ordinances of the town of Baena, 1492, regulating the 
use of rastrojos by the village swine: Valverde Perales, Antiguas Ordenanzas de 
Baena (Cordova, 1907), p. 223. 

3 Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 41. 




THE MESTA 

Probably the most important aspect of the entregador and his 
history, from the point of view of the student of Spanish institu- 
tions in general, was his relations with the towns, and especially 
his conflicts with the local political and judicial authorities. At 
every turn in the performance of the two chief duties of his office 
- the supervision of the canadas and of the pastures he was 
met by conflicting claims of jurisdiction on the part of the town 
justices. The communities with which the Mesta came into con- 
flict were, for the most part, in the southern plains of the penin- 
sula : districts reconquered from the Moors in the comparatively 
recent times of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. 
This reconquest had left to the newly gained provinces the usual 
grants of modified autonomy which fall to the lot of all frontier 
strongholds. This advantage was accentuated in the present 
instance by the ancient Spanish tradition of separatism, an atti- 
tude of innate suspicion toward all forasteros, or strangers, 
whether from a neighboring province or from a foreign country. 

Having in mind this characteristic of strong local self- con- 
sciousness, it is easy to understand the constant series of entangle- 
ments in which the itinerant magistrates found themselves in 
their efforts to enforce the privileges of the Mesta against the 
town officials. The latter were strongly intrenched behind the 
liberal fueros granted by the late kings of the Reconquest. When 
the sweeping permission of the Mesta ' to pasture freely in all 
parts of the realm without the payment of any taxes or imposts ' 
was met by concessions granting the right to a given town ' to 
exclude all stock coming from outside the limits of its jurisdic- 
tion/ there was bound to be a conflict of the authorities em- 
powered to enforce these respective privileges. This was the basis 
of the struggle between the entregadores and the local justices. 
The story of that conflict is the more interesting because it affords 
an excellent opportunity for the study of the tension and clash 
between those two ancient forces in all administrative systems, 
the national and the local, the centripetal and the centrifugal. 

It should be remembered that the lands coming under the juris- 
diction of the mediaeval and early modern Spanish city were fre- 
quently as extensive as provinces. Such cities as Caceres, Bada- 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 99 

joz, and Plasencia had as many as a hundred and forty villages 
within their jurisdiction. 1 The four great Aragonese comunida- 
des, or town leagues, of Albarracin, Daroca, Calatayud, and 
Teruel comprised a total of about three hundred and fifty smaller 
hamlets centring about these four cities. 2 The chief object of 
these leagues was the regulation of the pasturage used as commons 
among them. There was a noteworthy absence of any such 
closely knit town unions in Castile on anything like an extensive 
scale. This is one of the chief explanations of the readiness with 
which the growing strength and solidity of the Mesta and its 
system of itinerant officers were able to cope with the isolated 
resistance of small towns in the southern pasture lands. It is 
true that Caceres, Badajoz, and a few others of the larger and 
better organized cities were able to contend on even terms with 
the Mesta. In the case of the smaller localities, however, it was 
not until they had united for the expensive process of carrying 
their cases by appeal from the entregadores' courts to the high 
appellate chancillerias, late in the sixteenth century, that they 
were able to check the obnoxious interference of these itinerant 
magistrates with their purely local affairs. 



Castile any counterpart to the Aragonese town leagues for the 
administration of rural affairs, the Mesta and its entregador 
would have had a far different and a far less triumphal history. 3 
It was only the organization of a union of the southern and 
western towns in the eighteenth century, under the leadership 
of Badajoz and the inspiration of Prime Minister Campomanes, 
that ultimately brought the tottering Mesta to its knees. 

As a safeguard for the local interests, it had been specified that 
each entregador, in the exercise of his office in a given community, 
should be accompanied by the alcalde, who was the chief execu- 
tive and judicial officer of the town. Just what the latter was to 
accomplish is not made clear. It is evident that he was not em- 
powered to sit in the case with an equal voice in forming the 

1 Costa, Colectivismo Agrario (Madrid, 1898), p. 399. 

2 See below, p. 299. 

3 An account of one of the few Castilian examples of such an organization is 
described in L6cea y Garcia, La Comunidad y Tierra de Segovia (Segovia, 1893). 



100 THE MESTA 

decision, though there are instances of his having expressed in 
writing his dissenting views in certain litigations. The entregador 
usually sat in the town hall in the court-room of the alcalde, and 
the presence of the latter on the bench with the visitor was appar- 
ently intended to hold the Mesta magistrate in check to some 
extent. The alcalde was particularly zealous in advising the 
entregador of local privileges and interests quite as ancient and 
revered as those of the Mesta. 

In the earlier centuries this arrangement for cooperation be- 
tween Mesta judiciary and town officers was more of a reality. 
Close association with the alcaldes was regarded by the entrega- 
dores as one of their first duties, particularly in the determination 
of the boundaries of the cafiadas. As the Mesta became stronger 
and its alliance with the crown grew closer, this procedure of 
recognizing the importance of local dignitaries and their privileges 
came inevitably to be regarded more and more as a formality of 
no real consequence. During the sixteenth century the com- 
plaints in the Cortes against this growing laxity on the part of the 
entregadores became more frequent. By the time the following 
century was well under way, however, it was apparent to the 
towns that the entregadores were losing strength and were vulner- 
able to attack and even disarmament by exemptions purchased 
from the crown, and especially by appeals to the chancillerias. 
Thus the practice of having local officials accompany the visiting 
justices fell into disuse. 

Having in mind these dominant features of the relations be- 
tween entregadores and alcaldes, we may turn to a briei .examina- 
tion of some of the more important episodes and details in the 
history of those relations. Perhaps the earliest instance of faro- 
tion occurred in 1292, when the citizens of Alcocer made a formal 
complaint regarding the numerous unjust charges brought against 
them before the entregador, and the hardship wrought by the 
sentences of the latter. In answer to their petition, the king 
ordered that all such cases should be heard " before one of the 
entregadores with an alcalde of Toledo." l This was probably the 

1 Arch. Osuna, B6jar Ms., caj. i, no. 5: ce"dula of Sancho IV, 24 Nov., 1292. 
Alcocer lay within the diocese of Toledo. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS IOI 

first occasion when a local official exercised authority in the court 
of an itinerant magistrate. The original Mesta privileges make 
no such provision; nor do the recurrent complaints of the Cortes 
record any such safeguard until the following year, 1 293, when the 
deputies asked that " the alcaldes of the towns be present to pass 
upon cases with the entregadores." x Not only was this granted, 
but in addition it was ordered that the Mesta judges should sup- 
ply the various localities on their itineraries with copies of their 
commissions " so that if the entregadores are inclined to exceed 
their powers, they shall not be allowed to do so." The latter 
clause indicates the function of the local alcalde in this connection : 
he served, not as a companion judge, but as a check upon the 
entregador to prevent any illegal extensions of his powers. 2 

One of the frequent and obvious sources of difficulty was the 
entregador 's effort to exercise jurisdiction over cases between 
citizens of the town where he happened to be sitting. He did 
this on the theory that the matters in question involved the rights 
of the Mesta; but the local authorities were nearly always able to 
check such encroachments by citing the specific limitations of the 
visitor's letters of appointment, which restricted him to litigation 
between the migratory shepherds and the occupants of the land. 3 
Many towns enjoyed such royal protection as that given to 
Cuenca by Ferdinand IV in 1306, when the entregadores visiting 
that section were ordered " not to hear any complaints made 
by one vezino (of Cuenca) against another; said complaints are 
to be heard by the officials of Cuenca only." 4 It was clearly 

1 Cortes, Valladolid, 1293, pet. 7. See a similar provision in a privilegio to Pla- 
sencia, 1293, in Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-3/38, fol. 50. 

2 There are instances where sentences were drawn up as coming from the two 
jointly, but these were confined to cases where the town belonged to some powerful 
noble or military order; cf. Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, 1-41, fol. 89: a case between 
the town of Miguel Tierra, of the Order of Calatrava, and the Mesta, dated 1308. 
Similarly there was a contrata between Caceres and the Mesta, made in 1378, pro- 
viding for joint sitting of the entregadores and the town alcaldes: Bib. Nac. Madrid, 
Ms. 430, fols. 103-108. 

8 See above, p. 80. 

4 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 3, no. 19, 20 April 1306. The definition of vezino 
given in the fuero of Soria (1190-1214; Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-2/36, par. 277) 
conforms in substance with that given in other instruments of the tune, and may 
be taken as the usually accepted one: " Vezino de Soria es el que ha raiz [stock] en 



102 THE MESTA 

established, then, that before an entregador could pass upon 
a case it must directly concern the Mesta itself or one of its 
members. 

Although the laws required cooperation between the itinerant 
and the local judges, the difficulty of establishing it in actual prac- 
tice became greater each year, as the Mesta grew stronger and 
more aggressive. The first outbursts of complaints in the Cortes 
against this growing menace to local autonomy occurred late in 
the reign of Ferdinand IV and during the minority of Alfonso XI. 
In that period, from about 1305 to 1325, the domination of an 
unscrupulous clique of nobles over centralized administrative 
affairs, including the Mesta, made the latter thoroughly obnox- 
ious to the municipalities. The attempt was first made to abolish 
the entregadores altogether, as being hostile to the ancient fueros 
and privileges of the towns. In 1307 the deputies of the Cortes 
asked " that there be no more entregadores, and that the local 
justices should hear all complaints made by shepherds." l This 
petition was not granted, but it was provided that the towns 
should name special officers to look after their interests in the 
courts of the entregadores. The new arrangement was apparently 
not satisfactory, and the above request was repeated in 1313, 
with the insistence that the entregador was an upstart interloper 
whose office was less than sixty years old, and therefore a gross 
innovation. 2 It soon became evident, however, that the judicial 
protector of the Mesta could not be so easily disposed of. As the 
towns gradually realized the futility of their efforts to destroy the 
office, they concentrated their protests upon the demand that the 
laws be enforced regarding the association of the entregador with 
the local alcalde upon equal terms: " that they should hear cases 
together, the two as one." 3 

Soria 6 en su termino, maguer que sea morador en otro lugar. Otrosi, aquel es 
vezino de Soria que maguer que no hai ahi raiz, que es morador en Soria 6 en su 
termino por siempre." This interpretation of vezino, implying property ownership, 
especially the ownership of stock, is indicated by the appearance of the word in the 
title of the Mesta at times in the seventeenth century : ' Honrado Concejo y Vezinos 
de la Mesta/ 

1 Cortes, Valladolid, 1307, pet. 19. 2 Ibid., Palencia, 1313, pets. 38, 40. 

8 Ibid., Burgos, 1315, pet. 33; Valladolid, 1322, pet. 63. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 103 

For nearly two centuries, or until the accession of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, this arrangement seems to have given mutual satis- 
faction both to the Mesta and to the local interests. The Cortes 
were silent upon the subject; and the many documents of that 
period on file in the archive of the Mesta indicate only harmony 
and regularity in the relations between the entregadores and the 
local justices. Their cooperative functions gradually became 
fixed into a set formula, which, though not recognized by any of 
the laws of the Mesta, or even by the instructions of the crown to 
the entregadores, was none the less strictly observed by both 
parties concerned. 

As an example of this procedure, we may trace the successive ^ 
stages of a typical mojonamiento, or examination of the boundaries i ^r 
of a canada. 1 The town concejo (assembly) having been summoned 
by the ringing of the church bell, the alcalde, regidores, and other 
local officers formally received the entregador and his staff. The 
credentials and royal letter of appointment of the visitor were 
examined and certified to by the local notary. The procurador, 
or representative of the Mesta, who accompanied the entregador, 
then made certain charges of trespasses committed by land- 
owners along the canada within the limits of the town. The 
Mesta magistrate then requested the concejo to name " six good 
men, the oldefet inhabitants of the place," who should go with him 
to examine the canada and determine its ancient and proper 
limits. This having been done, an oath was administered to the 
six, who thereupon joined the entregador in his work of gathering 
evidence of the alleged offences. On the basis of this evidence 
the sentence was drawn up by the Mesta magistrate; and was 
then handed over to the town alcalde, who formally gave it his 
approval. This was in substance the method of transacting the 
business of the entregador in every town along his itinerary. The 
concurrence of the local judge in the sentences soon became a 
mere formality, probably because it was felt that the town inter- 
ests were sufficiently protected by the six ' good men ' who ac- 
companied the entregador on his investigations. 

1 Arch. Mesta, V-4, Villafranca de la Puente, 1457. 



104 TBE MESTA 

In view of this virtual elimination of the town alcalde, one can 
understand why no objection was raised by the municipalities 
when Ferdinand and Isabella began to substitute the corregidor, 
the crown representative in the towns, for the alcalde as the 
associate of the entregador. The change was made very grad- 
ually, and at first no ulterior motive appeared. It soon became 
evident, however, that the inevitable effect of the new procedure 
was well understood by the Catholic Kings ; and it became one of 
their most effective measures for the strengthening of the power 
of the crown in the scattered municipalities remote from the 
court. 1 In the succeeding reign the towns awoke to the danger 
conf ronting their ancient liberties through the menacing coopera- 
tion of these agents of the central government, the entregador and 
the corregidor. When the forces of separatism and nationalism 
finally resorted to violence in the uprising of the Comuneros in 
1520, the entregadores came in for a large share of denunciation in 
the Cortes, courts, and public meetings generally. 

This outburst of hostility toward those officials is to be explained 
quite as much by their growing arrogance, which was largely in- 
spired by the strongly centralizing policy of the crown, as by the 
newly born opposition of the towns and country districts to that 
policy. Throughout the sixteenth century there were repeated 
demands that the various town governments should be allowed to 
appoint specially delegated officers to sit with the entregador and 
to check him in his rulings. 2 The replies of the crown acknowl- 
edged that the law required the presence of the local alcalde in the 
court of the entregador, but no further assurance was given that 
matters would be improved, other than that the Royal Council 
would take up the question through its senior member, the 
President of the Mesta. The evil continued, and the protests 
likewise. 

The eagerness of the entregadores to hear cases having no con- 
nection with the canadas deprived the local officials of a good 
portion of their income, and thus aggravated the friction between 

1 Arch. Mesta, C-i, Cdceres, 1490, contains several documents on this point. 
* Cortes, Burgos, 1515, pet. 26; Madrid, 1528, pet. 155; Segovia, 1532, pet. 53; 
Valladolid, 1542, pet. 62. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 105 

the opposing interests. 1 The anger of the town justices was 
further provoked by the petty chicanery of the Mesta, which 
sought to secure the assignment of some well paid local bailiff 
for the business of accompanying the entregador. The vote of 
this official always conformed with that of the visiting magistrate, 
because he had no interest at stake to warrant his checking the 
entregador. The town justice, on the other hand, was always 
anxious to safeguard his own share in profits from fines, and in- 
sisted, therefore, that he was the proper official to accompany the 
Mesta judge. But the pressure of the great sheep owners 7 or- 
ganization was too strong for the local justices to overcome, and 
the Cortes protested long and earnestly, but in vain, against such 
brazen violations of local autonomy. 2 

Under the later Hapsburgs, however, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, the Mesta no longer had the upper hand. It had suffered 
severely in the general economic decay for which it was itself 
partly responsible. Furthermore, the local interests were finding 
various means whereby they could thwart the efforts of the herds- 
men to maintain the old order of things. The century was 
crowded with drastic sentences of the high appellate courts re- 
versing those of the entregadores, and with exemptions bought 
from the crown by the towns. The Mesta led a most unhappily 
active life in its attempts to have these grants of exemption 
rescinded. The aid which it usually invoked was that of its 
proverbial ally, the Royal Council, whose senior member was its 
own president. But even the prestige of that exalted body did 
not suffice to check the steady, determined rise of the opposition 
of the towns. 

The beginnings of that opposition to the intrusion of the entre- 
gador, and the success of certain attempts to nullify his prestige 
by securing exemptions from his jurisdiction, were, in fact, quite 

1 Cortes, Toledo, 1538, pet. 85. Cortes de Castilla, v (adic.), pp. 599, 600 (1576) : 
a protest against the hearing of appeals from the decisions of local judges by entre- 
gadores, even though the question involved was one dealing with sheep. The Royal 
Council had upheld the entregador in this. Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 80, a decree of 
1569. 

2 Cortes de Castilla, v (adic.), p. 580 (1576); ix, pp. 261-265 (1587); xiii, pp. 
322-330 (1594); xvi, p. 677 (1598). 



106 THE MESTA 

common in the earlier centuries of the Mesta's long history. In 
1293 the Order of Calatrava secured such a privilege, by which its 
brood mares and their pastures were freed from any interference 
by the itinerant magistrates. 1 During the fourteenth century the 
towns of Buitrago, Plasencia, Caceres, 2 Seville, 3 and many others 
were also favored with exemptions from entregador visitations in 
return for services or subsidies to the crown. The comparative 
docility of the Mesta in the later Middle Ages, and its readiness to 
respect the rights of the municipalities, caused a lapse of interest 
in these exemption privileges. It was not until the molestations 
and extortions by the entregadores in the second half of the six- 
teenth century that the southern and western landowners resur- 
rected their ancient charters of exemption from the intrusions 
and abuses of their northern visitors. 

It is interesting to note that Badajoz, the chief city of the 
western pasture lands, was the first to take drastic action in this 
anti-Mesta campaign. The fight was waged with bitter enmity, 
and was only to end some two centuries later with the complete 
triumph of the towns, under the leadership of Vicente Paino y 
Hurtado of Badajoz. The campaign opened in 5554 with a 
stormy reception accorded to an entregador in that city, which 
had thus far not been honored with such a visit. A description 
of the event is interesting because the incident was the first of 
many similar ones which illustrated the attitude of the public 
mind toward the migrants and their magistrate. The first out- 
burst after years of smouldering hostility marked the beginning 
of a long period of active assaults on the entregador and the 
institution which he represented. 

In the fall of 1554 there arrived in Badajoz an entregador, 
whose boldness in venturing into the long exempt capital of the 

1 Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, 1-41, fols. 232-237. 

2 In Caceres the entregador was checked by active participation of the local 
alcaldes in his court sessions. See above, p. 101, n. 2. 

3 Although the audiencia or high court of Seville was forbidden to interfere in 
any way with decisions of the entregadores (see below, p. 112, n. 2), the itinerant 
magistrates were seldom able to hold court within the jurisdiction of Seville. It 
was only by the use of decrees of the Royal Council (e.g., in 1488, Arch. Mesta, 
C-io, Cumbres Mayores, a suburb of Seville) that the Mesta was able occasionally 
to enforce its privileges in the Andalusian capital. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 107 

pasture districts was in itself the best proof of the growing arro- 
gance of the Mesta and its judiciary. He was received, not by the 
usual ringing of church bells and the assembled dignitaries of the 
town government, but " with much fury and with most offensive 
words, by bailiffs and other town retainers bent upon ejecting him 
from the place." Being unable to accomplish this, " they took 
him to the public jail, surrounded by a great jeering crowd, which 
rained blows upon him and shouted ugly words at him, molesting 
him in many other ways unmentionable." l All of this was quite 
true, said the city in its reply to the charge brought by the Mesta 
before the Royal Council, and a repetition of the performance was 
cheerfully assured to any other entregador who might undertake 
a similar violation of the ancient privileges and exemptions of 
Badajoz. The whole incident was subsequently repeated in 
substance in other towns, though with less violence and more 
legal, but none the less stubborn, resistance. 

Townspeople and officials were beginning to take courage and 
to rise against constant intrusions of the entregadores in local 
affairs. The chief alcalde of Burgos even insisted upon bringing 
suit against the entregador who visited that city, but was checked 
by the Royal Council. 2 The campaign of denunciation continued 
in the Cortes throughout the reign of Philip II. Protests were 
made against ' the thousands of retainers in the staffs of the en- 
tregadores, whose devastations totalled over a hundred million 
maravedis a year.' 3 The deputies asked that the local officials 
be given at least some powers in the regulation of this wholesale 
tax-gathering, 4 but no satisfactory reply was ever made to these 
demands. The statutes and the Mesta codes were not revised, 
probably because the excesses of the entregadores had not yet 
been given a legal basis. When, however, such a basis was given 
to them, in the reign of Philip IV, the towns had found other 

1 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Badajoz, 1554. 

2 Ibid., B-4, Burgos, 1567. 

3 Cortes de Caslilla, xiii, p. 387 (1594). In 1587, the Cortes fix, pp. 261-265) 
had asked that the powers of the entregador to name his bailiffs be restricted. 

4 Ibid., xiv, pp. 446-455 (1596); i, p. 356 (1563): complaints that the Mesta's 
notaries deprived the local ones of much business in the court of the entregador. 
See also Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 101, 204, 295. 



108 THE MESTA 

means of circumventing the annoyances of the itinerant justices 
and no further protests were made. 

One of the most insistent and repeated demands from the towns 
was that for the residencia of the entregador. This was the name 
applied to the reckoning which every public servant had to give of 
his official acts at the close of his term of office : an opportu ity 
for the presentation of complaints against him in the presence of a 
superior authority. In the charter of 1273, the entregadores had 
been instructed to attend at least one of the Mesta meetings each 
year to give an account of their actions and to answer complaints 
brought against them by the members. 1 This mandate was re- 
peated with some emphasis in subsequent charters and in the 
agreement made in 1499 between the Count of Buendia, pro- 
prietary entregador, and the Mesta. By this contract of 1499 the 
entregadores were forbidden to leave the meeting place until the 
sessions were concluded and justice done to every complaining 
member. 2 

These arrangements were, however, only intended to provide 
for the hearing of charges by Mesta members against their judicial 
protectors. It was not until the anti-Mesta outbursts of the six- 
teenth century that the towns demanded hearings at which all 
complaints against entregadores might be presented. Beginning 
as early as 1528, there were regular petitions in the Cortes that 
the entregador be made to hold such hearings in the presence of 
the town alcalde of each place along his itinerary. 3 It was alleged, 
and probably correctly so, that the majority of the complaints 
against the Mesta's judge came from wayside peasants who had 
little or no opportunity to appear at the Mesta meetings in order 
to complain to the President of the Mesta, the general supervisor 
of the entregadores. 4 In 1595, after many futile petitions, the 
Cortes took matters into their own hands and elected one of their 
members who should attend the Mesta meetings each year, "in 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. i, p. 4. 

2 Ibid., pt. 2, p. 257. 

3 Cortes, Madrid, 1528, pet. 155; Segovia, 1532, pet. 54; Madrid, 1551, pet. 101. 
Further details on the residencia oi the entregador are given in Quad. 1731, pt. 2, 
pp. 149, 153, 273, 292-293, and in the Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 32. 

4 Cortes de Castilla, xiii, pp. 487, 504-506 (1595). 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 109 

order to sustain the causes and charges of poor peasants, and to 
report to the Cortes immediately whether they are being given 
justice." 1 This practice of delegating an inspector to represent 
the national assembly and to protect the interests of the peas- 
antry was continued from that date down to the abolition of the 
office of entregador in 1796. The Cortes were thus enabled not 
only to keep close watch upon the itinerant judges but also to 
exercise a most effective supervision over the enactments of the 
Mesta itself . 2 

As the attacks upon the Mesta became more aggressive, the 
distance from which an entregador could summon culprits and 
witnesses was also the subject of continued protest. In earlier 
years there seems to have been no fixed limit to the size of the 
entregador's audiencia or district around the point where he was 
holding court at any given time. There were complaints in the 
fourteenth century that he frequently summoned persons forty 
or fifty leagues. As a check upon such abuses of personal liberty, 
it was proposed by the Cortes that no one be required to leave the 
jurisdiction of his home town to answer the summons of an entre- 
gador. This was granted by the crown, with the qualification 
that citizens of larger municipalities (those having jurisdictions 
extending more than sixteen leagues) could be compelled by the 
entregadores to come as far as twenty-four leagues in answer to 
summons. In the cases of inhabitants of smaller towns, the en- 
tregador's subpoenas were not effective outside of the sixteen 
league radius. 3 This arrangement appears to have been satisfac- 
torily carried out for nearly two centuries, for there were no 
further complaints either as to the location of the courts of the 
entregador, or as to the extent of his jurisdiction, until the out- 
break of the widespread agitations of the sixteenth century. 

In the course of those agitations, the opponents of the Mesta 
demanded that the entregadores should be allowed to hold court 
only in the chief cities along their itineraries. It had long been 

1 Cortes de Castillo, xiii, pp. 487, 504-507 (1505). 

2 Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 26 v. The delegate of the Cortes sat at the right of the 
President at all sessions of the Mesta, whether secret ones or not, and had access to 
all of its papers. 

8 Cortes, Soria, 1380, pet. 22. 



110 THE MESTA 

evident that the opportunities to overawe the local officials and 
peasantry in a small country town were very tempting to the 
entregador and his numerous assistants, and therefore, dangerous 
to the ends of justice. 1 This particular reform was not secured, 
however, until it was introduced as one of the conditions of the 
subsidy of 1650.2 As a further restriction, the extent of the juris- 
diction of an entregador around the point where he was holding 
court was cut down to a radius of five leagues, and the Cortes 
were particularly watchful that this limit was not exceeded. 3 

The frequency of the visits of the entregadores to any one lo- 
cality did not escape the attention of the sixteenth century re- 
formers. The earlier appointments of the proprietary entregador 
were for life^ and no limit was placed upon the number of visits 
made in a given period by his subordinates. The term of office of 
the latter was usually two years, 4 until the opening of the six- 
teenth century when it was reduced to one. 5 This remained the 
law until 1589, when it was determined that the four entregadores 
should be named every two years. 6 This matter of the period of 
the entregador's incumbency did not concern the towns so much 
as did the intervals of peace which they enjoyed between the 
visits of the Mesta judges. To the many denunciations of the 
entregador which have just been noted, there was added another 
regarding ' the almost perennial nature of that office, which had 
lost completely its proper intermittent or occasional activity at 
any given point/ 7 In view of this, it was asked that his visits to 
any one place be limited to once in six years. This was modified 
in the Cortes of 1531 by a plea for a four-year interval, which met 
with no satisfactory response from the crown at that time or at 

1 Cortes, Burgos, 1515, pet. 26; Cortes de Castillo, viii, p. 263 (1587). 

2 Escrituras . . . de Millones (1734), fol. 90. Arch. Mesta, 6-3, Bitigudino, 
1749, gives the details of a curious dispute between two towns, each of which in- 
sisted that the other was the larger and more important, and therefore the proper 
place for the court of the entregador. 

3 Cortes de Castilla, xix, pp. 232-234 (1600). Arch. Mesta, Prov. iii, 14 and 29, 
royal decrees of 1692 and 1722 confirming this. The same, iv, 7, gives the list 
of the twenty-six audiencias of entregadores; Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 192-199, 
201-203, gives similar data for 1761 and 1779. 

4 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Baeza, 1432. 6 Arch. Ayunt. Cuenca, leg. 12, no. 5 (1509). 
6 Concordia de 1783, i, fol. 75 v. 7 Cortes, Madrid, 1528, pet. 126. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS III 

any of its later repetitions. There does not appear to have been 
any effective reform of this difficulty, for there are numerous in- 
stances of annual visitations along the canadas down to the last 
years of the office of entregador. 

Indeed, the regular succession of evasive answers on the part of 
the crown to all of the above protests regarding the residencia and 
the frequency of visitations, and the other lesser complaints which 
were repeated over and over during the reigns of the first three 
HapsburgSj leads one to ask why these complaints began to fall 
off during the first decade of the seventeenth century. The ex- 
planation is surely not to be found in the satisfaction given to the 
complainants by such replies as " the Royal Council will take up 
the matter with its senior member, the President of the Mesta," 
or " such action will be taken as seems necessary." The reports 
of the Cortes sessions of the time give indications, it is true, of 
various steps taken to adjust the differences between that body 
and the Mesta, such as the appointment of commissioners, inves- 
tigators, and arbitrators to make the necessary reforms for the 
betterment of the relations between the towns and the migratory 
sheep owners. The most important force, however, which calmed 
the stormy protests of the local interests, the most effective 
agency for the adjustment of their complaints, was not the legisla- 
tive power of the national assembly, but the appellate jurisdiction 
of the two high courts of justice, the chancillerias of Valladolid 
and Granada. 

We have already observed how the centralizing policy of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella had deprived the proprietary entregador of any 
appellate jurisdiction over his subordinates, and had made the 
crown and its well organized high courts, the chancillerias, the 
sole judicial superiors of the entregadores. This step was intended 
at the time to concentrate even further the control of the Mesta / 
and its affairs in the hands of the central government. As a mat- 
ter of fact it had precisely the opposite effect; it proved to be the 
first move toward the alienation of that control from the hands of 
the crown and the Royal Council. It meant the creation of a 
rival power, to which the opponents of the Mesta were later to 
turn in their search for an ally of sufficient prestige and authority 



112 THE MESTA 

to check the obnoxious arrogance of the entregadores during the 
absolutism of the Hapsburgs. 

The origin of the first of the two chancillerias, that at Valla- 
dolid, goes back to the appellate court, organized by Henry II in 
1371, which John I made into a quarter-sessions court in 1387, 
with Madrid, Olmedo, Medina del Campo, and Alcala de Henares 
as its itinerary. 1 It was the successor of this body, the chancil- 
leria, which became fixed at Valladolid, in 1442, was remodelled 
by the Catholic Kings in 1489, and came to be one of the two 
regular courts for appeals from the decisions of the entregadores. 
The companion court to this was the chancilleria which was 
established at Ciudad Real in 1494 and transferred to Granada 
in 1 505 . 2 Although legally entitled ' audiencias ' as well as ' chan- 
cillerias/ contemporaries usually designated these two by the 
latter title, in order to distinguish them from the lesser audiencias; 
which, though not subordinate to them, were smaller and partook 
more of a local nature. 

