IO THE MESTA
industry were required to attend the meetings, and because of
the extensive jurisdictions of some cities — Seville, for example,
controlled seventy-six towns and villages — the attendance ran
up to hundreds and even thousands in the larger centres. The
right to vote in the meetings was limited in most cases to those
owning fifty or more sheep, women being eligible to membership
on an equal footing with men.1 No distinctions were drawn be-
tween migratory and non-migratory flocks. These assemblages
or concejos were called mestas, probably because of the fact that
the strays to be disposed of had become mezclados or mixed with
strange flocks.2 Other derivations of the name have been sug-
gested, such as “ the amistad or amity prevailing among the
shepherds.” 3 The ancient use of the name mechta, among the
nomads of the Algerian back country, to indicate their winter
sheep assemblages or encampments,4 suggests further possibili-
ties for speculation as to the Berber origins of the name mesta
and of this practice of periodic meetings of migratory sheep own-
ers. Occasionally the strays themselves were called mestas,
though this was not common;6 they were usually designated as
mestenos 6 or as mostrencos, the general term applied to all owner-
less property.
The business transacted at these local mestas comprised all
matters pertaining to the pastoral industry.7 Shepherds were
engaged for the year, beginning on June 24, and uniform wages
were agreed upon. The herdsmen were also to be supplied with
food by their employers and were allowed to maintain certain
animals of their own with the master’s flock free of pasturage and
other charges. The old gild spirit of strict regulation to prevent
competition among owners for the services of shepherds was
everywhere in evidence. Bargaining between sheep owners and
1 Arch. Mesta, B-ι, Badajoz, 1560.
2 In Ciceres the meeting was called otero: Ulloa, Privs. Ciceres, tits. 395, 426,
461 of the twelfth-century fuero.
3 Covarrubias, Tesoro, s.v. Mesta.
i Bernard and Lacroix, L’Évolution du nomadisme en Algérie (Paris, 1906), p. 82.
6 Ulloa, op. cit., p. 83; Urena and Bonilla, Puero de Usagre, cap. 463.
’ Connected with ‘ mustang,’ the half-wild horse of our southwestern cattle
ranges.
7 See below, p. 58, on wages of shepherds.
ORIGINS
II
herdsmen outside the mesta meetings and any arrangements or
inducements not authorized by the assemblage were punishable
with heavy fines. Particular attention was paid to brands, which
were in many cases carefully recorded by the town or by the local
mesta. Unauthorized alterations of brands and the sale or se-
questration of strays were severely punished.1
It is evident from the law code of Visigothic Spain that such
local gatherings to distribute the stray animals in the town pound
were common at least as early as the sixth or seventh century?
There is no indication, however, that the name mixta or mesta
was associated with the custom until the twelfth century.3
These regular meetings of herdsmen and sheep owners were prev-
alent not only in Castile but throughout the peninsula during
the Middle Ages. In Navarre they were called meztas4 and in
1 See below, Appendices A and B, for texts of ordinances of the town ɪnestas of
Ubeda (1376) and of Granada (1520). Ordinances of other local ɪnestas are found
in Gonzâlez, Colec. de Privs., vi, pp. r42-145 (Alcaraz, 1266); Ulloa, Privs. de
Cdceres,pp. 78 ff. (twelfth centuryJuero); Bib. Nac. Madrid, Ms. 714,pp. 208-210
(fuero of Plasencia, thirteenth century); Boletin Acad. Hist. Madrid, xiv, pp. 302-
355 (fueroof Uclés, xι79; tits. 192-195); Concordia de τ783, i, fols. 121 ff., citing
excerpts from the fueros of Sepulveda; Valverde Perales, Ordenanzas de Baena
(Cordova, 1907), pp. 127-136; Ordenanzas para . . . Toledo (Toledo, 1858),
pp. 4-14; Ordenanςas de Sevilla (Seville, 1527), fols. 115-123; Arch. Mesta, G-r,
Granada, 1533 (early mestas of Ubeda and Granada); Arch. Simancas, Diversos
Castilla, Mss. 993-997 (data on the local mesta of Alcaraz) ; Paris Bib. Nat., Mss.
Esp. 66 (ordinances of the mesta of Baeza, with regulations for local flocks which
migrate); T. D. Palacio, Documentas del Archiva General de la Villa de Madrid, i
(cf. index,Mesta). In 1612 a census of local mestas was undertaken by the national
organization; cf. Arch. Mesta, Prov. iv, 30.
, Fuero Juzgo, lib. 8, tit. 4, ley 14. Paredes Guillen, Framonlanos Çeltiberos,
P. ɪoɪ, accepts this as the origin of the Mesta itself, though there is no indication
of anything more than meetings of local shepherds for the above mentioned purposes.
’ Arch. Hist. Nac., Sala vi, caj. 408, Docs. Reales de Beruela, 1125: “si vero
ganatum vestrum cum alio extraneo mixtum fuerit . . .” The name seems also
to have been applied to lands of mixed or dual jurisdiction. In this connection two
references will suffice to indicate the change from the Latin to the Romance form:
Arch. Hist. Nac., Tumbo del Mon. de Lorenzana, fol. 128, no. 185 (a.d. 933) —
per suos terminos antiquos de ambas mixtas usque in petras negras; ” and fols.
128-r29, ɪɪo. 186 (a.d. rn2) — “ illo canto est per rio Malo et per ambas mestas.”
Arch. Mesta, F-2, Fuente el Sauco, 1511, contains a similar use of the word in a
sixteenth-century pasturage suit, which shows the persistence of this ancient mean-
ing of the term down to modem times.
Nov. Recop. Leyes Nav. (Pamplona, 1735, 2 vols.), lib. ι, tit. 24; Cuademo
eyts Nav.: Corles 1817-1818 (Pamplona, 1819), ley 54.