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 country, but at the most only gave oppor-
tunity for the extension of an already firmly established and
widely prevalent industry.2
The real 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
long marches were considered primarily as a conditioning process
which kept the animals sturdy and sound and thus improved the
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
ɪ Sarmiento, in Semanario de Agricultura, no. 16 (Madrid, r765), pp. 273 ff.;
reprinted in part in Ponz, Viage (2d ed., Madrid, 1784), viii, pp. 190 fi. See also
another paper by the same author in Acad. Hist., Sarmiento Mss. v, pp. 3n-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. ʒo.
, See below, pp. 68 fi. , Partida ι, tit. 20, ley 9.
ORIGINS
strange surroundings and applied to unaccustomed conditions.
JJo 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 Fuenleal1 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 AJonso de la Rosa, Memoria sobre la manera de Iranshumacidn (Madrid, 186r:
32 pp.). This monograph gives the text of Fuenleal’s communication, with the
comments made upon it by Icazbalceta1 the famous Mexican historian.
2 Actas de Cabildo de Ayunlamiento de Tenuxtitlan, Mexico de la Nueba Espana
(Mexico, 1859), iv, pp. 313-314. ordinances of the town council of Mexico City,
i537~42, introducing the laws of the Castilian Mesta; see also Recop. Leyes Indias
(Madrid, 1774, 4 vols.), lib. 5, tit. 5, Ieyes 1-20.