In 1532 we find the first interest expressed by the Cortes in the 
reform of the methods of appeal from the decisions of entrega- 
dores. The deputies asked that cases involving less than six 
thousand maravedis be carried to the town assembly (concejo) of 
the place where the decision was rendered, instead of to the Royal 

1 See Merriman, Spanish Empire, i, pp. 230 f.; ii, pp. 121-124; and the schol- 
arly " Investigaciones acerca del Origen, Historia, y Organizaci6n de la Real 
Chancilleria de Valladolid," by Mendizdbal, in the Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas, 
y Museos, January-July, 1914. Brief notes are also given in Colmeiro, Derecho 
Politico, pp. 563-564; Antequera, Hist, de la Legislacidn Espanola (1895), p. 394; 
Sempere, Derecho Espanol (1894), pp. 390-398; Marichalar and Manrique, Hint, de 
la Legislacidn, iii, p. 329; Altamira, Hist, de Espana, ii (ed. of 1913), pp. 47-48. 
These citations cover the development of the Castilian audiencia and chancilleria. 
The general topic of appeals hi the Castilian judicial system is outlined from the 
codes in Asso and Manuel, Instituciones del Derecho Civil de Castilla (ed. of 1792), 

PP- 315-325- 

2 They divided the realm between them roughly at the Tagus, but as the differ- 
ent audiencias were created Seville, Estremadura, Burgos, etc. the chancil- 
lerias' jurisdictions were greatly cut down. The audiencia of Seville was not al- 
lowed to hear appeals from entregadores' decisions (Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 266, 1562) ; 
and on the other hand, practically all efforts of the entregadores to hear cases within 
the jurisdiction of the city of Seville were frustrated by the city officials. Arch. 
Mesta, A-6, Algarrobo, 1680; C-io, Cumbres, 1560; and Prov. iv, 23. 



THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 113 

Council, or to the chancillerias, which were at that time well under 
the control of the monarch and his council. The crown treated 
this petition with the same impatience and disregard which 
characterized the royal replies to the many previous requests of 
the assembly for Mesta reforms. 1 By an interesting coincidence, 
the year after this attempt by the Cortes to thwart the chancil- 
lerias, namely 1533, brought the first decisions of a chancilleria 
against an entregador and the Mesta. In that year the towns of 
Belalcazar and Fuerte Escusa (near Cuenca) won appeals in the 
chancilleria at Granada, in cases involving the taxation of migra- 
tory flocks which violated local ordinances regarding trespasses 
in fields adjoining the canadas. 2 A few years later, in 1546, the 
same court again rendered a decision hostile to the Mesta and 
its judiciary. On that occasion the chancelleria supported a local 
officer, the subordinate of the corregidor in the town of Avila, in 
his contention that the entregador had no right to interfere with 
him. 3 In the meantime, the city of Murcia had gained a chancil- 
leria verdict against an entregador, and the court at Valladolid 
had refused the Mesta and its judges permission to lay out a new 
caiiada within the jurisdiction of Segovia. 4 Shortly before the 
accession of Philip II, there came another decision of the Granada 
court against the Mesta, but this was altered at a rehearing. 5 

The above instances are given as illustrations of a significant 
change which was just becoming noticeable in the attitude of the 
two chancillerias. Throughout the reign of Charles V these high 
courts were handing down six or seven decisions each year on 

1 Cortes, Segovia, 1532, pet. 53. This was repeated in 1537 (pet. 29) and in 1538 
(pet. 81), with the same result. Nov. Recap., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 14, enforces 
this restriction of appeals from entregadores to the chancillerias, instead of to the 
local bodies. 

2 Arch. Osuna, Bejar, caj. 6, nos. 53, 59; and Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuerte Escusa, 

1533- 

3 Arch. Mesta, A~9, Avila, 1546. 

4 Ibid., 8-5, Segovia, 1537. This case is further interesting because it is one of 
the few occasions when the chancilleria acts as a court of first instance instead of 
appeal. Others are to be found in C-2, Camarena, 1523; F-2, Fuente el Sauco, 
1511; F-2, Fuerte Escusa, 1533; G-i, Granada, 1547; M-2, Majambrez (To- 
ledo), 1543; T-4, Toro, 1524; and Z-i, Zaias, 1519-24. 

6 Arch. Mesta, A~7, Almod6var, 1559: a case tried during 1555-56. 



114 THE MESTA 

appeals from the sentences of entregadores. During the latter 
half of the reign beginning about 1535 this change in the 
attitude of the chancillerias gradually become apparent. Whereas 
the earlier decades of the century showed them to be quite sub- 
servient to the wishes of the crown and its council in favoring the 
Mesta by regularly upholding the sentences of the entregadores, 
none of the later years passed without one or two decisions which 
were either complete reversals of the sentences of entregadores, 
or else serious modifications of them. Year by year the rulings 
against the entregadores grew in number. By the opening of the 
reign of Philip II, it was becoming evident to the antagonists of 
the Mesta that a method had at last been found for securing a 
fair hearing of their cause. 

The chancillerias, probably because of their isolation from the 
newly made capital, 1 became bolder each year in their refusal 
to abide by the expressed desires of the Royal Council that the 
ancient privileges of the Mesta and the increasingly arbitrary 
sentences of the entregadores be invariably upheld. We have 
here the beginning of the rivalry between these two elements of 
the government, the executive and the judiciary, the Council and 
the high courts a rivalry which was to last nearly two centuries 
and was to take on many different forms. 2 This new alignment of 
forces was of the gravest importance for the Mesta, which was 
thenceforth to see the Council, its staunch ally and protector, 
checked and harassed at every turn by the new sponsor of local 
as contrasted with centralized interests. The court at Granada 
was the one to which most of the appeals from entregador de- 
cisions were carried by the towns, because its jurisdiction com- 
prised most of the southern pasture lands. 

The heavy costs of fighting an appeal against the elaborate 
legal machinery of the Mesta made the procedure impossible for 
any save the more important landowners, military orders, great 
nobles, cities, and ecclesiastical bodies. For the smaller villages 
there was at first no recourse from the molestations of the entre- 

1 Madrid was made the ' unica corte ' in 1560. 

2 Jos6 G6mez Centuri6n, Jovellanos y las drdenes Mttitares (1912), pp. 28-32, 
points out other phases of this rivalry. 






THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS 115 

gadores. The increased activity of these magistrates, however, 
at last impelled the weaker opponents of the Mesta to concerted 
action. Before the reign of Philip II was half over, we find 
them occasionally forming alliances for the purpose of carrying 
appeals through the chancillerias. As many as forty-five or fifty 
towns sometimes joined forces to defend the pasture lands used in 
common by them. Counsel was engaged and cases were fought 
out successfully in the high courts. Had these temporary unions 
possessed that solid, permanent basis so characteristic of the 
Aragonese comunidades, to which in some respects they were 
strikingly similar, the history of the Mesta and its entregadores 
would probably have been a much shorter and less conspicuous 
one. 1 Unfortunately, however, the Castilian towns, accustomed 
though they were to their hermandades or brotherhoods for the 
maintenance of order, were nevertheless quite ignorant of the 
possible advantages of any economic leagues, save in a few isolated 
instances. The contrast between the two kingdoms in this regard 
is explained in part by the relatively stronger position of the cities 
in the Aragonese political machinery. 

As the chancillerias persisted in their intentions to give the 
landowners at least a fair hearing, the Royal Council found it 
increasingly necessary to act in behalf of the Mesta and the en- 
tregador. As early as 1550 the Council had deemed it necessary 
to warn these two courts that they were not empowered to hear 
cases concerning perpetual leases of pasture lands. A few years 
later, in 1561 and 1563, two more decrees were issued forbidding 
the chancillerias to hear appeals from entregador decisions in 
cases involving pasturage. 2 

The two high courts had become bolder in their aggressive 
attitude toward the entregadores, and had begun to go beyond 
the mere reversal of the decisions of the Mesta judges. They 
frequently issued injunctions commanding the itinerant magis- 
trates not to hear cases in certain towns and upon certain subjects. 
Repetitions of such mandates brought forth two angry decrees 
from Madrid in 1569, ordering the courts at Valladolid and 

1 See above, p. 99. 

2 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 124-125: pt. 2, p. 242. 



Il6 THE MESTA 

Granada to keep to the functions assigned them and not to inter- 
fere with the management of such purely administrative affairs 
as those of the Mesta. 1 

The now thoroughly independent attitude of the courts soon 
found expression in even more aggressive steps, such as the exer- 
cise of jurisdiction over appeals from decrees of the President of 
the Mesta. The latter innovation brought forth a vehement 
protest from the crown against this " gross interference with the 
purely executive powers of the Royal Council's senior member." 2 
In 1577 the Council made an unsuccessful attempt to curb the 
court at Granada by ordering it to refrain from tampering with 
any entregador's decision involving such administrative functions 
of the Council as the regulation of pasturage and of sheep high- 
ways. 3 Two years later came another decree which forbade the 
courts to interfere with the entregadores in the hearing of cases 
on the extension of arable lands. 4 

It is hardly necessary to follow further the details of the strug- 
gle. By the time that the troubled reign of Philip II had come to 
a close in 1598, every decision handed down by the high courts 
at Valladolid and Granada regarding the Mesta showed the 
bitterest hostility toward the entregadores. The whole episode is 
of especial interest as an illustration of the strength of popular 
government in Castile in an age of supposedly triumphant autoc- 
racy. The Cortes and the chancillerias were defending the 
ancient rights of the Castilian third estate the townsmen and 
the rural population in the face of the institutions of absolut- 
ism the Mesta and its corps of entregadores. 

1 Arch. Mesta, V-i, Valladolid, 1569; G-i, Granada, 1569. 

8 Ibid., Granada, 1572. 

Ibid., 1577. 

4 Ibid., 1579. Some of the above decrees are printed in the Ordenanzas de la 
. . . Chancitteria de Granada (1601) and Rccopilacidn de las Ordenanzas de la 
Chancilleria de Valladolid (1765). See also Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley 5, caps. 
22, 27. 



CHAPTER VII 

DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 

Hostility of the Cortes in the seventeenth century. Appeals to the chancillerlas. 
Inefficacy of royal aid to the Mesta. Collapse of the entregador system in the 
eighteenth century. 

THE Mesta, working through its President and the Royal Council, 
continued its attempts to hold back the steadily rising tide of 
opposition. These efforts, continued through the first decades of 
the seventeenth century, were all centred around one object, the 
maintenance of the ancient traditions of the judicial and ad- 
ministrative supremacy of the crown and its Council, especially 
in matters concerning the Mesta. 

The crown itself, to which the sheep owners had been so 
largely indebted for their great privileges in times past, had 
degenerated almost to impotence. The impecunious later Haps- 
burgs were quite as ready to dicker with the opponents of the 
Mesta for subsidies, as they were to bargain for ' loans ' from a 
scarcely solvent organization whose chief asset in such bartering 
was its protestation of past loyalty to the crown. In 1602, by a 
fundamental revision of the entregador commissions, the king's 
share in the profits of that office was greatly increased. This was 
obviously an effort on the part of the Mesta to secure a revival of 
its old favors from the crown. Even more was it intended to give 
warning of the losses which the royal exchequer would suffer if the 
rapidly increasing opposition to the Mesta in the Cortes and the 
chancillerias was not stopped. 

This measure of 1602 was the first of a long series of increas- 
ingly frantic endeavors on the part of the Mesta to secure, by 
royal favors, a continuance of the dominant position which it had 
long enjoyed under its ancient but now quite antiquated priv- 
ileges. 1 The dire financial straits of the crown made it a willing 

1 The confusion of this question of the distribution of the profits from the office 
of entregador was finally cleared up, after considerable legislation, by the acuerdos 
(resolutions) of the Mesta in 1637 and 1644, by which the king was given one-third 

117 



Il8 THE MESTA 

ally, though a far from effective one. Judged by the formal 
Mesta privileges of the time, the first third of the seventeenth 
century was the zenith of that organization's power, with the 
climax reached in the sweeping concession of I633. 1 The mass of 
material, however, introduced in the sixteenth-century litigations 
cited above, gives ample evidence that the prestige of the Mesta 
and its entregadores was on the wane long before the death of 
Philip II in 1598. The attempts of the crown after that time to 
revive the Mesta's power as an asset to the country, and par- 
ticularly to the royal treasury, were more and more obviously 
selfish efforts to gain immediate profits regardless of any ultimate 
improvement in the welfare of the realm. 

The Cortes, ever eloquent in the interest of the towns and of 
the scattered landowning classes, 2 became steadily stronger in 
their contest with the Mesta and its judges. In 1600 they began 
the practice of appointing committees to investigate charges 
brought against individual entregadores. The deputies thus 
took over a function which had long since been the acknowledged 
right of the President of the Mesta and his associates in the 
Royal Council. 3 This was followed up by more elaborate arrange- 
ments for the supervision and control of the meetings of the 
Mesta through highly paid and specially commissioned delegates, 
who were named by the Cortes shortly before each meeting of the 
sheep owners. These appointees made full reports and recom- 
mendations to the national assembly at each session of that 
body. 4 

of all such profits. Within a few years this had become a fixed sum, which, with other 
royal incomes from the Mesta, amounted to about 1,700,000 maravedis annually. 
The Mesta received the remaining two-thirds, which it shared, in the case of penal- 
ties for enclosures, with the entregadores. Those officers had been receiving a fixed 
salary of 500 ducats a year, during the latter part of the sixteenth century, as a 
substitute for the irregular income from shares in many fines. In 1688 this figure 
was cut to 300 ducats, but was raised to 400 two years later, at which it was kept 
until the abolition of the office in 1796. Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. 288; Nov. Recop., lib. 
7, tit. 27, ley 5, cap. 32. 

1 Usually bound with the 1639 edition of the Mesta laws; see below, p. 413. 

2 The procuradores, or deputies, from Soria and Segovia usually defended the 
cause of the Mesta in the Cortes debates. 

8 Cortes de Castilla, xix, p. 561 (1600); xxvii, p. 241 (1612); xxxiii, p. 215 (1619). 
4 Ibid., xix, pp. 121, 525, 537, 659 (1600); xx, pp. 157, 264, 377, 547 (1602). 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR Iig 

The rigors of this campaign drew frequent protestations of in- 
nocence from the Mesta, and pleas that its entregadores be 
allowed to perform their ancient duties in protecting the welfare 
of the herdsmen, which had always been the first need of this, the 
greatest industry of the country. 1 Its bid for crown favors with 
the new grants to the royal exchequer from entregadores' profits, 
introduced in 1602, had secured a few liberal renewals of the old 
privileges, the most extreme being that of 1633. However, these 
concessions were only powerful on paper, whereas the Cortes, 
though sadly lacking in constructive ability, were thoroughly 
active, and awake to their own power to overturn. 

The determined hostility of the deputies, which was displayed 
in the debates on the question of Mesta reform, and the proposals 
which the Cortes were entertaining for the drastic investigation of 
that body and its affairs, so startled the sheep owners that they 
held no meetings in 1 603 . This was the only gap in the long series 
of Mesta sessions for over three centuries. 2 A few years later the 
Cortes sent to Simancas for certain documents bearing on the 
Mesta, 3 and, shortly afterward, shrewd attorneys of the herds- 
men secured a writ from the Royal Council and the king, au- 
thorizing the transfer of all documents in the archives at Siman- 
cas dealing with the Mesta to the latter's own collection. 4 Here 
they were carefully guarded for three hundred years, untouched 
save for purposes of litigation in defence of the ancient privileges 
of the herdsmen. 

Another aspect of the aggressive intentions of the Cortes to- 
ward the Mesta was revealed when the former refused to grant 
concessions to the pastoral industry except in exchange for modi- 
fications of the subsidies to be paid to the crown by the cities of 
the realm. Such subsidies were to be voted only in conjunction 

1 Cortes de Castillo,, xx, pp. 615-616 (1602). 

2 Arch. Mesta, Acuerdos and Cuentas (1604). 

3 Cortes de Castilla, xxiii, p. 456 (1607). 

4 The titles of the documents removed at that time fill seventeen manuscript 
volumes, now in the Mesta archive, and comprise about three thousand items. 
This accounts for the fact that, with the exception of a small collection of documents 
on taxes, there are less than half a dozen manuscripts now at Simancas which deal 
at any length with the Mesta. 



120 THE MESTA 

with stipulated restrictions on the Mesta. A series of conferences 
was begun, in 1602, between commissioners representing the 
Cortes and the sheep owners, to agree upon the agrarian reforms 
which were to be embodied in the condiciones de millones. Under 
those conditions the Cortes gave its consent to an extraordinary 
subsidy of eighteen million ducats to the crown. 1 Practically the 
only references to the Mesta in the Cortes debates from that date 
onward were in connection with this subsidy or later ones of the 
same type. During the later Middle Ages the Castilian Cortes 
had by no means so effective a control over the crown through its 
powers over the purse strings as did the Aragonese parliament. 2 
Under the enfeebled monarchy of the later Hapsburgs, however, 
the ability of the Castilian deputies to exact desired reforms as 
conditions for subsidies is well illustrated by the sad experience 
of the Mesta. The conditions of the grants of millones were 
fully discussed and reported upon by a board of arbitrators and 
commissioners named by both sides. To this body the Mesta 
sent frequent petitions, characterized by the same humility which 
marked all of its communications to the Cortes at this time. 3 

At the first of these conferences, in 1602, the representatives of 
the Cortes made it plain that they proposed to secure every pos- 
sible curtailment of such powers as still remained to the entre- 
gadores. The same policy was pursued at each of the succeeding 
conferences in 1607, 1611, 1620, and after. 4 As a result the Mesta 

1 Cortes de Castillo, xxi,pp. 45-48; see Escrituras, acuerdos, administraciones, y 
suplicas de los servicios de veinte y quatro millones (Madrid, 1734), which contains 
condiciones attached to various millones voted during the seventeenth century. Cf . 
Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 239 ff. Cos-Gayon, in his article on the Mesta in the Revista 
de Espana, ix, p. 358, erroneously describes the millones as being in reales, instead 
of ducados\ cf. Gallardo, Rentas Reales, i, p. 47. The millones were first voted hi 
the Cortes of 1588, as a source of revenue for the equipment of the Invincible Ar- 
mada, They were usually granted at six-year intervals, and the funds were raised 
by taxes on such staples as oil, vinegar, meat, wine, etc. An excellent unpublished 
history of the millones by Antonio de Castro exists in the Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar 
41, no. 7 (ca. 1656). 

8 Cf. R. B. Merriman, " The Cortes of the Spanish Kingdoms in the Later Mid- 
dle Ages," in the American Historical Review, April, 1911, p. 489. 

8 Cortes de Castilla, xxii, pp. 26-32, 54-56, 69, 76, 95 (1603); xxiii, pp. 514-515, 
524 (1607); xxiv, pp. 284, 785-789 (1608); xxv, pp. 42, 51-55, 660 (1609-10). 

4 Escrituras, acuerdos . . . de Millones, fols. 34-44. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 121 

representatives were forced to sit meekly by and endorse what 
amounted to the complete emasculation of their nearly impotent 
itinerant justices. Without the Cortes' vote of the millones 
the crown was in dire straits; and without the crown's effective 
assistance, the Mesta was helpless. The Cortes thus adroitly 
secured the upper hand by its control of the subsidy, and it pro- 
ceeded at once to dismantle the last antiquated bits of the en- 
tregador's armor. Any attempt on his part to hold court outside 
a few specified places was to be punished by a fine of 20,000 ma- 
ravedis. He was to hear no cases involving enclosures, except in 
a few unimportant instances. If he assessed costs of litigation in 
any case when the Mesta was the plaintiff, he was to lose his 
office. As a final blow he was forbidden to retain any part of such 
fines as he might levy a measure which, of course, obliterated 
practically all of his income. The condiciones de millones thus 
inaugurated the first formal obsequies for the prestige of the 
entregador. 

In the meantime, in its regular sessions, the Cortes calmly took 
it upon themselves to determine what salary the entregador 
should be paid, how large a staff he should have, and other details 
regarding the regulation of the office. 1 In 1608 the legislature 
voted that the sedentary flocks (estantes) were in no way to 
be subject to or affected by entregador decisions. 2 Petitions 
from the Mesta, asking that the entregadores be at least partially 
relieved from the vexations of local officials, were at first dis- 
missed by the Cortes with the reply that they ' saw no reason why 
such a request should be made/ 3 Later it was agreed that the 
royal corregidor in a given district should hold court jointly with 
the entregador. This insured a measure of protection to the 
Mesta against local officers, for the corregidores were chosen by 
the central government for their intelligence and legal training, 
which often proved useful to the entregadores in the interpreta- 
tion of local fueros and ordinances. 4 At the same time careful 

1 Cortes de Castilla, xxv, pp. 47-55 (1609). 

2 Cardenas, Propiedad territorial (Madrid, 1873-75, 2 vols.), ii, p. 277. 

3 Cortes de Castilla, xxv, p. 47; xxviii, pp. 396-398 (1615). 

4 Ibid., xxxii, p. 195 (1618). See above, p. 84, on the cooperation between 
corregidor and entregador as early as 1488. These were all steps which led ulti- 



122 THE MESTA 

provision was made by the Cortes that no corregidor should 
regard this as a pretext for visiting any given locality in his dis- 
trict more than once a year to make investigations of the ad- 
ministration of justice or to levy penalties. 1 

A striking feature of the documents of this period is the willing- 
ness shown by the Mesta to go more than half way to meet the 
Cortes in the work of reform. This attitude was very different 
from that of two generations before; it was, in fact, expres- 
sive of the change which had been wrought in the standing and 
influence of that body. 2 Occasionally the Cortes were checked 
by the crown when the proposed reform seemed too drastic. This 
occurred when the suggestion was made by some deputies that the 
residencies or examination of a retiring entregador be held by one 
of the openly hostile high appellate courts at Granada and Vak 
ladolid. The king and his Council were able to persuade the 
legislators to retain the practice of residencia by the President of 
the Mesta accompanied by a delegate of the Cortes. 3 

The nobles, clergy, and other great landowners had already 
been participating actively hi the concerted attack upon the 
entregador. In 1634 the powerful Duke of Infantazgo had been 
given full assurance by the President of the Mesta that the en- 
tregadores would have due respect for the ancient exemptions 
which forbade the Mesta judges to enter the towns under the 
Duke's suzerainty. 4 Furthermore, the large migratory herds of 
certain ecclesiastical bodies had occasionally been given priv- 
ileges which were distinct from and in opposition to those en- 
joyed by the Mesta. 8 The archbishopric of Toledo, for example, 
had long regarded its flocks and pastures as superior to the laws 
of the Mesta, but was compelled to submit to that body during 

mately to the substitution of the corregidores for the entregadores when the latter 
were abolished in 1796. 

1 British Museum, T. 91 * (4); decree of 15 Sept., 1618; see also Massachusetts 
State Library, Catalogue of the Laws of Foreign Countries (Boston, 1911), p. 278. 

a Cortes de Castillo, xxvi, pp. 4, 21 (1610); xxviii, pp. 267, 380 (1615). 

3 Ibid., xxviii, p. 193 (1615). 

4 Arch. Osuna, Infantazgo, caj. 2, no. 18. Earlier evidence of a similar nature is 
found in the same archive, Belalcazar, caj. 5, nos. 29, 32, and 33 (1456). 

6 Cortes, Cordova, 1455, pet. 13. A few monastic orders had regular member- 
ship in the Mesta, notably the monastery of San Lorenzo at the Escorial. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 123 

the latter's golden age under the first Hapsburgs. In 1540 the 
Royal Council had ordered the cardinal-primate of Toledo to with- 
draw the excommunication and censures which he had imposed 
upon an entregador who had been opening certain lands of the 
archbishopric to the Mesta flocks. The pressure of the autocracy 
had brought the primate to accede; but in the early seventeenth 
century, when the attacks of the Cortes were proving so successful, 
all of the great ecclesiastical landowners joined in the movement 
against the Mesta and shared in the triumph over that body. 1 
The attitude of the church toward the Mesta and its judiciary 
soon took on a more aggressive tone. By 1640 the herdsmen 
were appealing to their staunch protector, the Royal Council, to 
aid them in stopping the inroads which were being made upon the 
jurisdiction of the entregadores by ecclesiastical judges. The 
only response to these appeals, however, was a timid warning to 
the bishop of Avila that certain of his subordinates had no right 
to hear cases involving Mesta pasturage privileges, even though 
the pastures involved were the property of his cathedral. 2 At 
about the same tune the entregadores visiting the vicinity of 
Salamanca found their jurisdiction greatly curtailed by mandates 
issued " by authority of the maestro de escuela and other eccle- 
siastical judges of the university and of the cathedral " of that 
city, 3 who enforced their decrees by the excommunication of any 
entregador disobeying them. The Mesta appealed again and 
again to the Council to check this ' atrocity '; but the decree of 
1644, which was intended to accomplish that purpose, did not 
have any permanent effect. 4 The impotence of the entregadores 
at this time was quite as noticeable in their relations with the 
titled and ecclesiastical landowners as it was in their dealings 
with the towns and their defenders, the Cortes and the chancil- 
lerias. 

As the seventeenth century wore on, the two chancillerias re- 
mained firm in their support of the local interests as opposed to 

1 Arch. Mesta, T-2, Toledo, 1540 ff. 2 Ibid., A-o, Avila, 1640. 

3 Ibid., S-i, Salamanca, 1668. 

4 Arch. Mesta, Prov. ii, 32: " Para que los provisores, vicarios, y demas jueces 
ecclesiasticos se inhivan del conocimiento de ciertas causas tratadas por los entre- 
gadores." 



124 TEE MESTA 

the Mesta, and no appeal from the sentence of an entregador was 
brought before either of them without the assurance of fair and 
probably favorable consideration. If the sentence was not act- 
ually reversed it was greatly modified, the usual form being 
" that the defendant stands convicted as found by the entre- 
gador, but the penalty is withdrawn. " By this simple expedient 
the sting was deftly removed from the once dreaded decrees 
of the itinerant magistrates, who soon heard the ridiculing 
jibes of every peasant landholder along their once absolute 
domain. 

Another typical activity of the chancillerias, during the crucial 
decades at the opening of the seventeenth century, was the recog- 
nition of all forms of exemptions from the visitations of entre- 
gadores. Some were based on ancient privileges, as we have seen 
above. Others had been recently purchased from the sovereign, 
whose sore financial straits made such transactions common at 
that time. 1 Still others had as their foundation the fact that no 
entregador had visited the locality in question for many decades, 2 
or that the lord of the town in question had been granted such an 
exemption from entregador visitations in another section of his 
domain. 3 These exemptions sometimes covered only the harvest 
months, or applied to certain districts, which sought to be re- 
lieved of entregador fines in order to use their funds for such 
laudable objects as building churches or maintaining militia com- 
panies. The latter was a prevalent excuse for exemptions during 
the Portuguese wars of 1640 and following. 4 

The Mesta protested that these temporary or limited curtail- 
ments of the entregador's activities tended inevitably to become 
permanent and more extensive. Nevertheless, the crown was 
forced by its need of funds to continue granting them; the friends 
of the Mesta on the Royal Council went through the forms of 
withholding them; and the recipients forthwith put them into 

1 Arch. Mesta., 6-4, Bureba, 1648, and Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Castilla, 
leg. 48, Benavente, 1664. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Alcald de Henares, 1617: the recognition of such an exemption 
by the court at Valladolid. 

3 Arch. Osuna, B6jar, caj. 56, no. 16 (1627). 

4 Arch. Mesta, Prov. ii, 37. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 125 

effect against the entregadores regardless of Mesta or Council. 1 
It mattered not how dubious the basis for such an exemption 
might be; the high courts were always ready to concede the 
benefit of the doubt to the agrarian petitioners, unfairly so in some 
instances, perhaps, but thoroughly in keeping with the tendency 
of the times. However essential to the country the great sheep 
owners' organization may have been in the past, it had outlived 
its usefulness, and all Castile was rapidly coming to realize that 
fact. 

The aggressive steps taken by the chancillerias against the en- 
tregadores steadily continued. About a score of decisions were 
handed down each year restricting the activities of these now 
thoroughly discredited magistrates. The bitter denunciation of 
this situation in 1631 by Leruela, a retired entregador, is indica- 
tive of the despair of the Mesta: " The chancillerias are taking all 
business pertaining to the Mesta as a huge joke; its cases are 
passed upon and the sentences of entregadores reversed without 
consulting any part of the documents submitted except the ru- 
bric." 2 

The sweeping decree of 1633, the last and most reactionary con- 
firmation of the antiquated claims of the Mesta, was inspired 
largely by the hope of checking the chancillerias. By this meas- 
ure the Royal Council wished to impede the steadily growing 
prestige of its adversaries, particularly in the matter of their 
hearing cases involving pasturage leases, a question which it had 
long regarded as being reserved to its own jurisdiction. 3 This and 

1 In 1646 the Council attempted to cancel one of the most important of these 
local exemptions from entregador visitations, namely that long enjoyed by Seville. 
The vehement protest of that city, whose control of the trade with the Indies proved 
a powerful lever against the Council, soon brought a reconsideration of this action. 

2 Miguel Caxa de Leruela, Restanracidn de la Abundancia de Espana (Madrid, 
1632), p. 192. The author was an entregador from 1623 to 1625; and this classic 
defence of the Mesta as the chief basis of Spanish prosperity was the result of his 
observations during that service. His later experience as an official in Naples, 
where the first edition of his work appeared in 1631, gave him much material for a 
comparative study of the problems arising from the migratory pastoral industry in 
the two countries. 

