The name is absent

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 Considetable 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 royal 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 1464.² It was left, however, for the celebrated
Cortes of Toledo (1480), one of the most notable in Spanish
legislative history, to take the first effective measures in the great
task of regulating these local taxes.³ “ Many are the complaints
made every day to us by stock owners and others,” declared the
sovereigns, “ concerning the great harm and loss which they suffer
at the hands of those who collect the servicio y montazgo and of
those who demand the taxes of pasaje, pontaje, rodas,” ⁱ and

ɪ See above, pp. 186-192.         ² Nov. Recop., lib. 6, tit. 20, ley 8.

³ Cf. Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, pt. ɪ, ch. vi. This was the Cortes which
Carbajal fervently described as “ Cosa divina para reformaci6n y remedio de las
des6rdenes pasadas.” Its important work, as well as that of the Cortes of Madrigal,
in reforming the royal sheep dues, will be discussed later.

⁴ See below, Glossary.

TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA

many other sheep tolls, “ which have been collected ever since
the year [fourteen hundred and] sixty-four, when the civil dis-
orders began in these kingdoms. . . .¹ It is notorious that all
of this has resulted in the diminution and disappearance of the
flocks and in serious injury to shepherds, muleteers,” and others,
“ and in greatly increasing the prices of meat, animals, leather,
and other things.” Drastic action was, therefore, imperative,
and after citing the ineffectual reforms of the Cortes of Ocana
(1469) and Santa Maria de Nieva (1473), the king and queen
laid down definite plans for centralized supervision of a type not
dreamed of by the most autocratic of their predecessors. The
regulations to be observed in collecting the royal servicio y
montazgo from the herdsmen were carefully prescribed,² and
then the tangle of local sheep dues was attacked. Scant atten-
tion was given to any suggestion of moderate compromise or
condonement of the status quo. Such was not the spirit of the
Toledo Cortes of 1480, remembered in Castilian history as a
landmark of bold achievements in curbing an insolent nobility
and in drawing the scattered and fractious towns into a more com-
pact union under the royal autocracy.

It was ordered that within ninety days after the proclamation
of the laws of this Cortes all local tax privileges and toll rights
granted since 1464 were to be presented to the Royal Council for
examination, and all privileges not so presented were ipso facto
null and void. Furthermore, in order that there might be no
gradual relaxation of vigilance — and this was the first important
innovation — all local justices of towns in the royal demesne
were to report every year, before the end of April, upon the taxes
being collected in their vicinity; and as a stimulus to the work of
these justices, certain overseers (υeedores) were appointed, with
instructions to see that the annual inquiry and report were
thoroughly made.³

ɪ Cortes, Toledo, 1480, pet. 90. Some of these provisions were incorporated in
the Ordenanzas Reales de Castilla (lib. 6, tit. ɪo), a compilation made by Diaz de
Montalvo, published in 1485. The lawlessness of the reign of Henry IV and the
series of disturbances in 1464, and after, culminated in the humiliating dethrone-
ment of the helpless king in effigy.                 ² See below, pp. 272 fi.

³ Mariéjol, L’Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, p. 175.

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