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, Xlvaro 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;1 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. ι, leg. ɪɪ, 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 thðmontazgos 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 fundaciôn
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-ι, Madrid, 1418; Arch. Osuna, Mss. Infantazgo,
Manzanares, caj. 3, leg. 5, no. 12 (1436); Arch. Simancas, Diversos de Castilla, no.
ɪɪ? (i453)∙
2 Arch. Mesta, F-2,-Fuentiduena, τ419.
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 ɪnontazgo, in order thus to spare the leader, which was, of course, of greater
value.