8 See below, pp. 330-340; also Concordia de 1783, i, fol. 70. In 1595 the Royal 
Council had been made the court of last appeal in all cases of despojo de posesidn: 
the ejection of a Mesta member from a pasture in violation of the ancient privilege 



126 THE MESTA 

other decrees of the Council and the unbroken flow of plaintive 
protests from the Mesta had, however, no permanent effect against 
the popularly indorsed campaign of the chancillerias. In 1629 
they upheld the town alcaldes of Belalcazar in an important test 
case against an entregador. The high court forbade the latter to 
try gypsies and other wandering miscreants of uncertain domicile, 
whose thefts of cattle and sheep had been acknowledged without 
question hitherto as bringing them under the jurisdiction of the 
entregadores. 1 Petitions of the Mesta to the Cortes, asking that 
the entregadores be empowered to expel gypsies from the coun- 
try, were sarcastically denied, with the implication that the towns 
were quite able to take over one more of the functions of the en- 
feebled itinerant magistrates. 2 

The last important attempt by the Royal Council to obstruct 
the complete triumph of the chancillerias over the Mesta and its 
judges came in 1677. In that year the maximum entregador's 
sentence from which there could be no appeal to the higher courts 
was raised by the Council from 1000 maravedis to 3ooo. 3 This 
mandate, like so many of its predecessors, was received at Val- 
ladolid and Granada with expressions of profound respect and of 
implicit obedience, and then calmly ignored. 

Whether we ascribe the success of the two high courts in frus- 
trating and discrediting the Mesta and its entregadores to popular 
support, to the triumph of the ancient Spanish separatism over 
the decadent Hapsburg centralization, or to the characteristic 
maladministration of otherwise excellent laws, the fact remains 
that those courts did accomplish their object. The reform move- 
ment of Charles III and Campomanes in the succeeding century 
was occupied, so far as the entregador was concerned, only with 
the disposal of the last relics of a few perfunctory powers exer- 
cised by that dignitary. 

of posesidn or right of perpetual tenancy in lands once occupied by the Mesta. This 
jurisdiction of the Council, as opposed to the chancillerias, was confirmed in 1603, 
1609, 1633, and 1640. 

1 Arch. Osuna, B6jar, caj. 16, nos. 16, 22, and 25. See also above, p. 89, n. 2, on 
the marauders known as gclfines. 

2 Cortes de Castillo,, xxviii, p. 396 (1615). 

3 Arch. Mesta, Prov. iii, 3. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 

Before we take up the details of those last rites of the entrega- 
dor, there remain for brief discussion a few points concerning the 
President of the Mesta and his duties as superintendent of the 
entregadores. After the Mesta had purchased the control of the 
entregadorships in 1568, the President of the sheep owners' or- 
ganization had exercised a general supervision over its itinerant 
judges. He issued instructions to them, fixed their routes, heard 
the complaints presented against them at the Mesta meetings, 
and in general brought them more directly under the control of 
the sheep owners. 1 These functions had given his associates on the 
Royal Council, to whom he regularly reported, an increased 
interest in the welfare of the entregador. We have already ob- 
served how this interest had found ample opportunity for expres- 
sion in the long struggle between the Council and the chancil- 
lerias during the latter part of the sixteenth century. In a similar 
manner the Presidency of the Mesta under the seventeenth-cen- 
tury Hapsburgs brought the Royal Council to the side of the 
Mesta during the struggles of the latter with the Cortes. In fact, 
the President of the Mesta was frequently delegated to represent 
that body and also the Royal Council in the arbitration confer- 
ences with deputies of the national assembly. 2 This close alliance 
of the Mesta with the highest political officials of the realm proved 
to be of little avail to the herdsmen; nor was the Mesta the only 
party of the alliance to suffer a loss of power. The Council like- 
wise felt the rapacity of the chancillerias, notably when the latter 
proceeded to try cases involving the lands of the old military 
orders, in spite of the fact that such cases had always been handled 
by the Consejo de las Ordenes, a body closely allied with the 
Council. The decrees of the Council and of the President of the 
Mesta 8 sternly forbade such transgressions, but the chancillerias 

1 Occasionally the entregadores refused to be guided by the wishes of the Mesta; 
cf. Arch. Mesta, C-4, Caracena, 1752: a notable case in 1522 when the Mesta was 
unable to induce an entregador to accept its recommendations. 

2 Ibid., Prov. i, 87 (1593). The gradual emergence of the President as the domi- 
nant force in the Mesta during this period prepared the way for the coup by Cam- 
pomanes, when, in his capacity as senior member of Charles's Council, he succeeded 
to the presidency of the Mesta. From this vantage point he directed the investi- 
gations of that body which practically put it out of existence in 1783. 

3 Ibid., A-6, Almod6var, 1615; and A-6, Almagro, 1616. 



128 THE MESTA 

calmly disregarded all threats and extended their jurisdiction 
whenever and wherever they chose. In a similar manner they 
ignored the long standing and well recognized functions of the 
council of the royal exchequer, which was another branch of the 
Royal Council. 1 The President of the Mesta frequently called 
upon his fellow councillors for aid in the protection of the entre- 
gadores against such systematic transgressions. 2 These appeals 
were, however, of no avail, for the high courts and the towns 
easily found means of securing the desired restrictions upon the 
Mesta and its judiciary. This happened most frequently during 
and after the Portuguese wars, when the crown found it expedient 
to be liberal with exemptions from the entregador's visitations. 8 

The activity of the chancillerias continued unabated. " In 
spite of the oft repeated decrees of the Council and the protests 
of the President," complained the Mesta, in 1694, "the courts at 
Valladolid and Granada continue to harass the ancient assembly 
of sheep owners by nullifying the sentences of their protecting 
entregadores." 4 The exasperated President was even able at 
times to rouse his associates of the Royal Council to such out- 
bursts as " the local alcaldes are to obey the entregadores in all 
matters," 6 or " the chancillerias' rulings in no way affect the 
entregadores." 6 The efforts of President and Council, however, 
were alike futile. 

The Mesta was being reduced steadily to further extremities. 
Early in the reign of Charles II it began to have recourse to the 
help of another organization, which was closely allied to the Royal 

1 Arch. Mesta, B-2, Benadalid, 1628. 

* Ibid., Prov. i, 105 ("1621); C-4, Carcabuey, 1639. 

3 Ibid., Prov. ii, 37 (1647); 4i (1652); 12 (1654); 53 (1655); B-4, Bureba, 
1648; C-2, Calahorra, 1650; A-8, Arnedo, 1650. Prov. iv, 30, is a document of 
forty-five manuscript folios, dated 1763, in which is given an exhaustive review of 
local exemptions from Mesta laws and entregador's visitations in all parts of Castile, 
with special reference to those granted hi the seventeenth century. By it the Mesta 
and its President, under whose direction the data for the document were gathered, 
attempted to prove the widespread violations of its privileges through the unlawful 
extension and perpetuation of these exemptions. 

4 Ibid., Prov. iii, 17. 

6 Ibid., B-i, Ballecas, 1683. 

6 Ibid., Prov. iii, 21 (1699). The decrees immediately following this one are 
liberally sprinkled with many such outbursts. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 1 29 

Council, namely the Sala de Mil y Quinientas. This was a special 
court of last appeal, which had jurisdiction over matters of gravest 
importance. Its distinctive feature was the deposit of " mil y 
quinientas (1500) doblas de oro cabeza " l which was made by the 
appellant as evidence of the good faith of his appeal. The sum 
was forfeited in the event of an adverse decision. The origins of 
this court go back to the famous ' law of Segovia ' of 1390, by 
which John I decreed that " in cases which are very grave or of 
serious importance, parties who wish to ask for a rehearing shall 
give security to the amount of 1500 doblas, which shall be forfeited 
if the appeal is found groundless." 2 Mendez de Silva and other 
authorities have accepted this as the origin of the Sala de Mil y 
Quinientas? Whether the Sala was organized at that early period 
or not until the edicts of 1502, 1532, and 1565^5 not important 
for our present purpose. The significant point is, that although 
this high court had been open to the Mesta for many decades, the 
latter did not turn to it until the darkest days of its long history. 
The value oit the lands involved in the litigations between the 
sheep owners and the cities, bishoprics, and military orders was 
frequently large enough to warrant appeals to the Sala. However, 
it was not until every other haven had proved of no avail against 
the stormy attacks of the Cortes, the chancillerias, and the other 
defenders of the towns, that the Mesta finally turned to this court 
as the last and highest sanctuary to protect the dignity of its 
entregadores. 

The earliest important edict of the Sala concerning the Mesta 
was issued in 1642. It confirmed with considerable emphasis the 
sentence of an entregador regarding the right of access of the 
herdsmen to certain lands in the bishopric of Cuenca. 4 During 
the succeeding generation the Mesta did not appeal again to the 
Sala, but intrusted its forlorn hopes to the Royal Council. Un- 

1 This kind of dobla was valued at 51 reales, which would make the total deposit 
equal to about 19,500 francs. Cf . Pedro de Cantos Benitez, Escrutinio de Marave- 
dises y Monedas de Oro Anliguas (Madrid, 1763), cap. 15, no. 20. 

2 Nueva Recop., lib. 4, tit. 20, ley i. 

3 Catdlogo Real y Genealdgico (Madrid, 1656), fol. 112. See also Escolano de 
Arrieta, Prdctica del Consejo Real (Madrid, 1796), ii, p. in. 

4 Arch. Mesta, C-io, Cuenca, 1647. 



130 THE MESTA 

fortunately for the herdsmen, that body was quite helpless, as has 
already been noted. Finally, in 1670 a new device was tried; 
the Council ordered the Chancilleria at Valladolid to hand over 
immediately to the Sala all important cases pending on appeals 
from entregador decisions. 1 The Valladolid court quietly ignored 
this mandate and several similar ones which were issued at regular 
intervals during the next two decades. It would have required 
much more pressure than was then at the disposal of the Royal 
Council, or, for that matter, of any institution in Castile, to com- 
pel the chancillerias to relinquish their jurisdiction over appeals 
from cases tried by entregadores. 

The attorneys of the Mesta were able to bring a few cases up to 
the Sala; and this newly found protector gave the sorely tried 
sheep owners almost the only comfort they had had for many 
decades. In 1675, for example, there was jubilant elation among 
the herdsmen after the Sala had handed down an important 
pasturage decision in favor of the Mesta and against the corregi- 
dor of the city of Leon. 2 Similar decisions followed, which re- 
newed the almost abandoned hopes of the Mesta for a revival of 
its ancient strength and inspired it with a new confidence in the 
efficacy of the Royal Council and the Sala. As a result of these 
new aspirations seven decrees were issued by the Council in the 
period 1677-1719. These edicts were intended to strengthen the 
jurisdiction of the Sala over cases involving the Mesta and its 
judges and to place every possible hindrance in the way of the 
high courts at Granada and Valladolid. 3 It was stipulated that 
there should be no appeal from entregador sentences involving 
less than 3000 maravedis. Should the disputed claims be in ex- 
cess of that amount, the Mesta was given the privilege of appeal- 
ing directly to the Sala without the intercession of the chancil- 
lerias. The latter were to be eliminated at all costs; but these 
costs were proving to be very heavy. The burdens of continuous 
litigation in every high court of the land were too much for the 
decrepit old organization. The Mesta accounts for 1684 show a 

1 Arch. Mesta V-i, Valladolid, 1670. 

2 Concordia de 1783, ii, fol. 171. 

3 Ibid., ii, fols. 173 v-i8o. 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 131 

deficit for the first time in nearly two hundred years; for over a 
century the annual net profits had varied from fifteen to thirty 
million maravedis, but in the year mentioned the treasury was 
over seven millions in arrears. 1 This was the lowest point in 
the financial history of the Mesta during the three centuries 
covered by its extant accounts. Its corps of attorneys at Valla- 
dolid was discontinued and that at Granada diminished because 
of the futility of fighting cases there. Such humiliation was 
bitter indeed for an institution which had been so intimately 
associated with the proud sovereigns of Castile for four hundred 
years. 

The effective work of the chancillerias against the Mesta and 
its judiciary continued relentlessly. For eight years, 1708-16, 
the entregadores did not hold court at all, and the consequent loss 
of income from fines brought the feeble exchequer of the Mesta 
to lower and lower depths of insolvency. The crown, however, 
suffered a corresponding loss, for it had received a third of the 
yield from the sentences of the itinerant nagistrates. In order to 
regain this for the royal treasury, which was hopelessly depleted 
after the war of the Spanish Succession, the entregadores were 
commanded in 1716 to renew activities and to see that the income 
of the new Bourbon monarchy was not stinted because of moder- 
ate fines. Encouraged by this and by assurances of further sup- 
port from the Royal Council, the Mesta renewed its demands that 
" the long recognized rights of the entregadores be reaffirmed, and 
that they be given full and final jurisdiction directly under the 
Sala, to the exclusion of all local judges on the one hand, and all 
chancillerias, audiencias, and provincial courts on the other." 2 
Thanks to the sore financial straits of Philip V and Ferdinand VI, 
the entregadores were given vigorous support and encouragement 
by the crown and its officials, and the result was a temporary in- 
crease in the amounts annually turned in by them. 8 Fortified by 

1 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, 1510-1836 (17 large folio volumes and portfolios). 

8 Brit. Mus., Ms. 1321 k6 (ca. 1732); a similar declaration in Arch. Mesta, Prov. 
iii, 29 (1722). 

8 The totals of their sentences rose steadily during these reigns to about six 
million maravedis a year, but began to fall off as soon as the drastic investigations 
were started by Charles III. Cf. Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, 1717-81, passim. 



132 THE MESTA 

further decrees issued by the Council in 1746, 1751, and 1752,* 
the entregadores were able for a tune to bid defiance to the 
chancillerias, but their day of reckoning was not far off. 

The accession of Charles III in 1759 opened the final chapter 
in the history of the entregador. The Neapolitan reign of that 
enlightened monarch had given him ample experience in handling 
the perplexing problems arising from the conflicts of a large-scale 
migratory pastoral industry with agricultural and local interests. 
On coming to Castile, he found the Mesta weakened after two 
centuries of strenuous hostilities, but with its itinerant judiciary 
still intrenched behind its ancient privileges, which his unprin- 
cipled predecessors had just been rehabilitating. 

The mainstay of the Mesta had ever been the crown and its 

I Council, the one the creator and the other the unfailing protector 
of the entregador. The indispensable prerequisite of the whole 
system of such a highly organized migratory institution was the 
superiority of the centralized national authority over the separate 
local units, whether provinces, towns, or individuals. Therein 
lay the explanation of the supremacy of the Mesta under the 
aegis of the early Hapsburg absolutism. By a curious anomaly, 
this very reliance upon the crown was destined to bring about the 
downfall of the entregador and the complete disruption of the 
Mesta. That organization now found itself in the hands of a 
monarch, who, though not at first openly hostile to it, was quite 
ready to give a full hearing to its opponents, a favor which no 
previous sovereign had ever dreamed of granting. Even more 
distressing to the Mesta was the discovery that after he had given 
this hearing, and had become convinced of the grave need for re- 
form, the king was quite willing to forgo the immediate profits 
which he received from entregador fines and to work unselfishly 
for the ultimate good of the agrarian interests of the country. 2 

1 Varies Decretos . . . mandados agregar d las Ordenanzas de la Chancilleria de 
Valladolid (1765), p. 134; Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 178^179; Arch. Mesta, B~3, 
Biloria, 1751-83. None of these documents is given in Matfas Brfeva, Coleccidn de 
Grdenes pertenecientes al Ramo de la Mesta (1828), the official and supposedly com- 
plete compilation of all Mesta documents of importance for the period 1731-1828. 
' 2 The agrarian policy of Charles III has been carefully examined by Rudolf 
Leonhard, Agrarpolitik und Agrarreform in Spanien unter Carl I II. (Munich, 1909). 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 133 

The details of this final campaign against the Mesta need not 
concern us. We may only observe that it falls into two parts : the 
exhaustive preliminary charges by the province of Estremadura, 
which comprised the chief sou them and western pasture lands; and 
the subsequent hearing of both sides of the case before Campo- 
manes, the great reform minister. 1 In the course of these pro- 
ceedings, which covered some twenty years, every important 
point in the long and varied career of the Mesta was touched upon. 
Most attention, however, was devoted to the question of pastur- 
age public lands, enclosures, and commons. The entregador, 
though frequently discussed in the citations of historical evidence, 
came in for less mention because he was by that time only a figure- 
head. A large part of the attention given to him was spent in the 
examination of the innumerable cases of systematized bribery of 
entregadores by towns. The widespread evidence of this or- 
ganized backmail was used by the prosecution as one of its most 
effective arguments to prove the utter inefncacy of the itinerant 
magistrates as officers of justice. 2 In the final polemic of the 
the prosecution, the reform leaders took the same view of 
the entregador as did Acevedo, the great jurist, 3 who had main- 
tained that the Mesta judiciary was " an enemy of the towns/' 
an opponent of that ancient heritage of every entity of Spanish 
population be it village, city, province, or kingdom namely, 
its independence from outside interference in the management of 
its local affairs. 

This procedure under Charles III was, strictly speaking, not a 
trial of the Mesta. It was simply an exhaustive hearing of the 
whole agrarian problem, a summing up of the centuries of discord, 
accusations, denials, and evidence. The real object of the inves- 
tigation was not to pass formal sentence upon the Mesta, but 
rather to discredit that institution in all its functions, including 
its system of itinerant judges, before the eyes of the nation. Cam- 
pomanes felt that the most effective method of accomplishing the 
desired reforms was to subject the actions of the Mesta and the 

1 See below, p. 414, for the titles of the published results of these proceedings. 

2 Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 234-282. 

3 See edition of the Nueva Recop. (1612), lib. 3, tit. 14, ley 3. 



134 THE MESTA 

obsolete character of its privileges to the greatest possible public- 
ity; subsequent events proved the wisdom of his judgment. 1 
Fundamentally, his view coincided with that of Acevedo just 
cited, namely that vecinos or townspeople had exclusive right to 
enclose common land and to administer justice within their town 
limits as against any intruders such as the migratory herds or 
itinerant justices. This reservation of local matters for local 
officers had been the keynote of the long struggles against the 
entregadores in the chancillerias and the Cortes. We have al- 
ready seen how the Mesta had been gradually forced to give way 
before this pressure of particularism or separatism. In each set 
of instructions sent out to the entregadores by the President, 
notably those of 1757, 1779, and 1782, there was further recogni- 
tion of the precedence of local interests over those of the sheep 
owners. 2 These preliminaries led inevitably to the last step, the 
abolition of the office of entregador by the decree of August 29, 
1796, and the distribution of its functions among various officials, 
chiefly the corregidores. 3 

Campomanes reflected the intelligent opinion of his times re- 
garding the Mesta and its judiciary in his summary of the charges 
made by Estremadura against the sheep owners in 1764:* In this 
document he pointed out the analogy between the rights and 
privileges granted in the twelfth century by grateful Castilian 
monarchs to the Christian conquerors of that province, and the 
similar privileges given out some four centuries later in the re- 
partimientos of the new world conquistador es. The sixteenth- 
century pioneers, many of whom were Estremadurans, such as 
Cortes and Pizarro, had, like their mediaeval ancestors, received 
certain liberties in recognition of their services as conquerors for 
their lord the king, and as warriors of their faith against heresy 
and heathenism. 6 These liberties took the form of a large measure 

1 The copy of the Concordia de 1783 in the Bibliotheque de Sainte-Genevive in 
Paris (D6partment des Manuscrits) has two interesting pages of manuscript notes 
in a contemporary hand, giving data from the French ambassador at Madrid re- 
garding Campomanes' purposes in conducting this investigation. 

9 Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 38 v, 183 v-iSg, 222. 

8 Nov. Recop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley u (43 caps.). 

4 Expediente de 1771, pt. 2 (Respuestas de los Fiscales), fols. 40 ff. 

6 Ibid., pt. 2, fol. 45 <v- 



DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 135 

of autonomy and independence from outside interference, as was 
usually the case with all frontier and border settlements. This 
cherished heritage of the settlers in the reconquered lands of old 
Spain and in the conquered empires overseas was incorporated 
in all of their fueros and other charters. It was against this an- 
cient and highly prized prerogative that the Mesta and the en- 
tregadores waged their long and, for them, disastrous campaign. 
The migratory pastoral industry may have been inevitable be- 
cause of geographic and climatic conditions in the peninsula; 
but politically the whole force of tradition was set against it. No 
more convincing evidence of this could be cited than that which 
is revealed in the history of the alcalde entregador. 






PART III 
TAXATION 



CHAPTER VIII 

SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 

Significance of sheep dues as a pre-f eudal tax on movable property. Town or local 
sheep taxes in North Africa, Provence, the Pyrenees, Aragon, Valencia, Navarre, 
and Portugal. Royal or state sheep taxes in southern Italy, Aragon, Valencia, and 
Navarre. 

To the herdsman the nomad flocks were a means of livelihood; 
to the sheep owner they meant an income; and similarly to the 
government of the towns and of the nation, they represented a 
legitimate object of taxation, and all too frequently of ruth- 
less extortion. The assets of the wandering herdsman were 
quite visible; and, friendless stranger that he was, the tempta- 
tion to make him pay heavily for his i privileges ' and ' tres- 
passes ' can readily be understood. At first the coming of the 
migrants aroused among the wayside communities the hostile 
query, " How can we prevent or hinder the devastating intrusions 
of these unwelcome strangers ? " But as the migrations con- 
tinued from generation to generation in spite of heavy fines and 
restrictions, the attitude of local and later of national officials 
became rather, " How can we capitalize the fiscal possibilities of 
this ebb and flow of movable property past our city gates ? " 

A survey of the experience of various Mediterranean peoples 
with the taxation of migratory flocks brings to light two aspects 
of the question. First, there was the problem of town or local 
finance, which involved the ancient social conflict between the 
wandering herdsman and the sedentary husbandman, and the 
assessment of penal dues upon the former for his supposed trans- 
gressions against the latter. Secondly, in point both of origin and 
of importance, there was the question of national finance, the 
rise of a central power and its efforts to secure much needed 
revenues from the migratory flocks. It should be made clear at 
once, however, that these two fiscal aspects of the industry were 
not sharply separated from each other either chronologically or 
in subject matter. Although an attempt will be made below to 

139 



I 



140 THE MESTA 

examine the two separately, this should not be taken as an indica- 
tion that local sheep taxes were common during one period of 
pastoral history, and national imposts during another. In fact, 
there was never a period throughout the long annals of sheep mi- / 
grations when we do not find friction between the herdsmen and / 
the towns, with its invariable accompaniment of fines, penalties, ' 
and taxes. The second or national phase of this topic emerges 
from the local taxation of the industry with the growth of a 
strong central power, which, finding the towns reaping financial 
advantage from penalties on the wandering flocks, soon devised a 
method of accomplishing the same result for its own benefit. 

The struggles between royal and local officials over the judicial 
matters of the industry have already been discussed. The sub- 
ject of the sheep taxes, though analogous to the judicial question 
hi that it too deals with national and local elements, is neverthe- 
less distinctive in that it presents not a struggle between the two, 
but a development, a growth of one out of the other. 

Whether we consider the crude form of the Algerian migratory 
pastoral industry, or the much more intricate organization of the 
Roman flocks in southern Italy, there appears the same striking 
fact of certain financial obligations of the herdsmen to the land- 
owners. This feature is found in the earliest evidences of the in- 
dustry in the countries where it can best be studied: Italy, North 
Africa, southern France, and the Spanish kingdoms. 1 In each of 
ll these areas the first indications of annual sheep migrations show 
II the towns undertaking to assess damages and penalties upon the 
\\ intruders on their commons. Then too, there were frequent 
violations of local laws by the strangers, trespasses on forbidden 
pastures, and illicit passage over toll bridges. These and many 
other points gave the local officers ample opportunity to exact 
fees, dues, and taxes from the passing herdsmen. 2 

1 There are ample evidences of the existence of this form of sheep industry in 
Roumania, Scotland, Switzerland, Chile, and elsewhere (O. Densusianu, Pas- 
toritul la Popoarele Romanice, Bucharest, 1913; Duke of Argyll, Scotland as it was 
and as it is, Edinburgh, 1887, 2 vols., i, pp. 255 ff.; Geographical Review (New 
York), Oct., 1918, pp. 370-371); but the materials upon the fiscal aspects of the 
question hi those countries are very meagre. 

2 The taxation of the herdsmen and their products when they appeared in the 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 141 

The significance of this question of local sheep taxes lies not 
only in its importance in the fiscal history of the industry itself. 
More especially to be noted is the evidence given upon the an- 
tiquity of the taxation of movable property in Mediterranean 
countries. The prevalence of such taxation long before any 
feudal land taxes contradicts the commonly accepted opinion, 
which had held that such feudal dues were the predecessors of 
assessments upon movable and personal property. 1 The taxation 
of migratory live stock in every sense a movable property 
was by no means a mediaeval device created to supplement in- 
adequate and antiquated feudal dues. The appearance of such 
pastoral taxes came wherever and whenever the industry itself 
occurred in the Roman Empire, in Visigothic Spain, in the 
Algerian hinterland, in mediaeval Provence, in present-day 
Chile quite regardless of any precedents in the form of feudal 
taxation. This fact qualifies considerably the usual assertion 
that taxes on movables were introduced only with the growing 
inadequacy of the old feudal land taxes. In southern Italy, 
for example, the earliest evidence of the taxation of migratory 
sheep occurs with the first indications of the industry itself, 
namely in the days of Julius Caesar and his immediate suc- 
cessors. The public officials of that region have continued 
to collect such taxes from the early days of the Roman Empire 
down to the present day, with scarcely an interruption. It is 
true that there were countries, such as Catalonia, where the 
growth of migratory sheep raising, and the consequent increase of 
revenue from it, aided the government in dispensing with the old 
feudal aids. This fact, however, does not modify the above con- 
clusion as to the relative positions of these two forms of taxes. 

The appearance omjmtory flocks in the Mediftgrranean coun- > 
tries brought on, as an mevitable consequence, tfyg yfrrefymal y 
struggle between pastoral and agrarian interests. This hostility 

local markets will be taken up later, in the examination of the efforts of the towns 
to restrict any outside or nationalizing influence upon local affairs. This takes up 
the important question of the growth of the national market as opposed to the 
local one. 

1 William Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce (4th ed., 
Cambridge, England, 1905-07, 3 vols.), i, p. 152. 



142 THE MESTA 

naturally took the form of penalties levied by the latter for tres- 
passes and transgressions by the former. At first the object of 
these assessments was purely punitive; but constant repetition 
of the offences, and the persistence of the sheep owners hi their 
visits, led to the gradual hardening of a once elastic schedule of 
V penalties into a fixed rate of tolls and dues. 

The primitive economy of the present day North African tribes 
affords an illustration of the nature of this change from fines to 
fees, as it very probably took place in the early stages of the in- 
dustry in other and economically more advanced areas. In the 
pastoral hinterland of Algeria and Tunis the local chieftains still 
exact from the migrating flocks a toll of one sheep for every hun- 
dred, which is collected " partly as a penalty for intrusion, and 
partly as a guarantee against other fines. " l This point of view 
regarding sheep dues was representative of the primitive period 
when the punitive object of sheep tolls was still conspicuous. It 
is interesting to note, however, that the oldest source materials 
on this subject, namely those from southern Italy during the 
early Roman Empire, reveal a more advanced development of the 
fiscal aspect of the industry than that in present day Algeria. In 
other words, although the Italian flocks of classical times were 
being fined and penalized by the towns to a limited extent, never- 
theless the financial obligations of the herdsmen had gone beyond 
that stage, since they were being assessed primarily by the central 
government for purposes of imperial revenue. The traditional 
hostility between local interests and nomadic sheep owners still 
found expression in the fines and penalties collected along the 
Apulian highways; nevertheless, the organization of the in- 
dustry for state protection and state taxation was its conspicuous 
feature. 2 

An excellent illustration of the local taxation of migratory 
flocks is found in the pastoral history of southern France and the 
Pyrenees. The sheep industry of these regions was without any 
such carefully planned organization as that in southern Italy. 
In Provence and the uplands of the Pyrenees the fiscal aspects of 

1 Bernard and Lacroix, L 'evolution du nomadisme en Algtrie (Paris, 1906), p. 56. 

2 See below, pp. 254 ff . 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 143 

the industry involved simply the question of local dues levied 
upon the passing herds by the town officials. There probably was 
some sort of primitive organization among the sheep owners, 
which was for the sole purpose of protection against unjust ex- 
actions by the towns. It lacked altogether that element of facili- 
tating taxation by national or royal authorities which was so 
conspicuous in Italy. 

In Provence the annual march was made over the carraireSj or 
special highways, with some rudimentary agreement among the 
herdsmen for cooperation against aggressive local officials al 
the way. 1 In the neighborhood of Aries, this custom of defensive 
agreements dates back at least to the thirteenth century, and 
quite probably to a much earlier period. In fact, it has been sug- 
gested that the sheep highways of southern France, which ante- 
date the Roman roads in that region, were maintained and used 
primarily because of the need for concerted movements by the 
flocks to frustrate the overzealous town bailiffs. 2 This is a theory 
not without foundation, and one which is strikingly similar to 
that advanced by some Spanish scholars to explain the origin and 
purposes of the canadas, the Castilian sheep routes. 3 With regard 
to the fiscal obligations incurred on their highways by the Pro- 
vengal shepherds, there are no evidences of taxes being paid 
by them to any but local officials. No higher fiscal agents mo- 
lested the migrants, though there may have been a tribute or 
' gift ' paid in 1232 to Raymond Berenger IV, count of Provence, 
for guaranteeing to the Arlesian herdsmen a free passage across 
the country to their summer pasturage without the payment of 
certain unjust local dues (pasquerages, peages). If this payment 
was an annual one thereafter, it might be taken as the beginning 
of some centralized influence or control over the fiscal matters of 
the industry. There is, however, no direct evidence of this prac- 
tice; on the contrary, the documents on Provencal pastoral life 

1 Fournier, " Les chemins du transhumance en Provence et Dauphine"," in 
Bulletin de geographic historique et descriptive, 1900, pp. 237-262; Remacle, in 
Revue de Paris, 1898, p. 843. 

2 Comte de Villeneuve, Statistique du departement des Bouches-du-Rhone, iii, 
p. 642. 

3 See pp, 18-20. 



144 THE MESTA 

of the thirteenth century and after give exclusive attention to 
tolls and dues paid to the towns, with no direct mention of tax 
collectors for superior authorities, save for certain temporary 
forced loans and exactions by the overlords of the region toward 
the close of the Middle Ages. Chief among these municipal 
sheep taxes of mediaeval Provence was the pulverage, which is 
frequently mentioned in the old account books of the bailes or 
chief herdsmen. 1 It was not abolished until 1766, after it had 
gradually drifted out of the hands of the local officials and into 
the control of the provincial and national authorities. 

