228
THE MESTA
lowed by Charles and his successors. The municipalities, once
proud champions of ancient Castilian democracy, gradually lost
strength after the bloody defeats which checked their uprisings
in the comunero disturbances of 15 20-21. The hold of the au-
tocracy tightened upon the local institutions, which had already
come under the control of the crown during the preceding reign.
In 1539 the Royal Council decreed that its consent was a pre-
requisite to the promulgation of all local ordinances. The old
town meeting of ∙vecinos, or property owners, had become a mere
form, where it had not disappeared altogether; and local admin-
istration became a matter of conference between a few town
officials and representatives sent out from the royal palace with
instructions as to what was to be done, and usually as to how
much money was to be collected.1
The wayside tax obligations of the Mesta afforded an excellent
pretext for the intensification of this policy. The king of Castile
now had an effective control over the sheep owners’ organization
through its President, an office created by Ferdinand and Isa-
bella in 1500 and conferred in turn upon each succeeding senior
member of the Royal Council. The Hapsburgs not only made
effective use of this office, but they also inherited others of ex-
ceptional value in the work of weakening local institutions and
privileges. The chancilleπas, the corregidores, and the special
judge-inquisitors had all been created before the coming of the
House of Austria, but the latter evolved new functions for each
of these ; and in no respect were their services more useful to the
crown than in this matter of restricting local taxation of the
country’s chief industry.
In general, the policy pursued consisted in the restriction of
such functions or incomes as still remained to the towns after the
Catholic Kings had completed their labors. This purpose be-
came intensified after the uprising of the eomuneros`, and no de-
vice was left untried which might expedite the achievement of a
dual objective: the debilitation of town prestige and fiscal
autonomy, and as a corollary, the perpetuation of centralized
absolutism. That tactful consideration for mediaeval institu-
ɪ Sacristan, Municipalidades de Castilla y Le6n (Madrid, 1877), pp. 415-420.
TAXES UNDER THE HAPSBURGS AND BOURBONS 22g
tions and traditions, which we observed in the previous reign,
was noticeably absent. In its stead there appeared an imperious
insistence that the meagre sources of local revenue should be
devoted to the schemes of world empire, and above all, that no
restive separatist democracy should develop and threaten the
imperial autocracy.
The study of our subject readily reveals the steps by which it
was hoped to achieve these ends. All local alcaldes or justices
were warned not to pass judgment in any disputed cases regard-
ing town taxes on Mesta flocks. In fact, the first year of
Charles’s reign saw the initial steps of the new dynasty toward
royal supremacy over these once troublesome local officials. In
1517 the alcaldes were informed that their business was to assist
and accommodate the herdsmen, whose flocks were so valuable
as a source of revenue to the crown. They were not to presume
that they had any jurisdiction in questions of local sheep taxes;
they were simply to see that royal decrees fixing town tolls were
enforced, and that collectors did not maltreat the shepherds.1
From being the proud defenders of local privileges, the alcaldes
of the smaller towns sank to the ignominious position of message
bearers and menials of the Mesta officials. The officials of the
larger cities had to be handled more tactfully, of course, with an
occasional intimation of the further resources of the crown.
Three administrative and judicial instruments — the chan-
cilleria, the corregidor, and the special judge-inquisitor —■ stand
out as the most conspicuous and effective agents of the first two
Hapsburg rulers in curbing and gradually crushing the fiscal func-
tions of the larger municipalities and the nobles. The use of
these instruments in Mesta matters was by no means an inno-
vation on the part of the new dynasty; as was noted above, the
Catholic Kings had employed each of them to good advantage for
just such work. The corregidores, or local representatives of the
crown, had proved a welcome aid to the Mesta on various occa-
sions during the preceding reign, and they now continued to be
invaluable for the purposes of absolutism. By that very fact,
however, they had become personages of such power and import-
ɪ Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, ʒɪ.