22Ô
THE MESTA
Similar changes from kind to money during this reign are found
in the sheep tolls of various towns.1
It is, of course, impossible to ascribe this change solely to the
influence of the Mesta; other factors, notably the maintenance
of peace and order by the new autocracy and the encouragement
of trade in general, gave impetus to this evolution from mediaeval
to modern economy. It must be admitted, however, that the
simultaneous development on the one hand of a greatly increased
internal trade in sheep and wool, and on the other of revised and
improved local sheep tax schedules, was not altogether fortuitous.
The old was giving way to the new in many different phases of
the life of the Spanish people during this historic period, and
these changes in the character of local taxes, paid by wandering
hersdmen, serve as specific illustrations of the profound trans-
formation which Spain was then undergoing.
Important cities, isolated villages, powerful barons, and scat-
tered monasteries had all been accustomed for centuries to levy
as many and as heavy tolls upon passing flocks as the prestige
of the Mesta and its royal patron would permit. A new force
was now making itself felt throughout the land; one that in-
sisted upon uniformity as the first essential to unity; one that
stood for the new nationalism — political and economic. By the
skilful use of officials of the old regime, such as the corregidor and
juez pesquisidor, whose forgotten functions were now made real
and gradually extended, the departure from the conditions of the
past was made to seem less abrupt. This shrewd appreciation of
the stolid conservatism of their people was largely responsible for
the success of the reforms of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Span-
ish kingdoms have been ruled at times in their long history by
more ambitious and spectacular sovereigns than these two, but
never by wiser or more sagacious builders for the future.
1 Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. D-49, pp. 291 ff.: ordinances of Câceres, 1479;
Arch. Mesta, C-ι, Câceres, 1490. The local tax schedules of Murcia, Lorca, Al-
bacete, Baeza, and other southeastern towns are practically all in kind throughout
this reign, whereas in Câceres, Trujillo, Alcântara, Badajoz, Toledo, Madrid, Burgos,
and other central and western towns, where the number ofvisiting flocks increased
rapidly during this reign, the tax schedules changed gradually from the more cum-
bersome assessments in animals to those in money.
CHAPTER XII
LOCAL TAXES UNDER THE HAPSBURGS AND EARLY
BOURBONS (1516-1836)
Effect of the rising of the Comuneros (1521-25) upon the fiscal affairs of the Mesta.
Royal agents defend the Mesta Sheep taxes of the Military Orders and of the
Church. Diezmos. FiscaldisordersunderthelaterHapsburgs. Localtaxesinthe
eighteenth century.
The financial confusion and ultimate economic collapse of the
Hapsburg regime have been repeatedly investigated and are
too well known to require review here. The futile attempts to
finance the grandiose imperialistic ambitions of the monarchs,
the ostentatious profligacy of the royal household, especially
during the earlier years of the reign of the Emperor Charles V,
the atrocious mismanagement of the exchequer and its exploita-
tion by Flemish courtiers, Genoese and German bankers, and
inexperienced Castilians — these were but a few of the heavy
burdens that fell upon Spain’s enfeebled shoulders. And to add
exasperation to exhaustion and confusion, the treasures of Peru
and Mexico poured through her fingers and, in spite of frantic
legislation by the Cortes, passed to the shrewd and hated foreign
favorites and creditors of the Emperor. These familiar aspects
of the age of Spain’s hollow grandeur need not be examined here.
Another phase of Hapsburg finances, however, is of especial im-
portance in the present connection — a phase which has seldom,
if ever, been carefully examined, namely the local fiscal policy of
the crown, the financial aspect of the relations between the Haps-
burg autocracy and the municipalities. It is this phase which is
admirably illustrated by the experience of the Mesta.
As is well known, the centralizing policies of the Catholic
Kings were adopted and carried out along even more dictatorial
lines by the great Emperor. One of the fundamental features of
these policies had been the gradual subordination of local affairs
to the control of the crown, a course which was carefully fol-
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