The local taxes upon migrating flocks in southern France 
covered many different purposes: punishment for trespasses 
upon cultivated or enclosed lands, tolls for crossing bridges, fees 
for protection against marauders, dues for the use of the town 
commons or of stubble. Occasionally these exactions were paid 
in kind, as for instance in the Couserans district on the slopes of 
the Pyrenees, where tolls in cheese were regularly collected from 
the passing shepherds. 2 The assessment sometimes was accom- 
panied by a stipulation that the herds should fertilize the arable 
land of the town by travelling about over various fields during 
their sojourn in a given jurisdiction, and by being folded in dif- 
ferent places at night. 3 

The isolation of the valleys of the Pyrenees lends interest to 
the pastoral history of that area. Just as those highland com- 
munities evolved peculiar political institutions ' republics J 
and ' confederations ' inspired by unusual local conditions and 
ideas, so too in the regulation of the sheep migrations there was 
developed a purely local, almost primitive, economy, with prac- 
tices and procedures unaffected by external influences. In this 
respect, therefore, the pastoral institutions of the Pyrenees differ 

1 Foumier, op. tit., pp. 241-242, citing references to the archives of Aries. 

2 Cabannes, " Les chemins de transhumance dans le Couserans," in Bull. geog. 
hist, et descrip., 1899, p. 200. The payment of dues in cheese by sheep owners was 
also common in Spain; cf. the bounties on wolf scalps paid in Madrid in 1495 out 
of an assessment of one cheese on every fifty head of sheep in the district. Palacio, 
Docs. Arch. Madrid, iii, p. 405. 

3 Chevalier, " La transhumance da.ns\esva.\16esd' Andorra," in Revue des Pyrenees, 
1906, pp. 604-618; Amalbert, Le Mouton Arlesienne (Montpellier, 1898). 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 145 

from those in most other Mediterranean regions. The latter were 
guided to a large extent by the experiences of their neighbors. 
Southern Italy influenced Castile; the Spanish kingdoms looked 
to each other for suggestions in dealing with the common prob- 
lems; but the Pyrenean pasturage lands were remote, and the 
practices which became common in the relations between these 
isolated landowners and herdsmen were often unique. 

Agreements were frequently made between the people of the 
different valleys of the Pyrenees regarding pasture rights and the 
. dues to be paid by their respective flocks while on their annual 
migrations. The conception of these mountains as a barrier be- 
tween France and Spain dates only from the comparatively recent 
times of rapid transit. From the thirteenth century down to the 
eighteenth there are numerous evidences of the unifying influence 
of these mountain valleys upon the people of the two slopes. 1 
The chief factor in these relations was the migratory pastoral in- 
dustry. One of the invariable stipulations in the inter-valley 
agreements was that regarding the tolls to be levied upon the 
flocks when on the march. Trespass in forbidden pasturage, 
especially in fields enclosed for town purposes, was punished by a 
fine called carnal or carnau. The right to collect this penalty was 
carefully guarded as one of the chief privileges of the valley peo- 
ples. Their agreements of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth 
centuries carefully specify the amounts to be levied and the pro- 
cedure to be followed in the collection, so as to protect the given 
communities against the possible claims of any outside overlord. 

This practice was temporarily interrupted, however, when 
the strong hand of sixteenth-century French royalty intervened 
in these inter-valley pastoral agreements. The high tariffs of 
Louis XII on imports of Spanish wool and sheep played havoc 

1 Cavailles, " Une f6d6ration pyrneenne sous Pancien regime," in the Revue 
historique, cv, pp. 1-34, 241-276 (1910) : an exhaustive study of the political and 
economic ties between southern France and northern Spain by way of the Pyrenean 
valleys. See also Blad6 in Bull, geog. hist et descrip., 1892, pp. 301-315; and in the 
Revue des Pyrenees, 1894, no. 5; Fabre, L'Exode du montagnard et la transhumance 
en France (Lyons, 1909). A significant geographic factor in the Pyrenean migra- 
tions is the uniformly north and south direction of these valleys, which naturally 
encouraged communication between the two adjoining countries. 



146 THE MESTA 

with the reciprocity conventions of the mountain people. The 
latter promptly asserted the ' ancient highland liberties/ and 
drew up a new federation, the passerie du plan d'Arrem of 1513, 
which successfully bade defiance to any national interference 
with local fiscal agreements. This episode is an instance of the 
difficulties encountered by the migrating flocks when their routes 
lay across tariff boundaries. We shall later have occasion to 
examine the troubles of the Mesta in the fifteenth century and 
after, when its members took their flocks into Aragon, Navarre, 
and Portugal. The more fortunate situation of the Castilian 
organization as a powerful ally of royalty enabled it to circumvent 
any national customs barriers. In this respect the Mesta was 
even more effective than was the loosely organized pastoral in- 
dustry of the Pyrenees in its conflict with the kings of France. 
A In spite of national restrictions, these mountain communities 
jT continued to observe certain mutual ob^a^ODS in the form of 
payments for the use of each other's pastures. These dues tended, 
of course, to become fixed customary payments, which had been 
more or less standardized by various inter-valley treaties of the 
period from 1314 to 1390^ An interesting present day survival 
of these ancient dues is found in the tribute still paid by the herds- 
men of Beam who migrate each year into Navarre. Their stay is 
limited by agreement to twenty-eight days, beginning on a speci- 
fied date, during which tune they enjoy certain pasturage and 
water rights upon payment of an annual tribute of three^ two- 
year-old heifers. ^ 

The fiscal history of the migratory ^ajstoral industryojLAjagojy 
presents illustrations of both phases of tins Subject, namely 
taxation by local jswdlas by ro^aj^ujtboiiti^. The antagonism 
between the agrarian and the pastoral interests was made more 
acute in that kingdom by the strong organization of the contend- 
ing parties: on the one hand, the comunidades or leagues of the 
towns in the pasturage districts, and on the other, the royally 

1 Cavaill&s, op. tit., pp. 12-24. The extent of the migrations of French sheep 
into Spain is shown by the provisions of the Ordenanzas de la Comunidad de Daroca 
(Saragossa, 1741), pp. 26-27, which date back to 1270, 1336, and 1441-45, and regu- 
lated the movements of " French, Gascon, Basque, and foreign " herdsmen, who 
came down the Ebro valley and wintered in southern Aragon. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 147 

indorsed Casa de Ganaderos, or ' house of the stock owners ' of 
Saragossa. Because of this feature, it is more difficult to isolate 
the original taxes, namely the strictly local fines and penalties 
collected from the wandering flocks. That there were such local 
dues, and that they not only preceded but far outweighed in 
importance the royal ones, cannot be doubted. It is true that the 
strong kingship of certain Aragonese sovereigns asserted itself in 
the creation of royal taxes upon the flocks, as will be shown later; 
but it is none the less true that the predominant feature of pas- 
toral taxation in that kingdom was the assessment of ancient tolls 
by the towns and private landowners. 

Convincing evidence of the prevalence of these local taxes is to 
be found in the restrictions imposed by various royal charters 
upon the collection of such exactions. For example, the crown 
guaranteed to certain groups of migrating sheep owners, notably 
those of Saragossa, a free passageway throughout the realm, un- 
hampered by any local dues. The earliest of these privileges, that 
of 1129, declared that the flocks of Saragossa were not to pay any 
of the fees usually levied upon passing sheep; l especially were 
they exempt from the lezda or portazgo, a tax assessed by the 
towns upon goods carried by the migrants to the local markets 
for sale. 2 This exemption of the flocks of Saragossa in the shape of 
local taxes was renewed and enlarged by the later royal charters 
of the Casa, notably by those of 1208, 1229, 1300, 1339, 1440, and 
I494. 3 By these documents the migrants of Saragossa were as- 

1 A petition from the Casa de Ganaderos to the viceroy of Aragon, 1607 (12 pp., 
1672, n. t. p.), beginning " Excellentissimo domino locumtenienti . . .," gives 
the texts of this document of 1129, and other charters, now in the archives of the 
Casa in Saragossa. 

2 Ibid.: " Quod non donetis lezdas tota mea terra, nisi ad illos portus sicut iam 
ante fuit praesum et taliatum inter me et vos per tali conditione. . . ." Other 
local taxes were similarly mentioned. Yanguas, Dice. Ant. Nav., ii, pp. 200-201, 
gives details on the lezda in Navarre. See below, p. 158, n. 3. Cf. Lopez de Ayala, 
Impuestos en Ledn y Castillo, (Madrid, 1896), p. 651. The Ordinaciones de la Ciudad 
de arago$a of 1122 (ed. Manuel Mora y Gaud6, Saragossa, 1908), i, p. 283, cite 
a similar exemption from payment of the lezda granted to the Mozarabs of the city. 

3 The texts of these are found in Arch. Casa Ganaderos, Saragossa, leg. privile- 
gios, nos. 3, 4, and 5; leg. Ms. v, no. i; leg. Ms. x, no. 45; Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 
8702, fols. 33-36; Ordinaciones de la Casa y Cofadria de Ganaderos de Qaragoqa 
(eds. of 1640 and 1661). By these charters certain town taxes levied at Epila, 



148 THE MESTA 


sured an unhindered right of way across the unoccupied lands of 

all towns along their accustomed routes. Legitimate damage 
claims of landowners were to be paid, but the town officials were 
not to collect any tolls from passing flocks which enjoyed a brief 
rest on the town commons. 

In spite of the sweeping assurances of these exemptions, the 
sheep owners were compelled to recognize the long established 
right of many localities to collect certain dues. This is made 
evident by certain ordinances of the Saragossan Casa instructing 
the members to report all cases of payment to town officers for 
the use of monies blancos y communes (unoccupied and common 
woodlands), so that ' any unjust exactions might be prosecuted/ 1 
Under no circumstances was any member of the Casa to make an 
agreement with a town as to any sheep dues to be paid by 
him. Such individual bargaining broke down the efficacy of the 
organization and was " the cause of great inconvenience to the 
city of Saragossa, to this Casa and its members." 2 This strict 
insistence upon unified action was the result of much experience 
with the strong comunidades, or town leagues of the pasturage 
districts. There were four of these associations, with headquar- 
ters at Daroca, Teruel, Calatayud, and Albarracin, respectively. 
They were able to impose heavy penalties upon trespassing herds- 
men, though the latter were consoled by the assurances of their 
Casa, which stood ready to " reimburse members to the extent of 
all damages, costs, and losses resulting from any excessive fines 
for the use of commons." With the rise in power of the Casa 
during the sixteenth century, these penalties were graded down 
and stabilized as regular and mutually recognized tolls. 3 

The most important of these local sheep taxes in Aragon was 
i /the montaticum or montazgo, which will be discussed in detail 

Alcaniz, Teruel, and various points in Valencia are specified as illegal, but the 
constant repetition of this in successive documents indicates the inefficacy of the 
prohibition. 

1 Ibid. (ed. of 1640), pp. 50-51. 2 Ibid., p. 52. 

8 Instances of these tolls and of local ordinances regulating the passage of sheep 
through the town lands in charge of a local guide are to be found in the Ordenanzas 
de la Junta de Gotierno y Pueblos de la Comunidad de Calatayud (1751), pp. 41-42, 
and in the Ordenanzas reales de la Comunidad de Daroca (1741), p. 27. These 
regulations date back to 1270 and 1336. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 149 

below. 1 For the present we may note that it was the ancient 
penalty used by the towns to punish intruders in the local monies 
or wooded commons. The montazgo was much older and more 
widespread than any royal or national tax on migratory sheep; 
references to it occur in the earliest mediaeval ordinances of nearly 
every inland town in the peninsula. Curiously enough, the exist- 
ence of this tax in Aragon has apparently been quite unknown to 
the acknowledged authorities on the economic history of that 
kingdom, 2 though there is an instance of it in that region, probably 
as the equivalent of the French tax montagium or montage, as 
early as the ninth century. 3 The common assumption on this 
subject has been that the Castilian montazgo was the same as the 
Aragonese earner age* This is quite inaccurate; in fact the only 
characteristic in common between these two taxes was that they 
were both paid by migrating shepherds. The montazgo in Castile, 
as in all other parts of the peninsula, was always a local penalty 
for trespass, whereas the carnerage, a tax seldom found outside of 
Aragon, was a royal toll collected, as will be shown later, purely 
for revenue purposes. If a counterpart of the Aragonese carne- 
rage is sought in Castile, it can be found in the sermcio y montazgo. 
The carnerage corresponds exactly to the latter, which should be 
carefully distinguished from the ordinary montazgo just described. 
The montazgo in Aragon, as elsewhere, was a rje^ty^gyfed by 
town officers fyr tf-ffipAgfipfr o^ thft^flyfl ^ipinrinns. Its proceeds 
were turned over entirely to thfiJocal 



1 See below, pp. 163 ff . Monies were not forests, but rolling country with scat- 
tered trees. Basques were the more densely wooded areas. In the eighteenth cen- 
tury the term montazgo was also applied, especially in the forested north coast 
provinces, to certain parts of the trees used for naval construction. This was, 
however, only a provincialism. Cf. Jordana, Voces Forestries, p. 178. 

2 Asso, Historia de la Economia Politico, de Aragon (Saragossa, 1798); Lopez de 
Ayala op. cit.\ Colmeiro. 

8 Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montaticum, citing a document of about the year 
880. 

4 Asso, op. cit., p. 480; Lopez de Ayala op. cit., p. 650; Colmeiro, i, p. 492. 

6 Ducange, 1. c., besides giving the illustration for ca. 880, referred to above, 
which is from the Spanish March, cites another for the year 1164 of the Spanish 
era, from a charter issued by Alfonso the Emperor. Similar cases are found in the 
fuero of Teruel, dated 1176 (Forum Turolii, ed. F. Aznar y Navarro, Saragossa, 
1905, tit. 477), and in the ordinances of Daroca, cited above, p. 36. The laws of 



ISO THE MESTA 

In Valencia, as in Aragon, we find the montazgos and other 
local taxes which antedate the Reconquest and give evidence of 
the migration of sheep from the towns of Christian Aragon into 
Moorish Valencia. 1 Using these ancient local taxes as models, 
James the Conqueror created in 1245 a system of royal sheep 
tolls. 2 Thus he introduced the second or national stage of the 
fiscal history of this industry. This did not mean, however, that 
local sheep taxes thereupon disappeared in Valencia; on the con- 
trary, they were continued in spite of all efforts of the crown to 
interfere with them. 3 With the coming of the strong monarchy 
of the sixteenth century the royal sheep taxes were extended in 
Valencia as they were in the other kingdoms of the peninsula. 
The gradual spread of economic and political disintegration gave 
the zealous town officials their opportunity; they proceeded to 
take full advantage of the distress and impotence of the higher 
authorities in Valencia, and bought up or preempted the royal 
dues. 4 In this manner the fiscal interest of the central govern- 
ment in the pastoral industry of Valencia was largely eliminated, 
and the tax obligations of the sheep owners reverted to their 
primitive form of local penalties upon the intruding sheep. 

The inviting and accessible upland grazing ground of Navarre 
made that kingdom a favorite summer rendezvous for Castilian 

Albarracin of 1234 specify that " if any strange sheep come into the town pas- 
tures, they are to be fined with the montazgo and expelled without injury. This 
montazgo belongs to the townspeople " (Acad. Hist., Traggia Colec., Ms. vi, fol. 
n). Later ordinances of Albarracin renewed this provision; cf. Suma de Fueros 
de las Ciudades de Santa Maria de Albarrazin y de Teruel (Valencia, 1531), fol. viii; 
Insaculacidn y Ordinaciones de la Ciudad de S. M. de Albarrazin (Saragossa, 1655) 
pp. 82-83, an d the same (Saragossa, 1666), p. 86. 

1 Ordinaciones de la Mesta de Albarrazin (Saragossa, 1740) outline the organi- 
zation of a typical Mesta or sheep owners' gild of one of the towns whose flocks 
moved down into Valencia each year. These ordinances give the usual details as 
to the ancient montazgos. 

2 Vicente Branchat, Tratado de los Derechos y Regalias que corresponden al Real 
Patrimonio en el Reyno de Valencia (Valencia, 1784-86, 3 vols.) i, pp. 2i7ff. 

3 As, for example, when James I created new town commons, or boalares, on 
which sheep might pasture free from all taxes, local or royal (Branchat, op. cit., i, 
p. 211); or when James II, in 1320, undertook to exempt various Aragonese herds- 
men from Valencian town taxes (Arch. Corona Arag., Escrituras Jayme II, reg. 
1845., 245-246). 

4 Branchat, op. cit., i, p. 228: documents of 1630 and 1658. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 

and Aragonese flocks. In spite of this opportunity for rich 
harvests in tolls and taxes, the Navarrese were unusually liberal 
and friendly toward their visitors. The ancient fueros, or codes, 
of the kingdom provided that " strange sheep which pass a town 
are to be given a place to rest one or two nights if necessary, and 
the town is not to charge for this service." l Later legislation con- 
firmed this attitude. Access to the mountain pastures of Andia, 
Encia, and Urbassa was not to be hampered by tolls levied along 
the way. 2 In case of damages, migratory flocks were to be as- 
sessed exactly as though they were natives, " since the sheep of 
Navarre go into Aragon and Castile quite as much as those of the 
latter kingdoms visit their neighbors." 3 The earliest records 
show only royal taxes on the flocks, probably because the Bar- 
denas region, where most of the migrants congregated each year 
and where the annual meeting of the owners was held, 4 had from 
time immemorial been part of the royal demesne. If any records 
should be found antedating the crown's control of that region, 
they will undoubtedly show the same local taxes and penalties 
which appeared in the early experience of other peoples with this 
problem. The only evidences of local sheep taxes in Navarre are 
found toward the close of the Middle Ages, when they appeared 
in the usual form of schedules of damage charges for trespassing. 5 
During the early part of the modern era this local share of the 
taxation levied on the wandering herds was gradually increased 
at the expense of the ancient royal sheep dues. As will be pointed 
out later, the taxes levied by the central government were in 
course of time bought up by the towns in or near which they were 
collected, and in their stead a fixed annual tribute was paid by the 
local authorities to the crown. This process, which began during 
the period 1400-1450, was at its height during the financial em- 

1 Fueros del Reyno de Navarra (Pamplona, 1815), lib. 6, tit. i, cap. 6. 

2 Nov. Recop. Nav., ii, p. 129 (1580), lib. 2, tit. 4, leyes 40-41. 

3 Ibid., i, pp. 701, 705 (1565, 1585), lib. i, tit. 17, leyes 19, 26; ii, p. 134 (1608), 
lib. 2, tit. 4, ley 47. 

4 Compare the annual Mesta meetings in Estremadura, cited above, p. 50. 

6 Nov. Recop. Nav., ii, pp. 691-695, lib. 4, tit. 5, leyes 1-4 (1547 ff.). Alonso, 
Recop. de fueros y leyes de Navarra (Madrid, 1848, 2 vols.), ii, p. 359, describes the 
tolls collected in mediaeval Navarre for guides supplied to the passing flocks by 
the towns. 



152 THE MESTA 

barrassment of the Spanish crown in the seventeenth century, 
when one city after another bought up the royal taxes levied near 
its gates or on its migratory herds. 1 The Cortes made several 
futile attempts, notably in 1678, to check this wholesale disposal 
of the royal income, but to no avail. By 1755 the great Bardenas 
region yielded no further revenue to the crown, all of it having 
been alienated to the towns during the preceding centuries. 2 We 
have, therefore, in Navarre, as in Valencia, a completion of the 
cycle: the elimination of royal sheep taxes and the restoration of 
the old original condition of widespread local tolls and penalties 
which prevailed at the beginnings of the industry. 

One more illustration from another part of the peninsula will 
suffice to round out and conclude this summary of the local taxa- 
tion of migrating flocks in countries adjoining Castile. In Portu- 
gal, as in the regions discussed above, there was an ancient sheep 
tax or penalty levied by the towns as one of their exclusive priv- 
ileges. A royal charter of 1166 stipulated that " all who stopped 
over in Elbora (Evora ?) with their sheep, should pay a monta- 
digo of four head from every flock." 8 In 1518, the town officers 
of Villa Nova de Gaia, near Oporto, resolved that " in accordance 
with ancient custom, there shall be collected from all strange 
cattle visiting the town's jurisdiction a montadgo, because this 
land was given originally for the use of the townspeople and their 
animals." 4 

We may briefly summarize, then, the experience of these coun- 
fi&^with the question oflocal taxes on migratory sheep. First, 
these taxes afford early evidence of the ancient conflict between 
the agrarian and pastoral elements of society. Secondly, they 
were originally intended as penalties, not as sources of revenue, 

1 Yanguas, op. cit.j i, pp. 94-95, gives a list of these transactions during the 
period indicated, with the prices paid by the towns in each case. 

2 Ibid., ii, p. 671. Alonso, op. tit., ii, p. 286, cites the unimportant pontage as 
the only sheep tax remaining to the crown hi the time of Charles III (1759-88). 

3 Portugaliae Monumenta Historica, Leges et Consuetudines, i, p. 392. Many 
other instances of the montaticum in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries occur in 
this collection. See also Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montaticum (Alcaconas, near 
Evora, saec. xii). 

4 Foraes de Villa Nova de Gaya (Porto, 1823), p. 31. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 153 

though they tended to assume the latter character as time went 
on. Thirdly, they continued without interruption, in spite of the 
subsequent development of the fiscal relations between the crown 
and the industry; and in two instances, in Valencia and Navarre, 
there occurred a curious reversion to primitive conditions in 
the widespread prevalence of local assessments and penalties, and 
the disappearance of royal sheep dues. 

With these general outlines of local sheep taxation in mind, we 
may turn to an examination of the taxes collected from migrating 
flocks by the central government in each of the Mediterranean 
lands. The rise of a ce55a!^>ower came as a boon to the sorely 
harassed sheep owners, for it gave them an ally and defender 
against the constant exactions of the local tax collectors. The 
sovereign, like the migratory herdsman, found his only hope in 
centralization and unity, as opposed to the independence of the 
towns. In some of the countries under consideration, such as 
France and Portugal, the beginnings of state taxation of the mi- 
grants are obscure because of the lack of materials on the pastoral 
industry during the early period. In other regions, however, 
especially in southern Italy and to a less extent in Aragon and 
Navarre, the earliest evidence shows the industry well organized 
under the patronage of a strong central government, to which it 
was paying an annual tax. The old sheep highways had been 
taken over by the state, and at fixed toll points a pro rata tax was 
levied each year on the passing sheep. This system was intended 
partly as a substitute for many local taxes and fees levied along 
the way, and partly as a guarantee of protection against abuses 
by collectors of such sheep tolls as were still levied by wayside 
towns. 

The best example of the operations of this form of state taxa- 
tion to be found, outside Castile, was that developed in southern 
Italy. There the earliest traces of the industry date back to the 
times of the Roman republic, and show that even then there was 
a well established system of state taxation of roving flocks. The 
pastio agrestis described by Varro was evidently a pastoral or- 
ganization designed to facilitate the state regulation of the lands 



1 54 THE MESTA 

and highways used by the migrating sheep. 1 For this service the 
herdsmen were naturally understood to be under a financial obli- 
gation to the government. Consequently certain state sheep 
taxes were devised, a special sheep magistracy was created in 
192 B.C. or thereabouts, and sharp distinctions were intro- 
duced in the Sempronian laws between assessments on pastoral 
and on agricultural lands. Incidentally it may be noted that 
whenever public lands found their way into the hands of private 
individuals, the fees or taxes previously paid to the state for their 
use by the flocks were converted into regular rentals paid to the 
new owners. 2 During the first century B.C. the censors were 
leasing tracts of public pastures to publicani, who sublet them to 
sheep owners upon payment of a scriptura or head tax on the 
animals. This toll was collected at wayside stationes, which were 
the predecessors of the dogana of the Middle Ages and modern 
times. Under the later empire the scriptura became the pensio, a 
fixed charge for the privilege of grazing on imperial lands. 3 By 
the twelfth century this tax was being administered under the 
direction of the balivus civitatis, a state officer who usually sup- 
plemented his fixed income from the tax by illicit bargains with 
sheep owners for more pastures than could be secured through 
strictly legal channels. 

The royal sheep taxes of modern times in southern Italy are 
thought by some to have had their origins in the operations of the 
messari, or lessees of royal tolls, under Frederick II in the thir- 
teenth century. 4 It is more probable, however, that the respon- 
sibility for these taxes is to be found in the close political tie be- 
tween Aragon and Italy. Alfonso I of Naples (1435-58) as 

1 H. F. Pelham, Essays (Oxford, 1911), pp. 300 ff. The Licinian law of 367 B.C. 
had laid the groundwork for legislation on the use of public pastures by private indi- 
viduals. Acquisition by conquest of large tracts of public lands where the migrants 
had previously been accustomed to feed and to pay local taxes probably brought 
about this step by the state. 

2 Ibid., pp. 303-304- 

3 Codex Theodosianus, vii, 7; Codex Justinianus, xi, 60, cited by Pelham. At- 
tention will be called later in this chapter to the analogy between these stationes and 
the Castilian puertos reales, where the Mesta paid its annual taxes to the crown. 

4 Sombart, Die romische Campagna (Leipsic, 1888), pp. 43-48, 83-87; Bertaux 
and Yver, " L'ltalie inconnue," in Le tour du monde, 1899, pp. 272-274. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 155 

Alfonso V, ' the Magnanimous/ of Aragon was intimately ac- 
quainted with the affairs of the Saragossan Casa de Ganaderos. 
He was undoubtedly the one who erected upon the ruins of the 
old Roman stationes an elaborate system of toll houses the 
so-called tribunale della dogana delta mena delle pecore di Puglia 
for the assessment of the sheep that frequented the pastures of 
Apulia. 1 Under this organization bridge tolls were regulated, the 
tratturi, or sheep walks, maintained, and resting places and winter 
pasturage in public lands carefully administered. In exchange 
for these services, the sovereign was paid eight Venetian crowns 
for every hundred migrating sheep. 2 By 1500 the income from 
this source was of such proportions that Louis XII of France and 
Ferdinand III of Naples (II of Aragon) made careful stipulations 
as to its division. The subsequent attempt of the French to stop 
the migrating flocks at San Severe roused the Spaniards and was 
one of the causes for the launching of those memorable Italian 
campaigns of the ' Great Captain/ Gonsalvo de Cordova, and his 
famous Spanish infantry. 

In the eighteenth century the tolls on migrating sheep had 
become " one of the richest mines of wealth belonging to the 
crown of Naples/' 3 In fact, the long continuance of an organized 
pastoral industry in southern Italy is to be explained to a con- 
siderable extent by the large revenues which it brought to the 
crown. The Infante Charles of Naples began here in the middle 
of the eighteenth century the same reforms which he was later, as 
Charles III of Spain, to inaugurate against the Castilian Mesta. 
He announced his readiness to forgo the immediate profits of 
this tempting revenue in order to build up a firmer, though for a 
long time much less lucrative, type of rural economy. This 
declaration he proceeded to make good by the establishment of 
agricultural colonies in the pasture lands. With much of the 

1 Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies (London, 1783-85, 2 vols.),i, pp. 140 
ff.; Craven, Excursions in the Abruzzi (London, 1838, 2 vols.), i, pp. 264-270. 

2 In 1556 this figure was raised to twelve crowns, and in 1709 it was further in- 
creased to thirteen ducats and twenty grana. 

3 Swinburne, op. cit. He gives the following as the royal returns from this tax: 
1536, 72,214 ducats; 1680, 155,863 ducats; 1700, 272,077 ducats; 1730, 235,072 
ducats; 1780, 400,000 ducats. 



156 THE MESTA 

antiquated machinery of state sheep tolls thus cleared away, it 
was natural for Murat to issue, as part of the whole system of 
'Napoleonic reforms, a decree dated May 20, 1806, abolishing the 
whole system of state taxes on migrants, together with the attend- 
ant guarantees of protection. The subsequent edict of November 
26, 1808, was intended to confirm this reform, " to compensate 
the state for the loss of these revenues by the more lasting and 
beneficial incomes from husbandry, and to assure the rural popu- 
lation of Apulia of that protection to their property upon which 
depends the amelioration of agriculture and the consequent aug- 
mentation of national riches and population " - a thoroughly 
mercantilist pronouncement in every way. The reaction and 
return of the Bourbons in 1815 swept all of these reforms away, 
and brought back the flocks with their large fees for a short-sighted 
royalty. It was not until after 1860 that improvements, in many 
respects similar to those introduced by Charles III a century 
before, permanently put an end to the system of state taxation of 
migratory sheep. 

Royal taxation of migratory herds in Aragon consisted of the 
one tax, the carnerage, which was probably adapted from a local 
sheep tax of the same name by the strong founder of Aragonese 
centralization, James I (1213-76). During the expulsion of the 
Moors, the crown had secured extensive pasture lands which had 
long been frequented by the sheep of the northern highlands. 1 
Local sheep taxes were already common there, and suggested 
to the conquerors the fiscal possibilities of the industry. As a 
result, there was soon established a series of royal toll gates along 
the principal sheep highways for the collection of the carnerage. 2 
In some cases it was levied in money, as in the collection of three 
siteldos and four diner os 3 from every hundred head coming down 
from Ribagorza. The usual practice, however, was an assessment 

1 Asso, Hist, de la Econ. Polit. de Aragon, pp. 479-480, lists these lands and 
indicates the taxes collected near each tract. 

2 The marked difference between the carnerage and the Castilian montazgo has 
been described above, on p. 149. Such minor taxes as the royal bridge tolls, for 
example the pontage collected at Saragossa, will not be taken up here. Cf. For. 
Reg. Arag., lib. 4, tit. 646 (1528). 

