266
THE MESTA
Iation of rules, promulgated in 1457, became the basis of all later
decrees upon the subject. Though occasionally amended, it was
never abolished or even seriously revised as long as the servicio
у montazgo was collected. In fact, the desires of sixteenth-cen-
tury autocracy for revenue and for concentration of administra-
tive functions seem to have been well satisfied with the traditions
established by the grasping favorites of Castile’s darkest days of
mediaeval decadence. The Quaderno of 1457 confirmed all of the
rates and rules established in 1416 and 1442.1 It was carefully
specified that the tax applied to animals being taken to markets
outside their home towns, as well as to those being taken to
southern pastures. Furthermore it designated the puertos reales
or royal toll gates on the canadas at which the tax was to be col-
lected, whereas in previous years collections had been made at
points the location and number of which had been determined
supposedly by tradition, but more probably by what the traffic
would bear. The toll points named in 1457 became the puertos
antiguos of later ages, and the last year of the servicio (1758)
found the list Onlyslightlychanged. The sheep were to be counted
while en route northward as well as southward, and although the
servicio was to be paid, as of old, on the southward journey, if the ∙
count on their return showed an increase, the extra animals were
also to be assessed. Attempts at evasion were punishable with
heavy fines and in addition to this the rate of the tax was to be
quadrupled upon the offenders. Exemptions were subject to can-
cellation without notice, in order to insure the proper behavior
of the recipients of those favors.2
1 Arch. Mesta, B-ι, Badajoz, 1727, contains a copy of the greater part of this
code; see below, pp. 391-397. Parts of it also appear in Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 27.
The puertos reales were all near the southern terminals of the canadas, in Estre-
madura, La Mancha, Murcia, and the valley of the Guadalquivir. In 1457 they
were at Candeleda, Aldeanueva de la Vera, Montalbân, Rama Castanas, Socuella-
mos, Venta del Cojo, Torre de Esteban Ambran, Villaharta, Perdiquera, Malpar-
tida, Puerto de Pedrosin, Abadia1 and Albala. Later changes in this list are noted
in Cortes, Toledo, 1480, pet. 90; Brit. Mus., Ms. 1321 к ɪ, no. ɪ (1401); and
Quad. 1731, pt. 2, p. ι8o (sixteenth century).
2 A feature of this Quaderno which does not concern us was the Iravesio, or royal
tax on certain local, non-Mesta sheep called riberiegos, which pastured just beyond
the borders (riberas) of their local jurisdictions.
MEDIAEVAL ROYAL SHEEP TAXES
267
With such a detailed tax schedule in force, it would seem that
both the crown and the sheep owners should have known where
they stood as to revenues and obligations respectively. Though
obviously drawn up in the interests of favorites who planned to
exploit the royal incomes, the code of 1457 was nevertheless
looked to hopefully by the Mesta members as being at least a
definite enumeration of their fiscal burdens. Unfortunately,
however, the usual discrepancy between written laws and actual
administration was never more grossly exemplified than under
the last mediaeval monarch of Castile.
The closing decade of the dissolute regime of Henry IV brought
his kingdom to its lowest levels of moral depravity, political iniq-
uity, and economic confusion. The history of the Servicio y mon-
tazgo during the period of degradation from 1464 to 1474 presents
a convincing illustration of the hopeless demoralization of the
times. Exemptions from the tax were scattered broadcast by
unscrupulous lessees and collectors. Tax receipts were even being
sold firmado en bianco —∙ ‘ signed in blank ’ —■ with the spaces for
the amounts left open to be filled in by the purchaser as desired.1
The clergy, who had always been exempt from the national ser-
vicio or general subsidy, now claimed freedom from any assess-
ments of the sheep servicio; and since the monasteries, notably
such opulent establishments as Las Huelgas at Burgos and Nues-
tra Senora at Guadalupe, were among the largest sheep owners of
Castile, such exemptions made serious inroads upon the Servicio
y montazgo.2 The widespread lawlessness and disorder wrought
havoc with Mesta flocks.3 Armed with sheep tax ‘ leases ’ from
Beltran or Pacheco, the robber baron friends of those two worthies
* Hernân Pérez del Pulgar, CrSnica de Ios Reyes CatSlicos (Valencia, 1780),
p. 165; Ordenanzas Reales de Castilla, lib. 6, tit. 4, ley 26.
t Complaints against this discrimination in favor of large sheep owners were
first presented in behalf of small owners in the Cortes at Cordova in 1455 (pet. 13).
In nearly all of the later Cortes of the reign these complaints were repeated.
• A vivid picture of the storm of outlawry which broke over Castile during this
period can be found in the records of the Cortes; e.g., Cortes, Salamanca, 1465,
pet. 16; Ocana, 1469, pets. 19, 23. Further discussion by contemporaries of the
deplorable financial conditions under Henry IV is found in Pulgar, op. cit., p. 5.
See also Schaefer, in Arch, fur Geschichle und Literalur, iv, p. 72.