8 Asso, op. cit., pp. 429-472, discusses Aragonese money at length; see also 
Swift, James I of Aragon (Oxford, 1894), pp. 275 ff. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 157 

in kind. In the thirteenth century this amounted to ten head out 
of every flock, but this exorbitant rate, due to James the Con- 
queror's heavy war expenses, was cut to five by James II in 1326. l 
By the middle of that century the royal sheep toll had become 
definitely fixed as to rates and collection points, which were form- 
ally announced by an edict. This act also stipulated that any 
local tax purporting to be a royal one should be forthwith dis- 
continued. 2 Numerous later decrees and ordinances outlined the 
details of the system, protected the sheep owners from abuse at 
the hands of the crown's collectors, granted the flocks ample ac- 
commodations near the toll gates, and insured them free passage 
over the public highways as well as over their special routes. 3 
Royal sheep tolls were maintained in Aragon until the agrarian 
reform edicts, drawn up in 1 773 and after by Charles III along the 
lines of his earlier Neapolitan measures, threw open to cultivation 
most of the public pastures in southern Aragon. 

Royal incomes in Valencia benefited very materially by the 
fact that the inviting lowland pastures of that kingdom made it a 
favorite winter grazing ground for most of the Aragonese and 
many of the Castilian transhumantes. In 1245, seven years after 
the capture of the city of Valencia from the Moors, James I an- 
nounced his royal title to the herbage and carnerage, taxes which 
had been levied by Valencian towns on sedentary and on migra- 
tory flocks respectively. 4 As a further means of increasing the 
royal revenues from sheep migrations into Valencia, Philip II 
introduced into that realm the Castilian royal sheep tax of ser- 
vicio y montazgo. 5 

1 Arch. Cor. Arag., Escrituras Jayme II, no. 247 (1339), is a degree exempting 
flocks of the town of Daroca from all royal dues save the payment of six head out 
of every thousand. 

2 For. Reg. Arag., lib. 4, tit. 587. 

3 M. Dieste y Jimenez, Diccionario del Derecho Civil Aragones (Madrid, 1869), 
p. 263 (1488 decree); Fueros y Ados de Corte de . . . Aragon (Saragossa, 1678), 
fol. 14. 

4 Branchat, op. cit., i, pp. 217 ff.; Bull. Ord. Milit. Alcant., p. 734: an exemption 
from the Valencian herbagium granted in 1268 by James to the flocks of the 
military Order of Alcantara. Subsequent confirmations of the decree of 1245 are 
found in Branchat, ii, pp. 125-132. Cf. Llorente, Noticias Histtiricas, ii, p. 159, 
on the use of herbage in the northern provinces of Castile. 

6 Branchat, i, pp. 226-227. 



158 TEE MESTA 

The situation in Navarre, so far as royal taxes on sheep were 
concerned, was dominated by the fact that the Bardenas region, 
which comprised practically all of the pasture lands frequented 
by the migrants, had from time immemorial been part of the 
crown demesne. 1 These lands were accessible upon payment each 
year of taxes called pechos or carneros. Occasionally, as a reward 
for special service, a limited exemption was granted to the herds 
of some locality or monastery. Instances of this occurred during 
the turbulent times of the Reconquest and the later wars. 2 Usually 
these grants were in the form of restricted favors, such as the 
right to cut green wood for making corrals, or to pasture a certain 
number of sheep free of charge. Even in these cases the tax on a 
whole flock was seldom cancelled altogether, but was commuted 
into a small fixed annual tribute a practice which seems to have 
had its beginnings during the first half of the fifteenth century. 
The ordinances of 1499 governing the use of the Bardenas pas- 
tures establish clearly the absence of sheep taxes levied by way- 
side towns, but such exactions began to appear soon after that 
date. 8 The process of alienating the royal tax on migrants by 
concessions and sales to towns and villages was in full swing by 
about 1650; and by 1755 the local officials in and near the 
Bardenas region had bought up all such crown levies. 4 

This survey of the taxation of migratory sheep in various 
western ^Mediterranean countries presents three conclusions. 
First, and most important from a general point of view, we are 
here confronted with a distinctly non-feudal fiscal system, which 
is based upon a tax on movable property. The widely accepted 
theory which undertakes to explain the appearance of taxation on 
movables as an aftermath and solution of the growing inadequacy 

1 Yanguas, op. cit., ii, p. 418. 

2 Ibid., i, p. 85; ii, p. 421: instances of 1092, 1117, 1329, 1350, 1412, and later. 
8 Ibid., i, pp. 87-92; ii, pp. 414, 595, 626. The crown also levied numerous taxes 

(lezda, peaje, saca, chapitel, etc.) upon the importation, exportation, and sale of 
supplies to transients, especially to migratory flocks. Ibid., ii, pp. 596, 618, 629- 
630. Compare with the Castilian portazgo (below, p. 164) and alcabala (p. 260). 
4 See above, p. 152. 



SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 159 

of the old feudal land taxes is, therefore, of dubious value, so far as 
these countries are concerned. Secondly, we note the widespread 
local taxes and penalties upon migratory sheep. These were the 
earliest manifestations of any financial relations between the 
towns and their annual visitors. Indeed, these assessments ap- 
pear with the first traces of the industry itself; they are the fiscal 
expression of the ancient social conflict between pastoral and 
agrarian interests, and they are to be found whenever and where- 
ever that conflict occurs. Thirdly, as a consequence and develop- 
ment of the local taxes, there came the taxation of the flocks by~ 
the central government. This phase simply expresses the growth 
of national out of local economy, a process, let it be repeated, 
which was in no sense a substitution of the new order for the old, 
since both national and town taxes continued to be levied upon 
the migrating flocks. In two instances, Valencia and Navarre, 
we observed the disappearance of the royal taxes through their 
reversion to the towns. The_royal_or state assessments differed < 
from the local ones in that their object was not penal Eut strictly 
ifecal, being intMOSToHRTas a source ot revenue. These national 
tolls are notable, furthermore, because they made necessary an 
elaborate system of state maintenance of sheep highways, pasture/ 
lands, toll stations, and rate schedules: in other words, a con- 
siderable piece of administrative machinery, which soon developed 
into a thorough organization of the industry. This was notably 
the case with the dogana of Italy and the Casa de Ganaderos of 
Aragon. 

With these details in mind regarding the fiscal relations between 
the sheep owners and the governments, both local and central, in 
other lands, we are prepared to approach the same questions in 
Castile. Are there evidences in that kingdom of a pre-feudal tax 
on movable property on any considerable scale ? How early and 
in what form do local taxes and penalties on migratory flocks 
make their appearance ? Does the unusual wealth of materials 
available on the history of this industry in Castile enable us to 
follow closely the evolution from local to royal taxes, from town 
to national economy ? Does the Castilian experience establish 



l6o TEE MESTA 

the rise of a closely unified national sheep owners' organization 
out of the fiscal machinery of the central government ? In a 
word, does the financial history of the Mesta enable us, through 
the use of its abundant source materials, to explain and perhaps to 
answer the questions suggested by the fiscal aspects of the same 
industry in other lands ? 



CHAPTER IX 

MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 

Early local taxes. The montazgo and the portazgo. Effect of the Moorish wars. 
Beginning of large scale sheep migrations, standardized taxation, and fixed toll 
points. 

AFTER the disaster at the Guadalete in 711 and the flight of 
Roderic's battered warriors into the mountains of Asturias, there 
followed three disordered centuries of uncertainty for the fugitive 
bands of Christian refugees, centuries of intermittent conflict 
either with the infidel invaders to the south, or with one another. 
The events of this turbulent formative period, especially those 
concerned with so unwarlike a subject as the present one, left but 
scanty records, and even these are swept aside by some authori- 
ties as spurious. 1 Whether this conclusion is accepted or not, it is 
interesting to observe that the few documents purporting to give 
evidence on the taxation of migratory sheep in this early period 
all bear a striking resemblance to the first records of the same prac- 
tice in other lands. These early financial obligations of the Castil- 
ian flocks were local tolls, as were the first taxes paid on migrants 
elsewhere; but in Castile the evidence supplements with many 
new and important data the oldest documents found in other 
countries. Although the obscurity which clouds these opening 
centuries may detract from the value of the documents, the fact 
remains that their chief features accord in every way with the 
well authenticated source materials of other lands. They carry 
the origins of this form of local taxation back into the traditional 
beginnings of Castilian history. 

The earliest of these records, like those in some of the regions 
already considered, appear in the form of royal exemptions from 
local sheep taxes. The practice common in all parts of mediaeval 
Europe of granting special privileges and immunities from such 

1 Notably L. Barrau-Dihigo of the Library at the Sorbonne. 
161 



1 62 THE MESTA 

taxes, in exchange for loyalty and support to the crown, 1 was 
especially prevalent in Castile, because of the constant pres- 
sure which the frequent wars put upon the royal prestige and 
treasury. This circumstance has given us a full series of such 
exemptions, which, be it noted, synchronize closely with the 
chief campaigns against the Moors, and we are, therefore, in a 
position to make a thorough survey of the local sheep taxes of the 
period. Fifty or more of these documents cover the period from 
the reign of Sancho the Great (970-1035), the first king of a 
united Spanish Christendom, down to the founding of the Mesta 
in 1273 or thereabouts. They fall into three groups: first, those 
granted during the campaigns of the first Castilian Alfonso and 
his illustrious companion in arms, the Cid, whose successes came 
to a climax with the capture of Toledo in 1085, only to be fol- 
lowed by the inglorious disaster at Zallaka in 1086; secondly, 
those issued in the turbulent middle decades of the twelfth cen- 
tury, during the rise of the newly established military orders; 
and thirdly, those bestowed as rewards for aid in the triumphant 
campaigns from Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) to Cadiz (1262), 
which swept the Moors out of Andalusia and thus established 
Castilian dominion over the whole of the southern pasturage 
area. 2 

In the earlier years of the Reconquest there was a frequent 
tendency to qualify these concessJQns^to the flocks of the favored 
town or monastery. This qualification sometimes took the form 
of a limitation of the number of sheep to be exempt from local 
tolls ; 8 but more frequently the area for un taxed migrations was 

1 Although this was the usual cause for such exemptions, it was by no means the 
only one. Religious zeal and work in the propagation of the faith were frequently 
rewarded by such privileges. The migratory sheep of herdsmen and owners living 
in Salamanca were so favored * because of the fame of that city as the home of one 
of the four great centres of learning in the world, and its consequent eminence as 
one of the unique things (cosas singular es) of the Spanish kingdoms.' Gonzalez, 
v, pp. 546-551 (1465). 

2 A study of the dates of some fifty similar exemptions, selected from the two 
centuries after this period, will reveal a like tendency to appear during times of 
stress, notably in the civil wars of Peter the Cruel and Henry of Trastamara. 

8 Gonzalez, v, pp. 218-220: a royal privilege to the town of Pineda, dated 1287, 
exempting 15,000 sheep of that town from local tolls in all parts of the realm. 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 163 

restricted. 1 In every case the obvious intention was to modify 
the ancient and widespread taxation of these herds so as to favor 
certain communities which were loyal to the crown. 

Among the more common taxes of .imHaftMiih'W fri r f***\~ 
during the Middle Ages, .two were prevalent throughout the king- 
dom from the earliest times: the montazeg and the.ftor/qjsgo. These 
deserve special comment, not only because of theiranuquity, but 
because of the influence which they had upon the whole fiscal his- 
tory of the migratory pastoral industry in Castile, as well as in 
other parts of the peninsula. 2 

The montazgo, as we have seen, was originally a fine for tres- 
pass upon the montes, or wooded pasture lands, and the assess- 
ment of it was a privilege attached to the ownership of such 
lands. When the lord of any given montes happened to be the 
king, the montazgo was a royal income. For reasons that will be 
later explained, however, Castilian royalty did not capitalize its 
opportunities in this connection until the middle of the twelfth 
century, when the first organized efforts were made to collect 
montazgos for the royal exchequer. By that time the towns had 
acquired Jurjs^ction^largely^^. rewards for seryices in the. Moor- 
ish wars, over large tracts of montes, and consequently over the__ 
title to collect montazgos . 

1 Muiioz, pp. 292-293: the famous fuero of Najera (ca. 1020), which gave its 
herds exemption from local tolls in all woodlands between the Ebro and Anguiano, 
a radius of about a day's journey from the town. Ibid., p. 429: the fuero of San- 
giiesa (1122), which established a similar free zone for its flocks " in circuitu San- 
gossa quantum potueritis in uno die andare et tornare." See also the fuero of 
Caceres of 1229, in Ulloa, Pri-oilegios de Cdceres. A privilege of Alfonso X to the 
town of Briones (1256) exempted sheep of that town from montazgos, provided they 
returned to Briones at nightfall. Acad. Hist., Ms. -126, fols. 79-95. 

2 Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montaticum, gives illustrations from Sicily, France, 
and Portugal. He notes the early French montagium, which has sometimes been 
confused with montazgo (cf. J. Lopez de Ayala, Contributions e Impuestos en Leon 
y Castilla, p. 127). Occasionally the term was applied to a tax for ferrying. Besides 
the usual Latin montaticum, the Sicilian montitium, the Portuguese montadego and 
montado (J. de Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Elucidario das palavras, Lisbon, 1798-99, ii, 
p. 151), there was also the Castilian montanera, though this was more uncommon 
than the montazgo (cf. Revista de Archives, ii, p. 174). Colmeiro, i, p. 95, suggests 
that the montazgo and similar taxes may have originated as early as the Roman 
period, but the evidence on this is by no means convincing. 



164 THE MESTA 

Though originally they were fines for trespass upon a particular 
kind of land, the montazgos gradually became fixed charges for 
access not only to monies but to other types of town commons . 
In fact, by the time the Mesta was established in 1273, the name 
had come to be applied to almost any toll upon passing flocks, re- 
gardless of their trespassing on the montes. 

A few illustrations will suffice to establish the character of this 
important tax in its earlier phases. A fuero which was granted in 
804 to the town of Valpuesta by Alfonso II of Leon and Asturias 
gave to the townspeople " full liberty to cut wood in the royal 
forests, to build houses and churches or for fuel, and to enjoy un- 
hampered access to pastures and springs on going out and return- 
ing [with their flocks] without payment of any montazgo or por- 
tazgo." 1 In 824 Count Munio Nunez gave a charter to the in- 
habitants of Brafiosera, by which it was stipulated that " from all 
men who come from other towns to pasture their animals in the 
town montes, the townspeople are to levy a montazgo." 2 In a 
like manner, some villeins of Berbeja and Barrio received exemp- 
tions from certain taxes at the hands of their lord, l because they 
had to pay the montazgo, but could not collect it from cows or 
swine [coming on their lands] ' 3 In a grant of lands to the mon- 
astery of Santa Juliana, dated 1045, Ferdinand I expressly quali- 
fied the jurisdiction of the monks over their new possessions by 
specifying that " they were not to levy any montazgo on those 
who hunted there." 4 A trial over some property of the monas- 
tery of Sahagun in 1055 was settled by the agreement that the 
unsuccessful claimants to certain montes were to pay montazgos 
for their use of those lands. 6 

The^ pprtazgo appeared quite as early as the montazgo, and, 
like it, was a tax the title to which was vested in the owner of 
certain real property; in this case the property consisted of the 

1 Gonzdiez, vi, p. 2. There was a similar privilege granted to the cathedral 
of Oviedo in 853. Espana Sagrada, xxxvii, p. 319. 

2 Munoz, p. 17. 

3 Munoz, p. 32. Ibid., p. 38: An exemption from montazgo in favor of the town 
of Castro Jeriz, in 974. 

4 Gonzalez, v, pp. 15 ff. 

6 Arch. Hist. Nac., Docs. Sahagun, no. 969. 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 165 

highways and gates, whence the name of the tax. The portaticum, 
portagem, portadigo, or portazgo was, therefore, levied upon all 
goods and animals using these means of communication. Theo- 
retically the king, as the lord of the land and protector of peaceful 
travellers and merchants, was the proper recipient of such a tax, 
just as his theoretical title to the montes gave him the montazgo. 
But although the crown occasionally claimed a share or even the 
whole of the portazgo, such claims were never enforced, 1 and 
from the earliest records of the ninth century onward this tax was 
collected at the gates of towns, wayside castles, or monasteries by 
the owners of such gateways. 2 The only evidence of royal control 
over the portazgo was evidenced by an occasional insistence on 
the part of stronger monarchs that royal authorization was neces- 
sary for the collection of the tax; though even this was rare, and 
the portazgos were assesssed as a rule quite regardless of the 
crown's permission. 3 In the course of tune a royal tax developed 

1 Part. 5, tit. 7, leyes 5-9, Part. 3, tit. 28, ley n, and Part. 2, tit. i, ley 2, give 
the thirteenth-century view as to the theoretical share of the crown in the portazgos. 
The rate was then one-eighth of the value of the animals or goods, and the king was 
to have two-thirds of the yield, the town's share being used to repair roads and walls. 
It is interesting to note that in this code the ' Scholar King,' Alfonso X, exempted 
from portazgos " the books, clothing, and other necessities brought in by students." 
Portugaliae Monumenta Historica, Leges et Consuetudines, i, p. 487, gives a charter 
of Centocellas, 1194, awarding two- thirds of the local portazgo to the lord of the 
town. Cortes, S. Maria de Nieva, 1473, pet. 5, mentions the ancient theory that 
portazgos belonged to the crown. 

2 Lopez de Ayala, op. cit., pp. 128-130, citing documents of 804 ff.; Berganza, 
Antigiiedades de Espana (Madrid, 1719-21, 2 vols.), ii, p. 59 (1129); Bib. Nac. Mad., 
Ms. 714, p. 183 (1179); Herculano, Historia de Portugal (Lisbon, 1863), iv, p. 420; 
Acad. Hist., Indice Docs. Monast. Suprim., p. 18 (1232). 

3 A good example of one of the few portazgos of which the crown received a share 
was that of Plasencia, to which the Mesta flocks were the heaviest contributors. 
The Castilian sovereigns retained two-thirds of the Plasencia portazgo down to the 
close of the fourteenth century, when obligations incurred during the wars of Peter 
the Cruel and Henry of Trastamara necessitated the disposal of this income. Bena- 
vides, in Remsta de Extremadiira, iii (1901), pp. 172, 433; iv (1902), p. 189; v (1903), 
p. 219, presents documents illustrating the history and administration of this tax. 
Illustrations of royal concessions of portazgo privileges are found in Arch. Osuna, 
Bejar Mss., leg. 351, no. i (1237); Pantigoso, Memorial . . . de Segovia (1523), 
reprinted in Boletin Acad. Hist., xiv, p. 219 (1889). An interesting schedule of por- 
tazgo rates of the twelfth century is found in the fuero of Zorita de los Canes, ed. 
Ureiia (Madrid, 1911), pp. 399-414. A similar table from the fuero of Sepulveda 
{thirteenth century) is in the Acad. Hist., Mss. Fueros Privs. y Ords. Municip., i, 



1 66 THE MESTA 

to take the place of the theoretically royal but actually local 
portazgos, namely the alcabala, a tax 4 on sales, which became 
common in the fourteenth century. 1 Although the portazgo was 
supposedly levied upon goods and animals en route to a neighbor- 
ing market, the destination of those paying the tax was quite 
likely to be remote from the point where it was paid, since the 
jurisdiction of the mediaeval Spanish town frequently included 
many square leagues of rural districts and scores of villages. There 
are even instances of portazgos being collected by Castilian towns 
and churches from shepherds on their migrations across the 
southern borders into the Moorish kingdoms. For the MestaTl 
therefore, the local portazgo lost its original meaning of an octroi / 
on sheep or wool en route to the local market; and, like the mon- 1 
tazgo, it came to be but another wayside toll on the migratoryj 
herds. 2 

In theory, then, and according to some of the earlier codes, such 
as the Partidas, the mllpf^ri of these two imposts was an attri- 
bute of the sovereign; but in actual practice, since their earliest 
appearance, they had been levied by local or private authorities, 

pp. 73-79. The rates are all given in money, and they give an excellent idea of the 
diversity of internal commerce in mediaeval Castile. They include food stuffs, 
iron, copper, lead, Moorish slaves, shoes, mirrors, and woollen cloth from Segovia, 
one of the Mesta's headquarters. 

1 See below, p. 260. The lezda of Aragon and Navarre has been sometimes con- 
fused with the portazgo, but it, like the alcabala, was a crown tax, though it re- 
sembled the portazgo in that it was levied upon goods brought to the town markets 
for sale. Cf. Yanguas, Dice, de Antigiiedades, ii, p. 603; Arch. Hist. Nac., Floranes 
Mss. 12-24-1, B-io. 

2 In 1200 the bishop of Cuenca was levying a portazgo on sheep being taken to 
the lands of the Moors to be sold, " et quod ganatum in terram Maurorum non 
vendidit portaticum illud reddat." Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 19, fols. 483-484. 
This clause brings out clearly the theory that the portazgo was levied upon animals 
to be sold, but the fruitless protests of the Mesta in later years gave evidence that 
the portazgueros were seldom particular as to the objects or destinations of their 
victims. Further evidence of sheep migrations and trade between Christian and 
Moorish territory is found in Mufioz, Coleccidn de Fueros, pp. 375 (1137), 417 
(1115), 464 (1131). Other instances of portazgos upon migrants going long dis- 
tances are found in Arch. Osuna, B6jar Mss., leg. 351, no. i (1237); Acad. Hist., 
Ms. 12-19-1, fols. 172 ff. (1217). Reductions or removals of portazgos were one 
of the common devices employed by Castilian towns in the Middle Ages to promote 
trade on certain market days, or in certain commodities. Cf . Arch. Osuna, Be"jar 
Mss., leg. 33, no. 15; leg. 44, no. 18. 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 



I6 7 



sometimes with, but more often without royal consent. This \ 
inconsistency betweenThe general law of the realm and the actual 
administration of the tax seems to have escaped the majority of 
investigators who describe both the portazgo and the montazgo 
as royal incomes. 1 This divergence of accepted custom from the 
written law regarding the ownership and administration of the 
tax was due to the obvious fact that the king of Castile was not 
an autocrat. The powerful monarchy was distinctly the excep- 
tion in mediaeval Castile. The Moorish wars, as well as certain 
geographic and linguistic factors, had given the dominant influence 
to local units: to the towns, with their tax and other privileges 
acquired in exchange for military support; the rich churches and 
monasteries, with their crusade exemptions and ecclesiastical 
prerogatives as leaders of a nation devoted to war against the in- 
fidel; and the great barons with their cliques and military orders. 

It was inevitable, then, that the portazgo and montazgo should 
have become, in fact, local taxes, and that the development of 
their various characteristics, as indicated above, should have been 
governed by the general political history and social evolution of 
the country. 

A new era had dawned with the union of Castile and Leon under 
Ferdinand I (1037-6.0 . an era of consolidation which was soon to 
lead to conquests. The capture of Toledo (1085) marked the 
permanent establishment of Christi&^sway ov*eTa large part of 
the plains of southern or New Castile. It is true that the triumph 
was marred for a time by the disaster at Zallaka (1086), and that 
the two kingdoms were separated again for over seventy years 
(1157-1230), during which period the Moors won another great 
victory, that at Alarcos (1195). Nevertheless, the twelfth cen-_x y/ 
tury was notable for the steady extension of Christian joTflfofrtion 
over the great southern pasture lands, 2 to which the migrating 
flocks had probably obtained access in^e eSSer turbulent cen- 



1 Cf. Altamira, ii,p. 58; Piernas y Hurtado, ii, p. 43; Colmeiro,i, p. 470; Marie jol, 
L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabette, p. 217. 

2 The more notable of these early Christian victories were achieved at Toledo 
(1085), Talavera (1085), Colmenar de Oreja (1139). Coria (1142), Calatrava (1147), 
Alcantara (1166), Cuenca (1177), and Plasencia (1189): all in regions highly 
valued for pasturage by the northern migrants. 



> / 

f 

f 



1 68 THE MESTA 

turies by payment of tolls and fees for protection. These regions 
were now laid open by the conquering sovereigns without pay- 
ment of taxes. We find, therefore, a long series of fueros and 
privileges exempting the sheep of the favored towns from taxation 
at the hands of local authorities. 1 In all of these, as well as in 
many other town charters of the same type, there was the guaran- 
tee that the favored sheep were not to pay local taxes in a large 
part, and frequently throughout the whole, of the realm. 

Exemptions from local montazgos and portazgos were, then, 
common means of rewarding the loyalty and services of cities, 
monasteries, and sometimes even of individual sheep owners 
among the nobility, for their aid to the crown in the work of the 
Reconquest. 2 The sovereigns now felt themselves capable of 
issuing mandates of a more definite and comprehensive scope than 
the vague and timid ones of their predecessors. The exemption 
embodied in the fuero of Plasencia, for example, clearly defined 
the montazgos and other local taxes in question, especially certain 
tolls levied at points along the Tagus River. In most of the town 
charters of this period there was the same tendency to qualify the 
sweeping exemptions by specifying localities where the flocks of 
the favored town were most likely to be accosted by tax collec- 
tors. We have, then, a considerable body of negative, but none 
the less conclusive, evidence of the early prevalence in Castile, 
well before the conquests of 1212-62, of local taxes on migratory 
flocks. 

There are also certain positive indications of these tolls, namely 
the confirmations of ancient privileges to collect such taxes from 
passing sheep. Illustrations are readily found in the twelfth and 
early thirteenth centuries of such royal acknowledgments of 
municipal title to taxes from migrating sheep, and it is important 

1 As examples of these may be mentioned the fueros and privileges of Alquesar 
(1069) (Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 9, fol. i), Sangiiesa (1122) (ibid., p. 31, no. 58), 
Carcastillo (1129) (Munoz, p. 470), Guadalajara (1133) (Mufioz, p. 509), Balbas 
(1135) (Gonzalez, vi, pp. 84-89), Toledo (1137) (Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 714, fol. 
10 v), and Plasencia (1170) (ibid., fol. 183); see also Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. mon- 
taticum (1173); and Gonzalez, vi, p. 93 (1231)). 

2 Colmeiro, ii, pp. 474-479, discusses the unequal distribution of the tax burden 
as a result of the granting of such favors as these. 




MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 169 

to observe that many of these acknowledgments were granted 
long before there were any royal taxes of this type. 1 

The great victory of the Christians at Las Navas de Tolosa in 
1212 marked the beginning of a half century of triumphs over 
Moorish strongholds. 2 A wide expanse of southern pasture lands 
was won for the unhampered use of the flocks from the north; 
though, as has been pointed out, these lands were by no means 

1 The fuero of Calatayud of 1131 (Munoz, Coleccidn, p. 463) fixed a montatico 
for " toto ganato forano . , qui post tres dies steterit in termino de Calatayub." 
A concession of jurisdiction over part of the revenues of Salamanca, granted by 
Urraca and her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, hi the year 1140 of the 
Spanish era, was accompanied by a recognition of the right to levy taxes of this 
form " in quocunque loco, vel quolibet modo." Ducange, s.v. montaticum. A 
similar recognition was shown in an instrument of the year 1164 of the era from 
Alfonso VII, ibid. The monastery of Ofia received from Alfonso VIII in 1176 a 
lengthy confirmation of its ancient charters, including its right to collect tolls 
from passing sheep: the rate was one head from migrants passing by day and four 
from those passing by night. Arch. Hist. Nac., Docs. Ofia, no. 96 a. Night tolls 
were invariably higher, probably in order to discourage migration when conditions 
were favorable for evasions. In 1200 the bishop and chapter of the cathedral of 
Cuenca were guaranteed the continuance of their long standing privilege of levying 
a toll upon all sheep and cattle taken southward into the lands of the Moors to be 
sold, with the proviso that the sums collected on animals which returned were to 
be refunded. Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 19, fols. 483-484. This is one of the few 
positive indications of regular migrations of sheep from the Christian highlands of 
the north over the southern frontiers, long before the Reconquest had brought the 
pasture lands of those regions under the control of the Castilian kings. Political 
boundaries, even those strengthened by sharp racial and religious antagonisms, 
were quite ineffective as hindrances to the activities of this industry. (See above, 
p. 145, on the sheep migrations over the Pyrenean boundary.) In 1208 Valladolid 
secured royal confirmation of its right to collect a montazgo of two rams from 
every herd entering the jurisdiction of the city. Agapito, Privs. de Valladolid, 
p. 28. The town of Bejar had obtained a similar recognition in 1 2 1 1 . Arch. Osuna, 
Bejar Mss., caj. 30, nos. i, 2, 6, confirmations of 1265 and 1314. The royal con- 
firmation of the toll rates of Burgos, granted in 1237, declared that all sheep were 
to be assessed according to a fixed schedule, " even if they belonged to the king or 
to the queen or to the monastery of Las Huelgas." Acad. Hist., Ms. 12-19-1, 
fols. 172 ff. 

2 Chief among these may be noted the following: Alcantara (1214, regained in 
that year after the loss following the first capture in 1166), Badajoz (1228), M6rida 
(1230), Castell6n (1233), Cordova (1236), Valencia (1238), Murcia and Cartagena 
(1243), J aen (1246), Seville (1248), Jerez de la Frontera (1254), and Cadiz (1262), 
This imposing list of notable victories reflects the vigor with which Ferdinand III 
and his companion conquerors swept across the plains of Andalusia and crowded 
their thoroughly beaten foes behind the mountains of Granada. *H 7 t 



170 THE MESTA 

strange ground to them. The conquest simply made this region 
more readily accessible, and made migrations possible on a larger 
scale and with longer marches. 

This period of reconquest, the sixty years preceding the found- 
ing of the Mesta, put an end to the vague generalities in which 
both the privileges to collect sheep taxes and the exemptions 
from such taxes had been expressed. The question had hitherto 
not come to a clear issue between the opposing parties, because 
the grants were made as isolated instances of compensation for 
services rendered. The origins of these local dues appeared at 
least as early as the dim records of the darkest period of the 
Christian kingdoms. There had always been sheep migrations; 
and in consequence there had always been local tolls and penal- 
ties. With the establishment of a condition approaching peace 
over a large area of pastoral country, there followed naturally a 
considerable increase in the activity of the industry. This re- 
sulted in the crystallization of the various laws concerning mi- 
grants. More especially was this true of the local regulations of 
sheep taxes. We may now review in detail the salient features of 
the local tolls, and their establishment upon a fixed, recognized, 
and systematized basis, a step which was a natural accompani- 
ment of the organization of the sheep owners into the Mesta. 

The first characteristic of the local sheep dues of this period is 
to be found in the tone of the royal restrictions laid upon their 
too extensive prevalence. As was noted above, the earlier exemp- 
tions from these tolls were limited in their scope, for the crown felt 
itself capable of safeguarding the flocks only within restricted 
areas. 1 The triumphs of the new crusade of 1212-62 against the 
Moors gave a different tone to these exemptions. The migrants 

1 One of the few survivals of this old restricted form in the period under discus- 
sion is to be found in the fuero of Caceres of 1229 (renewed in 1231). In this the 
sheep of the town inhabitants are exempt " from montazgo only as far as the 
Guadiana River," which gave the flocks a free zone of but a few leagues beyond the 
town's jurisdiction. Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres (1676?), p. 3; Gonzalez, vi, pp. 91-95. 
See also a similar survival of a restricted montazgo exemption in the privilege from 
Alfonso X to Briones in 1256, favoring only such sheep as return from their migra- 
tions at nightfall. Acad. Hist., Ms. -126, fols. 79-95. Gonzalez, vi, pp. 156- 
158 (1272), has a grant of exemption for the sheep of Alcazar de Baeza from local 
tolls as far as the Tagus River. 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 

were now assured that ' they might move unmolested through all 
parts of the realm, pasturing wherever the royal flocks them- 
selves had access, and on no account was any harm to be visited 
by any town upon the shepherds, nor was any tax to be levied 
upon the sheep.' l 

Furthermore, there appears in the available documents of this 
period the first detailed specifications of the rates of these local 
taxes and the definite establishment of fixed points for their col- 
lection. Instances of the old vague indications of exemption from 
' all montazgos in all parts of the realm ' are, of course, still fre- 
quent, and continue to be so for centuries. 2 The new and striking 
development is evidenced by such specifications as those laid 
down in the royal privilege of the Order of the Temple, granted in 
1237, for faithful service to the warrior Ferdinand III. 3 By this 
instrument, the towns under the jurisdiction of the Order were 
authorized to collect " one horse for every five thousand sheep on 
their way to southern pastures, and one horse for every five hun- 
dred cows; and of those with fewer animals the rate was one 
maravedi for every five hundred sheep and one for every fifty 
cows." This was to be valid for all migrants, whether from 
Castile or Leon, a clause which for the first time links the two 
kingdoms as the joint sources of these flocks, just as they were 
later to be linked in the ' Mesta of Castile and Leon.' 

By far the most important piece of evidence upon the early 
codification or standardization of the hitherto haphazard collec- 
tion oHocal tolls on passing flocks is to be_ found in the famous 
code ofjjthe lands of Santiago de Compostella * of 12 ^3. 4 This 
document prescribed certain rules for the collection of the mon- 
tazgo, which subsequently appeared in most of the important 

1 Acad. Hist., Mss. Docs. Monas. Suprim., no. 20: an exemption of the mon- 
astery of S. Pedro de Gusniel de Izan, dated 1232. 

2 Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 i, fol. 2 r.: an exemption for the flocks of the cathe- 
dral of Oviedo, dated 1 236, from montazgos in all parts of the realm. See Gonzalez, 
v and vi, passim, for others of the same period and import. 

3 Cf. Arch. Osuna, Be"jar Mss., leg. 351, no. i; and ibid., Gibrale6n, caj. i, no. 2 
(1267-68) : two curious agreements among four towns, Niebla, Huelva, Gibraledn, 
and Aymarte, exempting one another from montazgos in their respective public 
pastures. 

4 A. L6pez Ferreiro, Fueros Municipales de Santiago, i, p. 365. 



172 THE MESTA 

charters and privileges on the subject. The following are its chief 
clauses: 

(1) All sheep and cattle which migrate to the frontier (d estremo) are to 
pay but one montazgo in the jurisdiction of any one town. In all the lands 
of the Orders of Calatrava, of Ucles, of the Temple, of Alcantara, of the 
Hospital, or of any other Order, there is to be collected but one montazgo. 
The Temple is to collect its montazgo for Castile at Capiella [probably the 
present Zarza Capillal, and for Leon in Burgos or Alcocher [Alcocer]. Al- 
cantara shall collect for Castile at Benquerenga [Benquerencia], and for 
Le6n in Alcantara. [No points of collection are named for Ucles, Calatrava, 
and the Hospital.] 

(2) The rate of collection shall be thus: 

Two cows for every 1000 cows, and the value of every cow shall be reck- 
oned at 4 maravedis; and if it is preferred to pay the maravedis, the cows 
shall not be taken. 

Two rams for every 1000 sheep, each ram being valued at half a maravedi; 
and those desiring to pay in money shall be allowed to do so. 

Two pigs for every 1000, each being valued at 10 soldos de pipiones; 1 and 
H money is offered, the animals shall not be taken. 

For less than 1000 head, the rates shall be in proportion. 2 

The principle of limiting the montazgos to one for every juris- 
diction crossed by the sheep is here expressed for the first time, 
and it was subsequently incorporated into all of the notable 
Mesta charters on the subject. Most worthy of note in connection 
with this restriction is the rule that each military order should 
collect but one montazgo within its jurisdiction. This point 
assumes special significance when it is remembered that the 
largest single owners of pasture lands in the southern wintering 
grounds of the sheep were these military orders, which had been 
rewarded with liberal grants from the crown for their services 
during the Reconquest. 3 Except for Burgos, all of the toll points 

1 The sueldo de pipiones was a silver coin, probably of Aragonese origin, in cir- 
culation during the first half of the thirteenth century. It was rated as one-fifteenth 
of a gold maravedi. Cf. Saez, Demonstration Histdrica de Monedas de Enrique III 
(Madrid, 1796), pp. 54-64; Salat, Monedas de Cataluna (Barcelona, 1818, 2 vols.) 
i, pp. 70-81; Cantos Benitez, Escrutinio de Maravedises (Madrid, 1763), p. 30; 
Vicente Argiiello, Memoria sobre el Valor de las Monedas de Alfonso el Sabio (Madrid, 
1852), pp. 18-19. 

2 Reducing these values to maravedis, the resulting montazgo per thousand 
head was one and one-third maravedis for pigs, one maravedi for sheep, and eight 
maravedis for cows. 

8 See Map, p. 19. 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 173 

enumerated in this document are in the Serena and Badajoz 
region, the Estremadura district, which since the earliest times 
has been the chief grazing ground for the migratory flocks from 
the uplands of Leon and Castile. It is highly important that 
careful note be taken of this scheme for systematizing and con- 
centrating the local tolls in a set of duly authorized centres of 
administration and collection, because this was the model which 
was used as the basis for the system of puertos reales, or royal toll 
gates, along the sheep highways. The royal servicio y montazgo 
took not only its name but its administrative machinery from the 
local montazgo. 

An even more significant feature of this document is to be found 
in the fact that, although it was only a code of laws for Santiago 
and its lands, it did not restrict its scope to the sheep of that city, 
as did all of the earlier exemptions granted to favored towns. On 
the contrary, the law of 1253 viewed the montazgo from the 
opposite point of view: not prescribing the privileges of payees 
from a given city, but defining the rates and methods of collec- ^ 
tion of that tax as one to which all migratory animals were sub- V 
ject. The local taxes in the lands of the military orders were 
selected for first attention primarily because these lands made up 
the largest group of consolidated holdings in the pasturage most 
frequented by the migrants. 1 Then, too, the closer association of 
these orders with the crown doubtless influenced the latter in 
selecting them as the means for introducing the first reforms in 
the regulation and organization of the tangle of local taxes which 
hampered the flocks in their annual marches. 

That this law of 1253 did not dispose of the problem is 
certain. Alfonso's wisdom as a codifier far exceeded his ability 
as an administrator. In his great code, the Partidas, nearly con- 
temporary with this law of Santiago, he undertook to lay down 
rules to govern the granting of privileges and exemptions to 
sheep owners. However, the constant reiteration of complaints 
and appeals from the herdsmen during the succeeding decades 
ives ample evidence of the inefficacy of these provisions. The 

'^WM^^WfcMWM^MMMMMHMMMMMMH^^^H^^^M^^MM^BMMHMMM^Wii^^MM^MMMMMMMMV^MMMMH^MM^ 

'artidas were not put to actual use until nearly a century after 

1 See Map, p. 19. 



174 THE MESTA 

their completion. In the same manner, the efforts of the learned 
sovereign to codify the countless local tolls did not achieve their 
intended results for many generations. 

He first prescribed the tolls to be collected in towns on the 
lands of the military orders, and then promulgated restrictions on 
those levied at other points along the sheep highways. In this 
respect, the rules were at first not so sweeping or detailed as those 
for the towns within the domains of the orders. They usually 
took the form of exemptions in the hitherto unlimited grants of 
freedom from all local taxes. One of the earliest of these was that 
granted in 1255 to Logrono, the central point of the sheep-raising 
districts in the upper Ebro valley. Its citizens were not to pay 
sheep tolls except in Toledo, Seville, and Murcia. 1 This was a 
common form of exemption, 2 which seems to have singled out the 
three cities mentioned partly because of their ability to defend 
their titles to their ancient montazgos, and partly because they 
might serve as good points of concentration and administration 
for these local tolls, after the manner of the towns named in the 
Santiago code of 1253. This process of simplifying the collection 
of the montazgos, and eliminating the obvious injustice to the 
herdsmen of repeated assessments in any one locality or jurisdic- 
tion, was carried further by a well known privilege granted to 
Toledo in 1 255 by Alfonso. By that instrument, the city authori- 
ties were ordered to collect but two montazgos, one in Miraglo 
and the other in Ciara, instead of the many tolls to which the 
sheep had hitherto been subject when crossing various parts of 
the monies or wooded pastures of Toledo. 3 The rates were fixed 
on the same basis as those specified in the code of 1253, with the 
same values for the different kinds of stock, and the same privilege 
of payment in money instead of in kind, if preferred. The Cortes 

1 Gonzalez, v, pp. 170 ff. In some of the exemptions of this type Burgos was 
added to these three. 

2 Ibid., v, pp. 176-177: Castillo de Gormaz (1258); vi, pp. 150-152, 154-156: 
Cuenca (1268); v, pp. 254-256: G6mara (1299); v, pp. 258-259: Villalon (1303); 
v , PP- 273-274: Aguilar (1305); vi, pp. 235-237: Penas de S. Pedro (1309); vi, 
pp. 239-242: Alcaudete (1328). 

8 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. Dd. 114, fol. 175. These two montazgos were later 
combined, in accordance with the principle of ' one jurisdiction, one montazgo.' 



MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 175 

which met at Valladolid in 1258 incorporated in their resolutions 
all of these details regarding the collection of not more than one 
montazgo in the jurisdiction of any one town or military order. 
This Cortes also established the same montazgo rates as those 
given above. 1 Both of these propositions were cheerfully ap- 
proved by the crown. 

It is evident, then, that by the tune the Mesta was founded, and 
the industry thereby organized into some sort of national asso- 
ciation, the local taxes which its members had to meet were given 
at least a theoretical uniformity. The way had been pointed out 
,| subsequent legislation and administration. It is true that r 
much remained to be done. The crown still granted privileges to 
some towns, giving them the right to collect a montazgo from all 
sheep which passed by their limits. 2 Occasionally the sovereign 
naively cleared himself from the obvious dilemma of conflicting 
exemptions to herdsmen and privileges to city tax collectors by / 
assuring the one or the other that any apparently contradictory 
documents signed by himself were of no effect. 3 Certain cities 
did not even resort to the montazgo, but still followed the ancient 
practice of expelling all strange sheep entering their jurisdiction. 
In general, however, it may be said that by 1273 local tolls upon 
migrating sheep were being put upon a more or less systematic 
basis. We note, in fact, the beginnings of a recognized schedule V 
of uniform rates and a reasonable restriction as to the number of I 
toll points. 

1 Cortes, Valladolid, 1258, pet. 31. In the manuscript in the Acad. Hist., Colec. 
Martinez Marina, vol. ii, no. i, the petition is no. 30. 

2 Arch. Osuna, Gibraleon, caj. i, no. 3 (1267). 

3 Gonzalez, vi, pp. 117-118: a privilege from Alfonso X to Badajoz, 1270, which 
assures the sheep of Badajoz full exemption from montazgos in all parts of the 
realm, with a warning to the towns " que non se lo tomedes [i.e., los montazgos] por 
cartas que de mi hayades, en que mandase que ninguno fuese escusado de esto." 

4 Arch. Cuenca, Becerro, fols. 174-176 and leg. 3, no. 20 (1268) : " Todo ganado 
ageno que entrare en los pastes de Cuenca, que lo cuentan el concejo e que lo echen 
de todo su termino sin calumnia, salvo ende que lo non tomen por fuerza nin lo 
roben." 



CHAPTER X 

LOCAL TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 

(1273-1474) 

Fiscal clauses of the charter of 1 2 73 . Policies of Alfonso X ( 1 2 5 2-84) and Sancho IV 
(1284-95). Aggressive fiscal administration of Alfonso XI (1321-50). Sheep 
taxes during the civil wars of the later Middle Ages. Extravagant tax concessions 
to the towns and liberal exemptions of the Mesta. Concordias or tax agreements. 

THE earliest extant charter of the Mesta was issued by Alfonso X 
in i_21&. 1 In its opening paragraph reference is made to the exist- 
ence of certain royal letters patent previously given to the herds- 
men, which had been violated and which were therefore to be sup- 
plemented and strengthened by a new charter. This document is 
divided into four sections, the first three of which discuss various 
practices observed by the herdsmen on their migrations and at 
their semiannual meetings. The fourth section is as long as the 
other three combined, and is devoted to the abuses suffered by 
the sheep owners at the hands of the local tax collectors. 

With reference to these exactions, the herdsmen are first assured 
that " they are not to pay any portazgos 2 on the cloth they carry 
from which to make clothes, nor on the provisions and other sup- 
plies which they bring with them for their flocks." Taxes were 
not to be collected in the woodlands, or along the canadas or sheep 
walks, but only at certain specified town gates. In a supplement- 
ary privilege of 1276, this clause was extended by forbidding the 
towns to lay restrictions upon the purchase of grain (pan) 3 by the 
herdsmen for the use of their flocks. Furthermore, declared the 
privilege of 1273, the practice of taxing a shepherd who might 
take one of his animals to the town market to trade it for supplies 

, 

1 Arch. Mesta, Privilegios Reales, no. i : printed with notes by the writer, in 
the Boletin de la Real Academia de Historia, February, 1914. 

2 See above, p. 164. 

3 " El pan que los pastores ouvieren mester para sus cabanas." 

176 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 177 

should cease. " Shepherds may take to the town markets for sale 
as many as sixty head from every flock without paying the por- 
tazgo on them." 1 The horses and other beasts of burden, used to 
carry the supplies of the flocks when on the march, were not to be 
subject to any local taxes, whether montazgos or portazgos; nor 
were they to be preempted for temporary services by any monks 
or knights. This practice was quite common and " resulted in 
reducing the value of the animals by half . " A fee of one maravedi 
a day 2 was to be paid to the herdsman for the use of any of his 
beasts of burden. No montazgos were to be collected from the 
sheep owners unless the right of such a collection was secured by 
a privilege from Ferdinand III (1217-52), and in no case was the 
rate to be more than two head per thousand, 3 a figure which was 
in keeping with those named in the documents cited above. 

It is significant that the first charter of the Mesta should give v / 
as much space to the question of regulating and restricting the / 4 
local taxes on migrants as to all other topics together. This was 
the subject which seems to have been of most significance to the 
sheep owners. It is interesting to note here that the documents 
devoted to it form by far the largest single group in the archive of 
the Mesta. Even the vital question of pasturage rights was a less 
frequent subject for litigation than this one of local taxes, though 
the two were often joined in the same case. It will be observed 
that the charter of 1273 made no attempt to specify the points at 
which the montazgo was to be collected, as did the Santiago code 
of 1253 ; not did it provide that only one such tax was to be levied 
in any one jurisdiction. The toll points of the military orders, as 
named in the code of 1253, were not referred to. In other words, 
the first efforts of the Mesta were directed not so much to the 
restriction of the area in which its members were liable to taxation 
as to the limitation of the kinds of taxes collected. The measure 
struck at the more fundamental phase of the problem by defining 
the various dues, and especially by emphasizing the exemptions 

1 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 22, 26, 38. 

2 This would be equivalent to the cost of two sheep, according to the official 
assessment of the montazgo; see above, p. 172. 

3 The migrations were usually made in flocks (cabanas) of about 1000 head. 
See ante, p. 24. 



178 THE MESTA 

of the herdsmen from local tolls upon their supplies and pack 
animals and upon their transactions in local markets. 1 

We have, therefore, jisj^irectjgsjilt of jbhe ^creation of the 
t Mesta, the first attempt to standardize the local taxes, just as the 
/ code ofji2 Vi was the, first attempt to localize these taxes. This 
step came as a natural corollaryTto the unification ofall sheep 
owners into the Mesta, for their first efforts were certain to be 
directed toward the establishment of some uniformity in the 
obligations which they were compelled to meet on their migra- 
tions at the hands of town officials. This standardization was by 
no means a carefully planned, intentional process; nor did the rise 
of the Mesta itself follow any skilfully designed, prearranged code. 
It will be shown, however, that with the first appearance of the 
Mesta, and with its gradual development on a more and more 
definitely organized basis, there appeared simultaneously an in- 
creasingly prevalent uniformity in the local taxation of the flocks. 
This process had its real beginnings in the charter of 1273, in 
which the first steps were taken toward the restriction of the two 
chief local tolls, the portazgos and the montazgos. Of these 
two, the latter is, for present purposes, the more important, be- 
cause of its application specifically to migrating sheep. 

Instances of the montazgo previous to the foundation of the 
Mesta indicate clearly, as has already been pointed out, the 
essentially local character of that tax. Its collection was ob- 
viously a right which went with the title to the monies. This 
characteristic of the montazgo is evidenced in many of the later 
documents. It is necessary that these should be noted because of 
the appearance, early in the history of the Mesta, of the highly 
important factor of crown influence a factor which soon be- 
came apparent in the fiscal matters of the sheep owners' organiza- 
tion, just as it did in the judicial affairs of that body. The failure 
to distinguish carefully between the local and the royal sheep 
taxes, between the montazgo and the very different servicio y 
montazgo, was to cause widespread litigation for the Mesta. This 
confusion even crept into the laws of that body, and, naturally 

1 The activities of the Mesta members in the local markets are discussed above. 
Cf.pp. 43 ff. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 179 

enough, has resulted in much obscurity in the views of recent 
writers on the subject. 

The greater part of the work of reconquest and of driving the 
Moors behind the mountains of Granada had been completed by 
the campaigns of 1212-62. A strengthened kingship had been 
established over Castile, a kingship whose intentions toward 
centralization soon found expression in the compilation of codes 
and the creation of institutions of more than local importance, 
such as the Mesta. In the face of this tendency the towns were 
moved at once to secure renewals of their early privileges, espe- 
cially those charters which embodied their right to levy taxes 
upon any supposed intruders, who, incidentally, were themselves 
now armed with royal privileges. The half dozen recognitions by 
the crown of such local tax prerogatives, which have already been 
cited from the period previous to the founding of the Mesta, 1 do 
not seem to have been inspired by any motives on the part of the 
recipients save the usual one of securing one of the customary 
royal confirmations of ancient fueros and privileges. 

ig rise of the Mesta gave the towns ample cause for anxiety 
over their montazgos; the terms of the litigations and privileges 
thenceforth wer^ r yrirf >rii<i *1 iritjhltiihp fpfohKfth^"*-^ the local 
rights to levy montazgos as against the Mesta 's exemption from 
them. An understanding of the factors in this question of mon- 
tazgo rights may best be obtained by an examination of some of 
the more notable controversies between various towns and the 
Mesta in their efforts to maintain their respective claims. The 
interesting phase of these early conflicts is the defensive and even 
cautious attitude of the towns, before the futility of Alfonso's 
pretensions at centralization had been proved. As soon as the 
feeble, vacillating character of the central government was demon- 
strated, there followed far bolder, more insistent, and much more 
frequent declarations of town rights regarding montazgos. The 
disorders late in Alfonso's reign, and under Sancho IV and Fer- 
dinand IV, were to give the towns their desired opportunity. 

The Mesta, under the protection of its royal patron, was not 
long in beginning its campaign to check the promiscuous exactions 
1 See above, pp. 168-169. 



180 THE MESTA 

of local taxes from its members. In his famous code, the Siete 
Partidas (ca. 1256-63), Alfonso had already undertaken to regain 
for the crown a share of the returns from the local portazgos. 1 
Urged on by the sheep owners, he now took further steps, osten- 
sibly in the royal interest, to curtail the independence of the 
towns in certain fiscal matters which had long been exclusively 
local in administration. As was frequently the practice, Alfonso 
had farmed out various royal revenues to three Jewish financiers 
who acted as royal fiscal agents, especially in the collection of 
penalties from towns for violation of the newly granted tax ex- 
emptions of the sheep owners. Several of the towns had objected 
to the pretensions of the Mesta in the matter of this alleged priv- 
ilege of free access to monies and other commons, which had 
hitherto been regarded as exclusively for local uses. These claims 
of exemption from montazgos were at once put to the test, and the 
sheep owners vigorously demanded the enforcement of the clause 
in the Mesta charter of 1273 which provided that no montazgos 
should be collected, save those guaranteed by a royal privilege 
from Ferdinand III, Alfonso 's father. The initial steps in this 
direction were taken in 1276, when the king, acting on the incita- 
tion of the Mesta, placed these three fiscal agents in charge of the 
campaign against unauthorized montazgos. 2 The first of these 
agents, Don Zag (Isaac ?) de la Maleha, soon complained to his 
royal patron regarding the difficulties encountered in the enforce- 
ment of the arrangement; whereupon the royal entregadores 
were ordered to assist in the task, a further indication of coopera- 
tion between crown and sheep owners against the towns. Eigthy 
thousand maravedis was the price paid by the contractors for the 
concession giving them the exclusive right to prosecute unau- 
thorized montazgo collectors during a two-year period. This 
figure, when interpreted by the prices of sheep and cattle cited 
above, 3 indicates the importance and prevalence of these sup- 
posedly illegal montazgos. 

1 See above, p. 165, n. x. 

* Acad. Hist., Mss. Salazar, est. 10, leg. 21: printed in part in Memorial 
Histdrico, i, pp. 308-324. 
1 See p. 172. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA l8l 

The repression of these taxes was by no means so easy a 
matter as the above arrangement had presupposed. Contro- 
versies soon broke out, and it is interesting to note that the first 
of these should occur in the southwestern pasture region, the same 
Estremaduran district whence came the first successful efforts 
against the entregadores. Badajoz made the first attacks upon 
these itinerant justices in menucTsixteenth century; but even 
in the first decades of the Mesta, that city was successfully mak- 
ing the pioneer stand for the towps^against 



their ancient sheep-tax privileges. Badajoz had from time im- 
memorial exercised the right of levying montazgos " on all ani- 
mals that came from outside to pasture within the limits of its 
jurisdiction." 1 It was this right which the Mesta sought to over- 
throw shortly after Alfonso X had given the sheep owners their 
first charter; but their royal patron died before that object had 
been achieved, and his rebellious son, Sancho, in May, 1285, but 
a few months after his accession, recognized the right of Badajoz 
to collect the montazgo. 2 These times of internal disorders and 
uncertain central authority gave a favorable opportunity to 
the towns, and Badajoz, the leader of the pasturage-owning 
regions, had been the first to take advantage of Sancho's hostility 
toward his father, the founder and first patron of the Mesta. 

During the next two generations, while the crown lost much 
of its prestige and was sorely troubled by the factious ambi- 
tions of dissatisfied nobles, the cities and towns were eager to ex- 
change avowals of loyalty for recognitions by the sovereign of 
their montazgo privileges. The strong rule of Alfonso XI after 
he had attained his majority (1324-50) put a check upon this, and 
once more gave the Mesta its opportunity. The two previous 
reigns, however, of Sancho IV (1284-95) an d Ferdinand IV 
(1295-1312), as well as the minority of Alfonso XI (1312-24), 
were interspersed with numerous grants of montazgo privileges. 3 

1 Arch. Mesta, B-i, Badajoz, 1727: a lengthy and important suit regarding the 
montazgo question, in the course of which both sides introduced documents re- 
vealing the history of that tax from the earliest times to 1727. 

2 Gonzalez, vi, p. 126. 

8 In 1285 Caceres and Badajoz, important capitals of the western pasturage 
country, received confirmations of their montazgo rights and also of the exemption 



1 82 THE MESTA 

It was but natural that these royal bids for local favor should 
have been sagaciously awarded to powerful cities and individuals 
whose support would be most helpful to the sorely harassed 
monarchy. Conspicuous among these were Badajoz, Caceres, 
and Cordova, and the ecclesiastical dignitaries of Coria, Car- 
tagena, and Seville. The prevalence of local sheep taxes through- 
out Castile during the reigns of Sancho IV and Ferdinand IV may 

of their own sheep from all local taxes in other parts of the realm. Ulloa, Privs. 
Cdceres, pp. 127-128; Brit. Mus., 1321 k 6, no. 21, Badajoz: privilege to collect 
montazgos, 1285. This was confirmed by Ferdinand IV in 1301, and was sup- 
plemented by him in 1303 with a permit to collect another sheep tax, the ronda, 
a fee for maintaining on the outskirts of the city a mounted watch, or ronda, from 
whose protection passing flocks were supposed to benefit. A similar document, 
which was also typical of this period, was the privilege granted in 1284 by Sancho 
to the archbishop and chapter of the cathedral of Seville. This guaranteed, first, 
an exemption for the flocks of the chapter from montazgos in all parts of the realm, 
and secondly, the right of the chapter to collect tithes on all sheep visiting the juris- 
diction of Seville. Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 12, fols. 432-433. See below, p. 242, 
on the Mesta and ecclesiastical tithes, or diezmos. A like guarantee was given by 
Sancho to the cathedral of Cartagena in 1292, which was confirmed in 1309 by 
Ferdinand IV. Ibid., fols. 462, 582-583. Another ecclesiastical beneficiary of this 
growing practice was the bishop of Coria, who in 1285 obtained from Sancho a 
noteworthy privilege. Ibid., Ms. 25~i-C 8, fols. 93 ff. Coria, like Badajoz and 
Cdceres, was an important town in the western pasture regions. It is deserving of 
comment, first, because it was one of the very few instances of an exemption in 
favor of the flocks belonging to a single individual, for the document was granted 
to the bishop himself as ' councillor of the queen ' and not as the representative 
of his chapter. Secondly, this document is worthy of attention because of the 
striking parallel between its terms and those of the Mesta charters of 1273 an d 1276. 
The early privileges of the Mesta often supplied phrases and sentences for later 
documents on questions of pastoral rights; but the accuracy with which this grant 
to the bishop of Coria reproduces several of the more essential clauses of the Mesta's 
charters cannot have been purely fortuitous. It is true that certain general phrases 
in the law of the Partidas (ca. 1256-63) regarding " the manner in which privileges 
to migratory sheep are to be granted " were frequently copied in subsequent docu- 
ments of this type. The Order of Calatrava received a sheep privilege of this type 
in 1264, based upon the above mentioned law. Bull. Ord. Milit. Calat., p. 167. In 
the instance of this Coria privilege, however, certain clauses relative to exemptions 
from local taxes seem clearly to have been taken from the Mesta charter of 1273. 
The Coria privilege even goes so far as to assign the royal entregadores, the judicial 
protectors of the Mesta, as guardians of the favored bishop's interests. Further 
instances may be briefly cited as evidence of the unusual activity of the towns and 
great ecclesiastics in establishing their titles to local sheep tolls during this period. 
In 1289 the towns of Lara and Covarrubias agreed upon the use of certain monies 
lying between them and upon the montazgos which they were to pay each other. 
Fuentes para la Historia de Castilla (1906-10, 3 vols.), ii, p. 134. In 1288 Cordova ob- 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 183 

be best demonstrated by a partial list of the localities which re- / 
ceived privileges involving the collection of montazgos: l 

1284 Seville 1294 Ubeda 

1285 Badajoz 1295 Jaraicejo 
1285 Aguilar del Campo 1297 Valladolid 
1285 Caceres 1297 Brazacorta 
1285 Soria 1299 G6mara 

1285 Bishop of Coria ^99 Pineda 

1286 Duenas 1301 Caceres 

1287 Brazacorta 1303 Villal6n 

1287 Pineda 1305 Almazan 

1288 Cordova 1305 Aguilar 

1289 S. Pedro de Palmiches 1309 Sepulveda 
1293 Pareja 1311 Cuenca 
1293 Order of Calatrava 1312 Ojacastro 

It will be observed that these twenty-seven privileges, granted 
during twenty-nine years, are almost equally divided between the 
two reigns. These figures acquire special significance when 
placed beside those for the succeeding reign of Alfonso XI (1312- 
50), when but five such documents appeared during thirty-eight 
years. 2 It is quite evident, then, that the towns took full advan- 

tained a recognition oTHs rignt to levy montazgos. Brit. Mus., 1321 k6(22); con- 
fir med in 1386 by Henry II, upon payment of 20,000 maravedis. The monastery 
of Santa Maria de Brazacorta had the right to take one sheep from each migrating 
mano (small flock), and ten maravedis from each herd of cows or horses which 
passed by the establishment. Acad. Hist., Docs. Monast. Suprim., no. 213 (1287- 
89), confirmed in 1297 (no. 216), 1379 (no. 219), and 1393 (no. 220). The towns 
sometimes guaranteed or recognized each other's title to montazgos in their 
respective woodland pastures, quite without any royal sanction. Fuentes para la 
Hist, de Castilla,ii, p. 134: an agreement made in 1289 between Lara and Covar- 
rubias. See Gonzalez, vi, pp. 299-300, for a similar arrangement between Albacete 
and Chinchilla in 1375. 

1 While making no pretence at completeness, this list represents an extensive 
search through most of the collected town ordinances and fueros, both in print and 
in manuscript. The items which it lacks would not materially influence the con- 
clusions here presented, save to reiterate and strengthen them. This list is com- 
piled from Gonzalez, v and vi, passim; Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres; Arch. Cuenca, 
Becerro, fols. 141-143; Acad. Hist., Ms. Salazar, i, 41, Ms. Colec. Fueros Privs., 
i, ii; Brit. Mus., Mss. Eg. 493, fols. 85-96. 

2 Caceres (1317), Alcaudete (1323), Lazariegos (1326), Yanguas (1347), and 
Alcalcl de Benzaide (1345). The same sources were drawn upon for these as for 
those just cited. Here again the qualification must be made that this list is illus- 
trative rather than complete, though it is significant that the sources for the reign 
of Alfonso XI, especially those in manuscript, are far more extensive than those of 
the two previous reigns. 



1 84 THE MESTA 

tage of the turbulence and the uncertain strength of the central 
authority of the realm in order to secure guarantees of their sheep 
taxation in exchange for their much needed support against the 
enemies and rivals of the crown. This resulted, naturally, in the 
discomfiture of that new ward of the sovereign, the Mesta, which 
had to seek elsewhere for protection. 

royal power and inclination proving far too uncertain a 
ige, the Mesta sought the protection of the Cortes, usually 
through the members from Soria, Segovia, and the other sheep- 
dsing centers. At the session of that body in 1 293 at Valladolid 
the sheep owners' organization succeeded in having a law passed 
to the effect that " every town council, whether on the lands of a 
military order or not, shall keep its territory clear of thieves and 
bad men; and if any damage is done by the latter, compensation 
shall be made by the town council to the owners [of the damaged 
property] ; and no ron da shall be collected by the towns from the 
passing sheep." 1 This petition was renewed in 1299.2 I n other 
words, the Mesta members were not to be assessed for the main- 
tenance of police and rural guards by the towns along their 
marches. It was added, however, that the clause requiring the 
town to reimburse the owner of pillaged flocks should not apply 
to losses at the hands of the golfines, a class of roving brigands 
whose uncertain habitat placed them outside the control or re- 
sponsibility of the towns. 3 At the Cortes of Zamora, in 1301, the 
question of unjust diezmos (tithes) and montazgos was brought 
up by deputies representing sheep-owning constituents. The 
complaint was made that " many more places are now collecting 
these [taxes] without right or title, and those towns whose collec- 
tions are legalized are far exceeding the authorized rates." 4 Cer- 
tain modifications were therefore authorized by the Cortes, espe- 
cially in the levies on lambs and wool. These efforts on the 
part of the Mesta to check the spread of local taxes on migrants 
continued during the minority of Alfonso XI (1312-24). The 

1 Cortes, Valladolid, 1293, pet. 10. 

2 Valladolid, 1299, pets. 9-10. On the ronda, see below, p. 428. 

3 See above, p. 89, n. 2, for a discussion of the golfines and the jurisdiction of 
the entregadores over them. 

4 Cortes, Zamora, 1301, pet. 34. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 185 

disordered condition of the central government gave the local 
authorities further opportunities to strengthen their control of 
this form of revenue. In the Cortes at Palencia, in 1313, at 
Burgos in 1315, and at Valladolid in 1322 and 1325, petitions 
were presented in behalf of the Mesta, asking that no local taxes 
on migrants be recognized as legal unless dating from the times of 
Alfonso X or Sancho IV. 1 Appeals from the Mesta to the crown 
were of little avail during this period, for, according to statements 
of Cortes members, the royal authority was quite ineffective in 
controlling even its own collectors of sheep taxes, to say nothing 
of any attempt to regulate the operations of the local revenue 
officers. 2 

The influence and the prestige of the Mesta had had no op- 
portunity as yet to rise to any conspicuous heights. The local 
units of jurisdiction towns, bishoprics, military orders had 
the upper hand, and were therefore able to establish their control 
over the montazgo right. This tax had thus come to be associated 
exclusively with the use of local pasturage. Its earlier toll pur- 
poses had disappeared, and, largely through the aggressive action 
of the towns during this period of weakened or uncertain royal 
power, the montazgo had become a purely local tax irremovably 
attached to the ownership of the pasturage. 

The controversy between the town council of Caceres and the 
church of Coria, which was fought out during this period (1300- 
24), illustrates the change in the character of the montazgo, and 
presents certain typical aspects of local taxation in the much fre- 
quented western pasturage region. 3 Both parties claimed the 
right to collect montazgos on the migratory herds which visited 
the pastures of a certain area lying in the jurisdiction of Caceres. 
Coria collected a toll of the annuals while they were en route 
across its lands, while Caceres levied its dues on the same flocks 
for their continued use of town pasturage; and both forms of 
exaction were called montazgo. In order to perform their work 

1 Cortes, 1313, pet. 35; 1315, pet. 43; 1322, pet. 65; 1325, pet. 30. 

2 Ibid., Medina del Campo, 1318, pet. 16; Valladolid, 1322, pet. 64. 

3 Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres, pp. 164-167; Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 430, fols. 151- 



1 86 THE MESTA 

effectively, Coria's officers were intercepting the herdsmen at 
their destination, namely on lands of Caceres, to make sure that 
all had paid the toll in passing. It was against this trespass 
that the latter town protested, and in proof of its rights there was 
cited a recognition of its montazgo privilege by Alfonso VIII, 
who won the town from the Moors in the latter part of the twelfth 
century. This ancient montazgo was " two sheep from every 
flock and five swine from every drove ... to be collected weekly 
until the animals left the town lands." The latter clause sug- 
gests the penal attitude of the older montazgos. 1 

In the final decision of the queen regent and her counsellors, 
who heard the case, it was clearly indicated that the montazgo 
was now recognized as a tax paid to towns for the use of their 
pasturage, and not a toll payable to the lord of any given point 
along the march of the sheep. Caceres, as the owner of the pas- 
tures, was the rightful collector of the montazgo of this district, 
as against Coria, whose claim to such a tax rested solely upon the 
control of wayside toll points. 

So widely had this case been accepted as a precedent, that when 
Alfonso XI and his successors came to assert themselves and to 
strengthen certain claims of the royal exchequer upon the migra- 
tory flocks, they found the towns in full control of all pasturage 
taxes on the sheep. 2 The crown had, therefore, to resort to an 
extension of the royal sermcio de ganados, or subsidy on cattle 
and sheep, which had been created by Alfonso X in 1270. In 
1343, Alfonso XI, with characteristic vigor, took over certain 
local montazgos, combined them with the servicio, and thus there 
arose the royal servicio y montazgo? 

The strong jtd able kingship of Alfonso XI, who attained his 
majority iiv* ! 24,V as marked by two characteristics in the matter 



1 Compare tttrlaw of Cuenca, " expelling strange sheep from the town lands at 
once, but without injury " (1268). 

2 The recognition of the right of the pasturage towns in Estremadura to these 
taxes is shown in the wording of the protest of the Mesta against the ronda and 
other local dues in the Cortes of Valladolid in 1325 (pet. 30). After the usual pro- 
test against the hi justice of these local taxes, the sheep owners acknowledge that 
' those towns in Estremadura which had had these taxes [previous to the present 
reign] were entitled to continue them,' an admission hitherto not thought of. 

3 See below, p. 261. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 187 

of local sheep taxes. First of all, there was a noticeable lack of 
royal recognitions of town titles to such taxes. As was indicated 
above, but four or five such documents are noted during the 
twenty-six years of his personal rule, as contrasted with the 
nearly annual occurrence of these recognitions during the two 
previous reigns. None of those granted by Alfonso XI was more 
than a perfunctory confirmation of older privileges, which only 
incidentally applied to sheep taxes. 

The second characteristic of this sovereign's position in the 
fiscal history of the Mesta was his exercise of royal powers in 
supervising the administration of these local taxes. Although 
unable to dislodge the now firmly established practice of the as- 
sessment of montazgos by towns, military orders, and other land- 
owners, he undertook to regulate and restrict them through 
various crown officers. His favorite instruments in this work were 
naturally the royal entregadores, the judicial protectors of the 
Mesta. It will be remembered that these magistrates were crown 
appointees, serving under the direct supervision of the king, to 
whom, in the years of such able monarchs as Alfonso XI, they 
were directly responsible. The royal sage of the previous century, 
the founder and first patron of the Mesta, had, at the beginning 
of his reign, taken the first steps toward regulating local sheep 
taxes by codifying such fiscal operations of the military orders. 
Alfonso X's code of 1253 had its counterpart in Alfonso XI's 
decree of I328. 1 Both were royal prescriptions of the montazgo 
rights of the military orders. Theoretically the latter was in- 
tended merely as a supplement to the former; but as a matter of 
actual practice, it embodied the necessary steps for the first real 
enforcement which the older measure had known. The essential 
feature of the decree of 1328 in this respect was the appointment 
of two ' entrega^TeToTtrie^hepherds, acting for the king, who 
were to see to the enforcement of the original montazgos of two 
sheep from every thousand.' There is no mention of any com- 

1 Arch. Hist. Nac., Mss. Calatrava, Docs. Particulares, no. 221. Alfonso was 
then in his sixteenth year, but the vigorous lines of his later policy were already 
being planned out by his advisers and were soon to be taken up by the precocious 
young sovereign himself . 



1 88 THE MESTA 



j or local justice to sit with these two as the representative 
of the military orders. The procedure was, therefore, not a trial 
in the usual joint court of entregador and local judge, but an 
executive measure under royal authority. The two entregadores 
made some needed modification of the earlier schedules of local 
dues, by providing for the payment of two sheep per thousand as 
a " ronda to pay for guards against the golfines" since the depre- 
dations of these marauders had come to be chiefly raids upon the 
migrating flocks. 1 

There had been previous attempts by the crown to use the en- 
tregadores in checking local sheep taxes. In 1276 Alfonso X had 
ordered these itinerant justices to assist in a campaign against 
illegal montazgos; 2 Sancho IV and Ferdinand IV undertook to 
do the same in 1285 an d 1295, but all of these decrees were little 
more than formalities compensations to the Mesta for the 
many local sheep-tax privileges then being confirmed by the king. 3 
It was left to Alfonso XI to take up the matter in 1335 in a decree 
which attacked with considerable vigor the spreading practice of 
taxing passing flocks. 4 The entregadores were to stop all illegal 
montazgos, and heavily augmented penalties were fixed for any 
violations of their mandates. In addition, it was carefully speci- 
fied that copies of this decree were to be carried by Mesta mem- 
bers while en route, and were to be regarded as having the same 
authority as the original with its royal signature. This last pro- 
vision was, naturally, of special importance to the migrating 
herdsmen. 

It should not be understood that Alfonso XI inaugurated a 
campaign of wholesale confiscation of local tax privileges. In- 
deed, the justice of his attitude and the fairness of his decisions 
between Mesta and townsfolk were all the more striking because 
of the rarity of those virtues in that unscrupulous age. Alfonso 
was well aware of the tempting possibilities of the Mesta as an 
instrument for the aggrandizement of centralized administrative 
power; nevertheless his right to that well earned title El Jus- 
ticiero, the Doer of Justice, is convincingly demonstrated hi his 

1 See above, p. 89, no. 2. 3 Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 16-18. 

2 See above, p. 180. 4 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, no. 6. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 189 

replies to the Cortes' petitions in 1339 and 1349 regarding the 
taxation of the migratory flocks. These answers were exception- 
ally fair compromises, which displayed the monarch's due ap- 
preciation both of the interests of an important industry and of 
the ancient town privileges. 

At the session in Madrid, in 1339, the Mesta had, through its 
spokesmen, the deputies from Soria and Segovia, introduced a 
petition asking that l the many new montazgos recently intro- 
duced by the towns should be stopped, and that none be allowed, 
save those authorized by Alfonso X or Sancho IV.' l The king's 
reply to this was not a cheerful assent, after the fashion of his 
predecessors and successors. Instead Alfonso XI pointed out 
that the montazgo was a tax founded on custom and should 
therefore be respected. He then declared that the collection of 
the montazgo should be upon a fair basis: neither favoring the 
Mesta by arbitrarily extinguishing old customary sheep taxes, 
nor submitting to the towns with any sweeping indorsement of 
all montazgo collections. 

In the same Cortes of 1339, the Mesta undertook to have 
recognized as legal only those montazgos that were levied on the 
southward trip. This the king indorsed, with the qualification 
that if certain royal sheep tolls were not collected on the south- 
ward migration, they should be levied when the sheep started 
northward, " in order that the king should not lose those revenues 
to which he was entitled.' 2 In 1343 the Mesta asked that the 
towns collect no almojarifazgos 3 from its members, save at the 
points on the canadas where such collection had been made of 
old. To this the king cautiously replied that ' they should first 
show him where these taxes were being newly levied, and then he 
would take steps to guard their [the Mesta members'] rights.' In 
the same Cortes, the sheep owners petitioned that those places 
which collected montazgos and other taxes should present the 
evidences of their authority, whether these evidences be charters, 
or privileges, or customary rights. This proposal to place all local 
tax privileges on trial was answered in a characteristically 

1 Cortes, Madrid, 1339, pet. 4. 

2 Ibid., pet. 28. 3 See below, p. 424. 



190 THE MESTA 

judicial tone: " Any one who has a complaint should lay it be- 
fore us and we shall settle it as we ought." 1 

The most significant step in the reign of Alfonso XI in the 
matter of local sheep taxes was contained in the royal privilege 
issued at Villa Real in January, 1347. a This decree stipulated 
that no tax, royal or local, should be collected from the sheep in 
the demesne of the king unless it were by a crown officer. This 
checked a considerable number of illicit local dues levied by town 
authorities whose bailiwick lay in crown lands. It was, in fact, a 
sequel to the royal decree of 1343, which secured the king's title 
to the montazgos in the towns on his demesne. 3 This measure is 
of vital importance in the history of the crown's pastoral incomes 
because, though it was not the first royal sheep tax, it was the ini- 
tial step whereby certain local montazgos, especially those levied 
on the old basis of tolls on passing sheep, instead of as pasturage 
dues, were taken over by the crown. From this arose the servicio 

4y montazgo, the royal tax collected at toll gates along the sheep 
highways. 4 

The decree of 1347 also provided that the seizure of shepherds 
by town collectors, in default of taxes, was to be prohibited, ex- 
cept for the personal debt of the one seized, or for a forfeiture of 
bond by him. 5 The exemption from taxes on gram and other 
provisions, as expressed in the charter of 1273, was reiterated, 
and extended to include tfre righ^ 19 cut wood for the construction 
of pens, without the payment of local taxes. 6 The shepherds 

1 Cortes, Madrid, 1339, pet. n. See also Alcala, 1348, pet. 43. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, no. 7. 

* Part of these newly acquired montazgos were farmed out to the military Order 
of Calatrava, which was given permission to collect 700 sheep each year, at the 
usual montazgo rate of 2 per 1000, along the Canada leading from Orgaz (near 
Toledo) across La Mancha to Baeza. This privilege was granted in recognition of 
its services in suppressing the golfines. Bull. Ord. Milit. Calat., pp. 201-202, con- 
firmed in 1477, pp. 276-277. 

4 See below, pp. 261 ff. 

5 This declaration was later made the basis of the decree that the Mesta was not 
to be held responsible for the debts of any of its members, nor were the members 
to be seized for any obligations of the organization. Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 59-60 
(provision of 1594). 

It 6 This was later extended to allow the unrestricted trimming (ramonear) and 
fc] felling of trees for fodder in times of drought. Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 65-67 (1529, 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 

were also be to exempt from the quinto, a form of penalty for 
trespass. 1 This charter of 1347 was, like the decree of 1328, to be / 

enforced by the royal entregadores, a provision which gave the 
final touch to a measure intended solely as a renewal of the royal 
patronage over the Mesta. 

In general, the chief contribution in the field of local sheep 
taxes during this important reign may be summarized as an 
emphatic demonstration of the royal powers and prerogatives 
over local fiscal privileges. The outstanding characteristic of 
this period was the greatly enhanced prestige of the sovereign. 
Whether we ascribe this to the personal merits of the king, or to 
the position achieved by him through his two great victories 
over the Moors, 2 is of little importance. His military triumphs 
may have been as much the result as the cause of royal supremacy 
over local interests and the old forces of separatism. Alfonso XI's 
great work, as one authority has correctly observed, was "the 
political and administrative organization of the country, in con- 
tinuation of the intention and effort of his great-grandfather, 
Alfonso X, with better fortune than the latter and on a much 
larger scale." 3 No better proof of this could be desired than 
Alfonso XI's attitude and accomplishments in his dealings with 
local sheep taxes. As an initial measure he renewed the mon- 
tazgo rates of the code of 1253. Furthermore, as his reign pro- 
gressed he assumed an attitude on the taxation complaints made 
in the Cortes on behalf of the Mesta which was eminently fair to 

1539, and 1638). Abuses of this privilege resulted in serious deforestation. See 
pp. 306-308. 320-322. 

1 See below, p. 237, n. 4, on the later history of the quinto or quinta. The name 
was sometimes used with reference to the disposition of parts of an estate. Cf. Nov. 
Recop., lib. 10, tit. 20, leyes 8, 9; Fuero Real, lib. 3, tit. 12, ley 7, and tit. 5, ley 9; 
Leyes de Toro, leyes 28, 30. 

2 The battle of Rio Salado, 28 Oct., 1340, said to have been the first European 
conflict where cannon were used (but cf. Stephens, Portugal, p. 113, with a refer- 

. ence to the battle of Aljubarrota, 1385), and the victorious siege of Algeciras, 1344, 
which so stirred Christendom that warriors came from all sides to participate in it. 
It even attracted Chaucer's " verray perfight, gentil knight " who " in Gernade 
atte siege hadde he be of Algesir." Canterbury Tales, Prologue, verse 57. 

3 Altamira, Hist, de Espana, i (ed. of 1909), p. 596. This policy reached its 
climax in the Ordenamiento de Alcald (1348), which put into force Alfonso X's 
Partidas (ca. 1256). 



192 THE MESTA 

both parties, with due regard for royal interests and prerogative. 
At the same time, his appreciation of the Mesta, as a power 
working for, and dependent upon, centralized authority, was 
emphatically expressed in the charter of 1347. In this document, 
as well as in the earlier decree of 1328, the use of the royal entre- 
gadores as the enforcing agents showed clearly the intention to 
draw the Mesta closer to the crown. 

Thus did Alfonso XI carry out the ideals of his great-grand- 
father, the royal sage. The Ordenamiento of 1348 made real the 
Partidas of the previous century, and the decree of 1347 gave 
substance to the theories and principles of the charter of 1273. 
Local montazgos were accepted as just, when based upon custom. 
Over and above this conclusion, however, stood the greater one, 
that the Mesta, in its security against unjust town taxes, was 
under the special protection of the king. This theory found ef- 
fective expression in the confiscation by Alfonso of all montazgos 
collected by towns on his demesne, the justification of this meas- 
ure being rightly based on the ground that such taxes went with 
the ownership of the land. With such effective royal patronage 
as this, it was only natural that the Mesta should soon feel itself in 
a position to bid defiance to its ancient enemies, the towns and 
the agrarian interests. Thenceforth the pastoral history of Castile 
involved less and less the question, How much will regional pre- 
rogative and local jurisdiction concede to this nationalizing pas- 
toral organization ? The problem thereafter stood out more and 
more clearly as, How far will the Mesta permit the exercise of 
local autonomy in fiscal and agrarian affairs ? 

Twelve decades and more elapse from the death of Alfonso XI 
(1350) to the accession oLerdjnandand Isabella (1474), and all 
but two or three o&tfie twelve were given over to the disordered 
and enfeebled reigns of weaklings or perverts. The few brief 
respites are all the more conspicuous because of their isolation 
the reign of Henry II (1369-79), the years of Henry Ill's ma- 
turity (1393-1406), and the regency of Ferdinand, grandfather of 
Isabella's husband, for the youthful John II (1406-12). Lying 
like barren wildernesses between and about these isolated 
periods were the troubled years of Peter the Cruel (1350-69); 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 193 

the weak, mild sway of John I (1379-90), made more dreary by 
the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Portuguese at Aljubar- 
rota in 1385; the turmoil of Henry Ill's minority (1390-93); 
and then the long years from John II's accession (1412) till the 
death of Henry IV (1474). It was an epoch of meaningless civil 
wars, intrigues and wrangles of nobles, and shrewd schemings of 
the favorite Alvaro de Luna, all of which reached a climax in the 
pitiable helplessness and debauchery of Henry IV, the Impotent, 
a bleak picture, the dreariness of which was intensified by its 
contrast with the brighter years which stood on either side. It is, 
therefore, not to be expected that any material advance should 
have been made during this long period toward the further regu- 
lation and standardization of the local sheep taxes. Nevertheless 
certain important decrees were introduced during the wise re- 
gency of Ferdinand. Furthermore, during the reign of Henry IV 
the rising strength of the Mesta, under the able leadership of 
powerful nobles, asserted itself in some notable constructive 
measures intended to curb the local tax collectors and to concen- 
trate under the crown all of the financial obligations of the sheep 
owners. 

This process of concentration exactly suited the Acufias and 
Orozcos, the great families whose proprietorship of the entrega- 
dor appointments gave them control of the Mesta. In the pre- 
vious period, royal weakness meant the unhampered extension 
of local sheep tolls. The strong rule and effective reforms of 
Alfonso XI had materially modified the situation, and had given 
the Mesta a commanding position which it had hitherto not en- 
joyed. The industry had been aided by other circumstances as 
well, among these being the Black Death, the effects of which . / 
upon the increase of available pasture lands will be discussed in 
a later chapter. The decrees of Alfonso XI, by which the admin- 
istration of local sheep taxes was placed in the hands of thejen- 
tregadores, soon became a decided check upon the zeal of the 
towns. More especially did this step result in the enhancement 
of the prestige of the Mesta and its judiciary. When, in later 
deigns, the sovereign was incapable of effective action against the 
local authorities, the Mesta and its entregadores, led by the titled 



194 THE MESTA 

proprietor of the latter office, promptly applied the training 
which Alfonso XI had given them. 

This, then, is the real significance of the history of the conten- 
tions between migratory sheep owners and local landowners 
during the turbulent years from Peter the Cruel to Henry the 
Impotent the Mesta took into its own hands the regulation of 
local sheep dues, and the period closed with that organization in 
an independent and commanding position, both in its local and 
its royal fiscal obligations. The developments of this episode of 
local sheep taxes assume a significance beyond the restricted limits 
of pastoral history, because they present an unbroken series of 
correlated events through a long, confused, and disconnected 
epoch in Spanish history. The importance of this period is only 
to be understood when it is viewed as a whole, as the Spanish 
Wars of the Roses: a long prelude, with occasional interruptions 
by brief years of able government, out of which there emerged 
the autocratic unified monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

The period is replete with royal recognitions of local taxa- 
tion rights, just as was the case with the unsettled era before 
Alfonso XI; and once more the motives which prompted these 
recognitions are interesting because of the explanations to be 
found for them in contemporaneous events. The wars between 
/Peter the Cruel and Henry of Trastamara were productive of 
/ several such guarantees of local sheep taxes or of exemptions for 
\ the sheep of various favored towns. These were awarded in ex- 
Nchange for assistance rendered to one or the other of the con- 
tending parties. 1 

The difficulties of Peter the Cruel gave the towns ample op- 
portunity to press their claims for a restoration of their montazgo 
rights, which had suffered so seriously under Alfonso XI's vigor- 
ous measures for centralization. In general the larger cities espe- 
cially had profited by the perils that threatened the crown, and 
through various court rulings and royal decrees they had secured 
at least a limited restoration of the dues which had been taken 

1 Privileges to Zamora (1355), Pola de Siero (1370), and Viana del Bollo (1372), 
and others, in Gonzalez, v, vi, passim. Many of these exemptions applied espe- 
cially to the alcabala, or royal tax on sales, supposedly created by Alfonso XI to 
finance the siege of Algeciras (1344). 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 195 

from them during the previous reign. Peter had not been on the 
throne a year before the towns, in the Cortes at Valladolid in 
1351, declared that ' their ancient montazgos . . . which were 
guaranteed by fueros, privileges, and custom, had been taken by 
the king [Alfonso XI], for himself . . . and the said towns had in 
consequence been injured.' 1 Therefore it was asked that these 
taxes be restored to the towns. To this the crafty Peter replied 
that he would like to examine such town fueros as were supposed 
to authorize these montazgos, and then he ' would do what seemed 
just in the matter/ Two years later a test case was brought up 
in a suit of the town of Cuenca against the royal collectors of 
sheep taxes in its vicinity. 2 The former contended that the mon- 
tazgo was a purely local sheep tax, payable to town officers who 
administered the public pastures, whereas the latter based their 
claims to " the montazgos . . . and all other sheep taxes, both 
local and royal, in the bishopric of Cuenca " upon the centraliz- 
ing measures of Alfonso XI. The case was carried before the king, 
who, after much weighing of the respective advantages to himself 
of increased revenues and of local allegiance, hit upon a com- 
promise by recognizing Cuenca's title to the sheep taxes levied 
within the town limits, which left to the royal exchequer all local 
sheep dues in the rest of the bishopric. This decision was a prec- 
edent for others, which acknowledged the claims of the larger 
cities but ignored the privileges of the smaller ones. 

Henry II's first efforts were concentrated upon gaining the con- 
fidence and much needed support of the towns. 3 Conspicuous 
evidence of this policy is found in his early indorsements of the 
authenticity of many local sheep tax privileges and exemptions. 4 

1 Butt. Ord. Milit. Calat., p. 201 (1343); Cortes, Valladolid, 1351, pet. 60. 

2 Arch. Cuenca, leg. 5, no. 6, 1353. 

3 Among the measures enacted with this object in view were: first, the admis- 
sion of twelve town representatives to his royal council (Cortes, Burgos, 1367, con- 
firmed at Toro, 1369); secondly, regulation of wages, prices, and hours of labor in 
accordance with the petitions of town members; thirdly, the reduction of the 
judicial powers of the nobles and the foundation of the audiencia, which later be- 
came the chancilleria of Valladolid, the highest civil court of Castile; and fourthly, 
the destruction of fortified strongholds of the nobility (Cortes, Toro, 1371). 

4 Gonzalez, v, pp. 209-212 (1371), 34i~342 d37)> 354-356 (1372), 368-370 
(i379); 357-358 (1372), 649-654 (1373); vi, pp. 187-189 (1369), 294-295 (1370- 



196 THE MESTA 

Occasionally the reasons for these grants were specified, but 
usually they were simply designated as confirmations of long- 
standing local privileges. However, Henry's keen eyes were by 
no means blind to the dangers of too liberal a policy in this direc- 
tion. 

While quite ready to assist the towns in their struggles against 
the nobles, he was by no means willing to alienate the advantages 
and powers which the work of his father, Alfonso XI, had drawn 
to the crown. This is well illustrated by his attitude toward the 
Mesta in the course of one of the most crucial legal conflicts of its 
long career, namely that which was begun before the king and his 
council in 1376 regarding the montazgos collected from migrating 
flocks by the archbishop of Toledo. 1 The royal decision in this 
case declared that no landowner however powerful, whether a 
noble, a great ecclesiastic, or a town, was to collect more than one 
such tax in any given season from a migrating herdsman, no mat- 
ter how often the latter's flocks might recross the lands of the 
collector's estates. This decision, which brought to life once 
more the long-forgotten principle of " one jurisdiction, one mon- 
tazgo," serves as an important precedent in over two hundred 
cases during the succeeding three centuries. 

Hemy *s patronagfirfdl the Mesta may, therefore, be taken as of 
unusual significance in the history of that body, especially in 
regard to its relations with local revenue officers, both civil and 
ecclesiastical. The royal power, which was so constant a refuge 
for the Mesta, was doubly appreciated because of its manifesta- 

71), 299-30x5 (1375). Cf. Boletin Acad. Hist., Ixiv, pp. 212 ff.: portazgo exemption. 
Most of these were granted as rewards for services against Peter and other rebels, 
or for aid in crusades against the Moors. 

1 Arch. Mesta, T-2, Toledo, 1376 ff.: a portfolio containing the documents of 
fifteen cases regarding fiscal relations between the Mesta and this archbishopric, 
during the years 1376 to 1658. In 1371 Henry had already ordered fiscal agents 
on the royal demesne to collect only one montazgo that on the southward march 
of the flocks. Cf. Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. 5, no. i. During the civil wars 
of 1350-69, the archbishop had taken advantage of the discomfiture of many of the 
nobles in his extensive jurisdiction, and had advanced his claims to several of their 
tolls on passing flocks. This at once aroused the vigorous opposition of the Mesta, 
and, because of the prominence of the parties and of the issue, the case was heard 
by the king and his council. After a long and acrimonious suit, the notable sen- 
tence described above was handed down in favor of the sheep owners. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 197 

tion in the midst of these troubled times, especially since it ex- 
pressed itself as the protector of the sheep owners against the 
fiscal claims of so powerful an individual as the primate of Spain. 

Early in his reign (in August, 1371) Henry had taken the first 
favorable opportunity to renew the various charters of the Mesta. 
Particular care was taken to confirm the important fiscal clauses 
of the decree of I273. 1 In fact, his whole attitude toward the 
Mesta in the question of local taxes gave strength and official 
sanction to the now determined contentions of that body. The 
aggressive measures initiated by sheep owners and entregadores 
during the unsettled years of Peter's reign were now encouraged 
and redoubled. 

The weak, mild rule of John I (1379-90) gave the towns an 
opportunity to retrieve part of the ground which they had lost 
during the latter part of the reign of Henry II. They soon re- 
turned to the prominent position accorded to them because of the 
urgent needs of the crown during the recent civil wars. Then 
there arose the usual inevitable confusion of contradictory tax 
exemptions and privileges. The significance of these decrees soon 
dwindled and the long lists of curiously named tolls and dues 
enumerated in them are of little interest, save, perhaps, as stimu- 
lants to the agile surmises of historically minded philologists. 2 

The town deputies at the Cortes of Burgos (1379), of Briviesca 
(1387), of Palencia (1388), and of Guadalajara (1390) soon won 
from the king various concessions which reduced the political 

1 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. i, no. i. This confirmation of 1371 is the 
oldest original document in the Mesta archive, though, of course, there are copies 
of many earlier sources. So far as original materials are concerned, the archive 
begins with a good collection for this reign. Alfonso XI, or one of his predeces- 
sors, may have been responsible for the origin of such a collection, every vestige 
of which disappeared during subsequent civil wars. It seems more probable, 
however, that Henry II, in addition to his other assistance to the sheep owners, 
gave encouragement to the beginnings of what became the Mesta archive. The 
first references to an archivist come a few years later, in the early part of the 
fourteenth century. See Bibliography for further comments on the development 
of the collection. 

2 In addition to the almost universal montazgo and portazgo, many new sheep 
taxes, fines, and tolls were levied during this period, and the town ordinances of 
the early Middle Ages were searched for ancient imposts which might be revived. 
See Glossary, pp. 423-428. 



198 THE MESTA 

and judicial powers of the nobles, and even, in some instances, of 
the crown itself. At Burgos they demanded restoration of the 
montazgos which had recently been taken from them by Henry II 
at the instigation of the Mesta. 1 To this, John I replied with an 
evasive allusion to the recognition of all such sheep taxes as were 
legal under the king, his father. While this was not entirely satis- 
factory to the towns, it showed the unwillingness of the crown to 
support the Mesta as vigorously as Henry had in 1376 and after. 
The towns immediately proceeded to take advantage of this 
circumstance. In several places they won back from the crown 
the sheep tolls levied by royal officers, on the ground that such 
tolls were the local montazgos temporarily taken over by the king. 
In 1380, for example, the bishop and chapter of Coria made ef- 
fective use of this argument and reestablished their old rights, 
which had been hampered by Caceres in i3i7- 2 This they ac- 
complished by the simple measure of inducing the crown to hand 
over, for a consideration, the royal sheep tolls or sermcio y mon- 
tazgo to the extent of 3000 maravedis, to be collected by Coria 
each year from the passing flocks. The step thus taken ' restored 
to Coria her ancient montazgos, which the king, Alfonso (XI), 
had taken unto himself/ We have, therefore, a temporary re- 
version of royal sheep tolls to their original condition of local 
assessments. This situation recalls the fiscal history of Navarre 
and Valencia, 3 where the decadence of royal power caused various 
sheep taxes to slip through the weakened grasp of the central 
authority and to revert to the towns. This precedent of Coria 
was soon followed by other cities. 4 Nobles also began to assert 
their claims to long extinct montazgos, and to renew them, not as 
pasturage taxes, but in their old form, as tolls on passing flocks. 6 

1 Cortes, Burgos, 1379, pet. 21. 

2 Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 8, fol. 202. Badajoz secured a similar confirmation 
of its montazgo rights in 1386. Brit. Mus., 1321 k 6, no. 22. See above, p. 185. 

8 See above, pp. 150-152. 

4 Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-1-0 14, fols. 98-101: a guarantee of a montazgo privi- 
lege for Cordova in 1381, by which it was authorized to collect 6000 maravedis out 
of the royal sheep tolls hi its vicinity each year, for the maintenance of its walls and 
fortifications. Arch. Cuenca, Becerro, fols. 128-130 (1386): a complaint of the 
suburbs of that city against new sheep tolls collected by its officers. 

6 Arch. Osuna, Mendoza, caj. 14, leg. i, no. 8 (1382): a renewal of such a toll 
by Gonzalez de Mendoza at Guadalajara. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 199 

In the meantime, however, the Mesta was far from idle. During 
the confusion of the recent civil wars, its members from Cuenca 
had been compelled by the military orders to pay several new 
montazgos; but in 1379 the sheep owners made a vehement pro- 
test to John through the entregadores, and the tax was ordered 
discontinued on the ground that it had been levied "more by force 
than by law." 1 In the same year the Mesta, acting once more 
through its entregadores and its friends among powerful nobles, 
induced the king to restrict the activities of the royal customs 
officers on the frontiers. The zeal and avarice of those dignitaries 
had made them as much of a menace to the Mesta's movements 
as were the local tax collectors. 2 The success of these measures 
promptly brought other proposals. In 1380, at the earnest solici- 
tation of the Mesta, the montazgos of the important winter pas- 
turage district of Murcia were systematized and made uniform. 3 

The war with Portugal, which culminated in the disaster at 
Aljubarrota in 1385 and the invasion of Castile by the Portuguese 
and English, called from the Mesta a plea which often appeared 
in later wars. The invading army, it was alleged, played havoc 
with the migrants on their southward marches by driving the 
sheep from their accustomed routes and pastures, thus bringing 
them into contact with strange towns which promptly assessed 
the visitors with portazgos and other local dues. Pressure was 

1 Arch. Cuenca, leg. 3, no. 14. Cuenca and the Mesta pointed out that these 
taxes were begun during the disordered conditions of the times of Alfonso XI's 
minority. They had fallen into disuse when that king came into power, only to be 
revived during the wars between Peter and Henry II. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. 3, no. i. See below, p. 256. 

3 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 13126, fol. no. Five toll points were named: Chin- 
chilla, Almanza, Jorquera, Zarra, and Yecla. For sheep the rate was 5 per 1000 for 
montazgo, and i per 1000 for asadura, a local tax taking its name from the fact 
that it was originally collected upon or in the form of the viscera (asadura) of 
dressed carcasses. Cf. a fuero of Sepulveda (late thirteenth century), Acad. Hist., 
Mss. Fueros, Privs., etc., i, 73 ff.) which fixed a " tax of half a mencal on every 
asadura of ox or cow." The mencal, metcal, or mitical was a small silver coin in com- 
mon circulation in Christian Spain during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It 
was displaced by the maravedi, which is said, by some writers, to have been ori- 
ginally the mencal, though Covarrubias (Tesoro Leng. Cast., Madrid, 1611, s.v. 
mitical} gives it the value of thirty maravedis. Cf. Vives, Moneda Castellana 
(Madrid, 1901), pp. 15, 18, 24; Dozy and Engelmann, Glossaire des Mots . . . de 
I'Arabe (Paris, 1869), p. 315. 



200 THE MESTA 

promptly brought to bear upon the deputies in the Cortes of 1386, 
which, happily for the herdsmen, met at Segovia, one of the 
four strongholds of the Mesta. A petition was introduced asking 
that the flocks be excused not only from local but also from 
royal dues along these emergency routes, so long as there was no 
trespass upon cultivated enclosures. 1 The willing sovereign 
granted this without reservation, thus creating a valuable prec- 
edent to which the Mesta recurred on several subsequent oc- 
casions, notably during the Portuguese wars of 1640-41 and the 
invasion of the eighteenth century. 

The Mesta further unproved its opportunities during this reign 
by securing liberal renewals and confirmations of all of its preced- 
ing privileges, particularly those of Alfonso X, Alfonso XI, and 
Henry II which restricted sheep taxes. 2 In a word, the feeble 
policy of John I, because of his vacillating willingness and his 
inability to resist the pressure brought to bear by the contending 
parties, led to a marked increase in the decrees granted both to 
the Mesta and to the towns. This was the cause of much sub- 
sequent litigation and legislation which arose from the attempts to 
enforce the numerous conflicting privileges. 

John's death in 1390 brought no relief, for the minority of 
Henry III (1390-93) was but a continuation of the conditions 
which have just been described. The Mesta renewed its activi- 
ties, and, thanks to Gomez Carrillo, the entregador-in-chief, who 
enjoyed high favor at court, all of its former royal charters were 
renewed and amplified. This short period was noteworthy for 
the fact that no less than six such confirmations were issued in 
two years, a greater number than appeared during the whole of 
any one reign previous to that of Ferdinand and Isabella. 3 All 
of these indorsed without reservation the most extreme of the 
earlier claims of the Mesta regarding the restriction of local sheep 
dues. 

1 Cortes, Segovia, 1386, pet. 3; cf. Nov. Recop., lib. 6, tit. 20, leyes 3-8. 

2 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. i, no. 3; leg. 2, no. i; leg. 4, no. i. The last 
was a sweeping confirmation of all royal privileges granted before the accession of 
John (1379). 

3 Ibid., leg. i, no. 3 (1392); leg. 2, no. 2 (1392) and no. 7 (1393); leg. 4, no. 2 
(1392) and no. 3 (1393); leg. 5, no. 2 (1393)- 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 2OI 

It can readily be understood that the substantiation of these 
claims in the disordered years of the next century proved a diffi- 
cult task. The Mesta enjoyed the advantage, however, of the pa- 
tronage of two able rulers during the twenty years immediately 
after this period. Henry III, in the years of his majority (1393- 
1406), and his successor, the ' good regent ' Ferdinand (1406- 
12), saw the grave necessity of strongly centralized government 
as the only salvation for the crown, and, indeed, for the country, 
during the stormy conflicts between towns and nobles. One of 
the obvious means of achieving this end was through the further 
strengthening of the Mesta. That influential organization en- 
joyed the support of certain nobles, who might be of much service 
to the crown; and, furthermore, the aggressive campaigns of the 
sheep owners clearly indicated how they might be used to curb 
the growing independence of the towns. Even the royal revenue 
officers, who had continued their abuses in spite of the mandate 
of I37Q, 1 were effectively brought to account by various stern 
measures which the Mesta was now in a position to see enforced. 2 
The same policy was continued in the matter of restricting the 
activities of the nobles in this field. The unhindered opportuni- 
ties, which many of them had until now enjoyed, for the exaction 
of tolls and dues under the guise of montazgos, were ended, for a 
time at least, by the firm stand of the regent Ferdinand, who did 
not hesitate to check the operations of even his own noble vassals 
in this respect. 3 This period was, then, a breathing space for the 
Mesta in its struggle with the local or centrifugal forces over 
the question of sheep taxes. The strong administrations of Henry 

1 See above, p. 199. 

2 These dignitaries had developed the lucrative practice of selling exemptions 
from such royal imposts as the pecho, a form of poll tax. Alarmed by this evidence 
of what might be a dangerous independence on the part of important fiscal agents, 
the Mesta secured the promulgation of a decree in 1397 which limited the exemp- 
tions from pechos to " cavalleros, fijos dalgo, duefios, y donsellas." A penalty of 
two years in chains was specified for any local judge who ventured to extend this 
list of favored classes by including local church officers or townspeople of the better 
class. Arch. Mesta, Provs., leg. i, no. i. 

8 Arch. Mesta, M-2, Medellin, 1407: a series of restrictions upon the montazgo 
rights of nobles, fixing the rate at the ancient figure of two head per thousand on 
each trip, or four for the year. 



202 THE MESTA 

III and of Ferdinand came to the aid of the Mesta and once more 
gave effective confirmation to the claims which had been inde- 
pendently asserted by the Mesta under weaker sovereigns. 

With the resignation of Ferdinand, who left his post as regent 
of Castile in 1412 to become king of Aragon, there began a long 
era of incompetent monarchy, intriguing nobles chief among 
them being the tyrannical favorite, Alvaro de Luna and mean- 
ingless civil disorders, which ended only with the coronation of 
Ferdinand and Isabella in 1474. The Mesta, however, was by 
this time well able to take care of itself. Each successive period 
of tutelage under its able royal patrons had left it stronger and 
better equipped for its struggle with towns and other landowners 
during the troubled years which followed. With natural varia- 
tion in details, the history of the two succeeding reigns reveals 
the same currents and tendencies which we have already noted 
in times of similar disorders and weakened central government. 

Both John II and Henry IV were unusually liberal with grants 
of tax privileges, both royal and local; l and the towns and nobles 
took good care to secure an ample share of these instruments, 
however dubious their actual force might be. Had the Mesta not 
taken steps to secure equally valid, or valueless, assurances of 
exemption, it might have been at a disadvantage in its dealings 
with those parties in after years. 

Irregularities and excesses were bound to creep into the loosely 
administered scheme of local sheep taxes. Sales of montazgos 
and portazgos were becoming common, and tax privileges were 
being bartered about irrespective of the title to the lands or places 
where collections were made. 2 New taxes were being assessed 

1 Grants of exemptions from taxes were no less liberal; cf. John's decree of 1441, 
freeing from pechos all members of his household, including " foresters, laborers, 
shoemakers, cooks, jugglers, trumpeters, laundresses, and falconers, with their 
wives and children: " certainly a motley crew to be enjoying that hitherto highly 
esteemed privilege of knights and ladies. Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, no. 4. The hope- 
less maladministration and inequality of taxes in Castile has been authoritatively 
described as the chief weakness of the fiscal system of that realm during the Mid- 
dle Ages. Cf. Colmeiro, i, pp. 474-480. 

2 Arch. Osuna, Mss. Infantazgo (Buitrago), caj. i, leg. n, no. 6 (1467): a 
description of a series of such transactions between various towns and nobles dur- 
ing this period. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 203 

upon the flocks by the towns, and old ones were being revived. 1 
The favorite method of accomplishing these purposes was by re- 
newing old enclosures in the canadas, or sheep highways, and by 
deliberately obstructing these passageways with ditches and 
walls ; then, as the flocks came down their accustomed way, fines 
and damages called tajados were assessed upon the shepherds for 
' trespassing upon town property.' Most of these enclosures were 
made under easily obtained royal authorizations. The Mesta's 
complaints against such fraudulent exactions were promptly 
answered by assurances from the crown that the ancient charters 
of that body should not be violated. 

Some attempts were made by the sheep owners, with the help 
of the king, to carry on the work of systematizing and standardiz- 
ing the montazgos. This task had been begun by the Santiago 
code of 1253 and extended by the Murcia decree of 1380. In 
order to save much useless confusion and loss of time at a succes- 
sion of toll points, 2 it was planned to have the montazgos of several 
localities compounded and made payable at one time and place. 
Rules were drawn up to govern certain details of the methods to 
be used in collecting the tax, with the intention that they should 
serve as standards for the administration of sheep tolls through- 
out the realm. 3 Lists were made of recognized montazgos and 
supplied to the herdsmen; and other measures were taken to in- 
sure uniform tax schedules which were to be acknowledged and 

1 Cortes, Ocana, 1469, pet. 15; Perez de Pareja, Historia de la primera fundacion 
de Alcaraz (Valencia, 1740), on the acquisition by that town of such a montazgo 
right in 1474. Arch. Mesta, M~7, Murcia, 1446: a series of instances of new sheep 
tolls in various parts of Murcia. Among the new exactions was a fee collected for 
the issue of an albala or tax receipt, which the town tax collector required every 
shepherd to show on his return trip, under penalty of a second assessment. Such 
fees had been collected as early as 1416 by the royal officials in charge of the crown's 
sheep tax. Arch. Mesta, M-i, Madrid, 1418; Arch. Osuna, Mss. Infantazgo, 
Manzanares, caj. 3, leg. 5, no. 12 (1436); Arch. Simancas, Diversos de Castilla, no. 

"7 (i453)- 

2 Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuentiduefia, 1419. 

3 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. 5, no. 3 (1442). Arch. Osuna, Santillana, caj. 
9, leg. i, no. 7 (1426): rules regarding the assessment of montazgo on swine; one 
of these specified that the second animal entering the toll gate should be taken for 
the montazgo, in order thus to spare the leader, which was, of course, of greater 
value. 



204 THE MESTA 

paid by the Mesta members. 1 Unfortunately, however, these 
efforts had little effect because of the general weakness and in- 
competence of the administrative forces throughout the realm. 
Such results as were achieved at this time were attained by the 
Mesta itself, dealing directly with its opponents, without the 
help of the crown. 

These two unfruitful reigns produced no effective restrictions 
upon the abuses of local taxation privileges. Decrees like that of 
1463, which ordered the forfeiture of any lands whereon illegal 
montazgos were collected, 2 had little or no effect. Equally inef- 
fective was the steady succession of royal decrees fixing the rates 
of certain local taxes and prohibiting others entirely. 3 The Cortes 
protested in vain against the orgy of taxation, the deputies mak- 
ing their pleas partly on behalf of the migrating herdsmen and 
partly to protect such feeble internal trade as had developed. 
The impotent Henry was denounced in vigorous fashion for 
allowing himself to be victimized by ' persons and universities ' 
in search of illegal incomes derived from such unjust taxation of 
commerce. 4 The demand of the deputies that all portazgo privi- 
leges conferred after 1464 be cancelled was readily granted by 
the feeble monarch, who designated the clergy, and not the usual 
royal officers, to enforce the decree. Since ecclesiastical establish- 
ments and officials were among the chief offenders, the futility of 
this procedure can be easily understood. No better illustration 

1 Arch. Simancas, Diversos Castilla, no. 117, pt. 2 (1453). 

2 Arch. Mesta, Pro vs. i, 3. This was aimed at powerful nobles who exacted 
tolls from flocks which passed by their castles. These strongholds were quite safe, 
however, in spite of the expressed purposes and penalties of the above decree, as 
long as the latter bore only the meaningless signature of Henry the Impotent. 

3 E.g., Arch. Mesta, B-2, Barco de Avila, 1429. Such royal prohibitions were 
effectively nullified, however, by liberal recognitions of many other local sheep 
taxes. A few typical instances of these are to be found in Arch. Osuna, Manzanares, 
leg. 5, nos. i, 9 (1456); Arch. Mesta, Provs. i, 8 (1462), i, 4 (1468), i, 17 (1462); 
A-8, Atienza, 1461; Perez de Pareja, Hist, de Akaraz (1740), p. i. Excessive and 
frequent salt taxes were a favorite means of extorting funds from passing flocks 
at this time. Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 9378, fol. 86 (1469): an interesting privilege 
allowing the monastery of Villafranca de Monte de Oca to collect 400 sheep a year 
from migrating herds for its services in feeding pilgrims bound for Santiago. 

4 Cortes, 1473, S. Maria de Nieva, pet. 5. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 205 

of the hopeless incompetence of Henry IV's reign could be found 
than this enfeebled vacillation and brazen duplicity. 

As was to be expected, there were frequent attempts by the 
crown to enforce the ancient Mesta charters. Two sweeping re- 
newals of all previous privileges by a decree of the regency in 
1407 were confirmed by John II in 142 1. 1 In addition to these, 
which touched upon the question of local taxation along with 
other topics, the regent signed a famous decree in 1413, by which 
the Mesta was taken under the royal protection and " shielded 
against the abuses, maltreatments, extortions, and other harms 
inflicted upon its members by priors, military orders, command- 
ers, knights, bailiffs, town councils " and many other officials 
and representatives of local jurisdictions. 2 Occasionally there 
were efforts by the crown to check excessive local sheep taxes in 
towns of the royal demesne. 3 The aid of the entregadores was 
constantly in demand, but their work had little effect when the 
offender was some great noble or large town. 4 In spite of priv- 
ileges, confirmations, and entregadores, the crown was nearly 
helpless as an aid to the Mesta; and the latter was forced to re- 
sort to other means of protecting its members. 

The device which now came into extensive use to accomplish 
this end was the concordia or agreement This was, in brief, a 
contract made between the Mesta and the individual or corporate 
landowner claiming to have a right to tax the passing sheep. The 
Mesta agreed, on behalf of its members, to pay a fixed toll in ex- 
change for a right of way over certain lands, for the use of a bridge, 
or for access to certain pools or springs. There are no instances of 
such concordias previous to this period of John II and Henry IV; 
but with the accession of the former, the Mesta lost hope of effec- 

1 Arch. Mesta, Privs. Reales, leg. 2, nos. 3-5. 

2 Ibid., leg. 2, no. 3 (1415); leg. i, No. 5. Ibid., leg. 4, no. 4 (1441): a 
decree intended further to strengthen the Mesta by compelling all shepherds in 
Castile to be members the old gild theory of all-inclusive membership. 

3 Arch. Mesta, M-4, Montalban, 1428-36: decrees freeing the Mesta from local 
portazgos at Montalban, which was on the queen's lands. 

4 Arch. Osuna, Infantazgo, caj. 3, leg. 5, nos. 1-5 (1436 ff.); Arch. Mesta, A-3, 
Alange, 1455. 




206 THE MESTA 

tivejissistance from the crown. 1 It was, therefore, compelled to 
deal directly with the great noble families, the cities, and the 
churches which claimed the privilege of collecting sheep taxes. 2 
These agreements are interesting because they show the Mesta in 
a distinctly new light. The ffiJiapj^JJoj^ .wj|S now 'standing on its 



1 There are no records of any attempts of the Mesta to win the support of the 
tyrannical favorite, Alvaro de Luna, though the latter had no scruples about ex- 
ploiting the pastoral industry. See below, pp. 264-265. 

2 In 1418 such a concordia was drawn up between the Mesta and the town of 
Madrid by two representatives for each of the parties, who were given full powers 
to take binding action. (It may be noted here that, during the sixteenth-century 
Hapsburg absolutism, it was necessary for a concordia to have the royal assent in 
order to be legal.) The Mesta agreed that its members should pay a money toll of 
50 maravedis for every 1000 sheep crossing the jurisdiction of Madrid. The town 
was in return to keep the bridges in repair, and it was not to assess trespassing sheep 
more than the sum covering the damage actually done by them. The flocks were 
to be allowed to rest four days on the commons of the city. In case of disputes the 
regidores (magistrates representing the crown hi the cities) were to act as umpires. 
Under no circumstances were the Mesta's entregadores to take action in any case 
involving these taxes. The agreement was made for ten years. Arch. Mesta, M-i, 
Madrid, 1432, contains the original of 1418 and certain revisions of 1432. These 
points sum up the essential of most such concordias. Occasionally the entregadores 
were allowed to act as representatives of the Mesta in these transactions. Arch. 
Mesta, P-6, Puebla de Montalban, 1423: a ccncordia with the Count of Montal- 
ban. Arrangements were sometimes made for the enjoyment of certain marketing 
privileges by the herdsmen. Ibid., T-2, Toledo, 1376: a concordia with the arch- 
bishop of Toledo of 1431. If the landowner happened to be a religious establish- 
ment, the stipulations were quite likely to carry some provision for the spiritual 
welfare of the Mesta members. Ibid., P~5, Priorato de San Juan de Jerusalem, 
1435; P~ 2 Penale"n, 1447: providing for masses and prayers for Mesta members 
in exchange for tolls paid on the semiannual migrations. In a large number of in- 
stances the concordias were chiefly taken up with specifications as to the mainten- 
ance of bridges and drinking troughs, with details as to their size, materials, fre- 
quency of inspection, repairs, and the tolls to be paid by the sheep owners. Arch. 
Osuna, Manzanares, leg. 3, no. 22: a concordia of 1436 with the Duke of Infantazgo 
which governed the relations between the Mesta and perhaps the most important 
noble family in Spain hi the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The same archive, 
caj. 3, leg. 5, nos. i ff., has the complete series of later concordias down to 1634, 
which grew out of that of 1436; cf. Bejar, leg. 351, no. 24 (1423). It is interesting 
to note that these concordias of the fifteenth century were introduced as evidence 
in the course of a lawsuit in 1849 regarding tolls paid by the Asociacion General 
de Ganaderos, the successor of the Mesta, to the Duke of Manzanares. Other in- 
stances of concordias are to be found hi Arch. Mesta, T-i, Talavera de la Reyna, 
1472: agreements of 1449, 1462, and 1472 regarding taxes to be paid by Mesta 
members to the Hermandad of Talavera for the use of certain pastures. See also 
Arch Mesta, G-i, Gallegas, 1463. 



TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA 207 

own feet. Crown patronage meant nothing, and the sheep owners' 
orgamzation nacFto 1 iSSSfFioits abilities to transact business with 
the landowners on its own authority. Its entregadores were 
capable of handling cases of minor complaints of members against 
unjust tolls and taxes, but the organization as a whole was now 
beginning to feel quite independent of royal support or patronage, 
the equal of the most powerful barons, ecclesiastical establish- 
ments, and municipalities in the realm. Therein lay the real m- 
tribution of this period of political decadence to the adjustment 
of one of the vital factors in the economic life of the kingdom. 



CHAPTER XI 

LOCAL TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

(1474-1516) 

Fiscal reforms. Tax inquisitors. Fiscal duties of the corregidores. Standardiza- 
tion of the local sheep tolls. Political aspects of the tax situation. 

THE death of Henry IV in December, 1474, and the succession of 
Ferdinand and Isabella as joint sovereigns of Castile l brought 
about a sorely needed change in the disordered affairs of that 
kingdom. In no phase of administration was reform more im- 
peratively necessary than in fiscal matters, both national and 
local. Royal profligacy and impotence had not only squandered 
the income of the crown, 2 but had fostered the most unbridled 
abuses and maladministration of the financial affairs of towns, 
nobles, and ecclesiastics. With the royal exchequer in such a 
deplorable plight, and with the burdens of war against the Portu- 
guese and preparations for the reconquest of Granada upon their 
hands, 3 the new sovereigns could lose no time in undertaking the 
seemingly impossible task of rebuilding the dilapidated structure 
of Castilian finance. 

1 The Mesta was exclusively a Castilian institution, with no standing or juris- 
diction in Aragon until late in the seventeenth century. Nevertheless its relations 
with the crown were administered jointly, for the most parj, by Isabella and her 
consort. Exceptions to this rule occurred occasionally, when decrees regarding the 
Mesta were issued independently by either sovereign hi the absence of the other. 
Arch. Mesta, H-i, Hellin, 1489; Prov. i, 5 (1478); A-8, Haro, 1483; Brit.Mus., 
Ms. i32i-k-i, no. i (1481). This seems to have been substantially in accord 
with the distribution of the individual and joint powers of the royal pair as adjusted 
by the arbitration of the archbishop of Toledo in 1475. See Fresco tt, Ferdinand 
and Isabella, i, pt. i, ch. 5, with references. 

2 Figures showing the bankruptcy of the kingdom in 1474 and Isabella's efforts 
toward rehabilitation are given in Clemencin, Eldgio, ilust. v; see also Colmeiro, 
i, p. 489; Haebler, Wirtschaftl. Blute Span., pp. 108-110. 

3 Early in 1475 Alfonso V of Portugal invaded Castile in support of the cause 
of his niece, Joanna, the supposedly illegitimate claimant to the Castilian crown. 
Hostilities with the Moors were begun in December, 1481. 

208 



TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

It was with local taxation that Ferdinand and Isabella were 
primarily concerned in their earlier efforts to improve the fiscal 
welfare of the Mesta. They were well awareooEeTar^xJssT* 
bilities of that body as an instrument for the achievement of that 
centralized autocratic administration which formed the basis of 
their internal policy. It will be recalled that in the case of their 
reconstruction of the Mesta judiciary, reform did not begin with 
the sweeping destruction of all that was old and the abrupt crea- 
tion of new officials. With their characteristically shrewd ap- 
preciation of the respect of their subjects for ancient offices and 
institutions, Ferdinand and Isabella began their work by assuring 
the fullest powers to the long established office of the itinerant 
entregador. With this as a nucleus, the judicial affairs of the 
Mesta were gradually centralized, until finally the proprietary 
chief of the entregadores was made a member of the Royal 
Council. 1 Similarly, in approaching the fiscal problem of the 
pastoral industry, the statecraft of these astute sovereigns led 
them first to reform the local sheep taxes and to eliminate the 
grossly unjust and illegal exactions which were the heritage of 
the previous years of royal impotence. With local sheep taxes 
carefully restricted and organized^ the foundations were laid for 
the systematic exploitation of the industry as a source of revenue 
t the crown. 

The first task was, then, the reform of the fiscal relations be- 
tween the Mesta and the various local landowners towns, 
clergy, nobility, and peasantry. During the thirty years of Isa- 
bella's reign (1474-1504), the Mesta was a party usually the 
plaintiff in over eleven hundred litigations. Of these nearly 
four hundred were suits regarding local tolls and taxes, 2 a far 
greater number than for any period of similar length either before 
or after. This was ample evidence both of the aggressive spirit 
of the sheep owners, newly encouraged by the crown, and of the 
growth of municipal autonomy in fiscal affairs during the pre- 
ceding regime of weakened royalty. 

1 See above, p. 83. 

2 The greater part of the remaining seven hundred cases involved pasturage 
rights, with a few score on the jurisdiction of entregadores and the right of way of 
tmf flocks over the canadas or sheep highways. 



210 THE MESTA 

The salient feature of this period of the fiscal history of the 
Mesta is found in the domination of the sovereigns over the 
/ financial obligations of the sheep owners. This meant the aboli- 
tion of unjust and excessive local exactions and the careful organ- 
ization and supervision by the crown of such sheep taxes as were 
found to be authentic and of ancient standing. 

It may seem from this that Ferdinand and Isabella were simply 
renewing the work of Alfonso XI, 1 who, more than a century 
earlier, had undertaken the same policies with consideriable suc- 
cess. In a sense this was true, but unlike that vigorous sovereign 
they were not content with merely taking over various local 
taxes and simplifying those left to the towns. They appreciated 
the need of something more than autocratic power in order to 
make their work lasting. As the basis for a more permanent 
reform they evolved certain fundamental changes in adminis- 
trative and judicial machinery, which displayed once more their 
genius for linking old and new. The functions of certain ancient 
offices were skilfully renewed and applied to this fiscal problem of 
the sheep industry, with the result that by 1516 local sheep taxes 
had not only been systematized and greatly reduced, but their 
administration was thenceforth under rdyal surveillance. 

In their first Cortes, held at Madrigal in 1476, Ferdinand and 
Isabella began the work of reforming the sheep dues by annulling 
all local sheep tax privileges granted in the reign of Henry IV 
after the year 1464* It was left, how