12
THE MESTA
Aragon Iigallos or Hgajos.1 In these kingdoms the Castilian form,
mesta, was not adopted until the middle or close of the eighteenth
century.
It is highly important to note that these local mestas had
nothing whatever to do with migratory sheep as such. They were
concerned only with the assignment of stray animals, both mi-
gratory and sedentary, to their rightful owners, and with the
sale of all unclaimed strays or mestenos. The receipts from such
sales were usually, though not always — as will be explained be-
low — deposited in the town treasury. If there chanced to be
migrants among the local flocks, they were subject to the rules of
the town mesta ; which in addition, in some cases, was accustomed
to hold meetings and draw up rules to govern their migratory
practices. These meetings, and sometimes the rules adopted by
them, were called the rahala or rafala? Among the towns whose
flocks were so organized the most prominent was Soria, whose
herdsmen were to become the founders and leaders of the national
Mesta.3
In 1273, when Alfonso the Learned brought “ all of the shep-
herds of Castile ” into one national association and gave them a
charter, it was quite natural that he should use the name already
connected with meetings of herdsmen and sheep owners, and call
the organization the “ Honorable Assembly [coney 0} of the Mesta
of the Shepherds.” 4 The ordinances of the local mestas were
evidently examined with care, and many of their chief features
1 Arch. Corona Arag6n (Barcelona), Escrituras Jayme II, Ms. no. 187: charter
of a local Iigallo of sheep owners in 1317; Ordinaciones de la Comunidad de Teruel
(Saragossa, 1685), p. t21; Docs. Ined. Arag., xl, p. 128 (1333); Ordinaciones de la
Mesta de Albarrazin (Albarracfn, 1740, 42 pp.); Borao, Voces Aragonesas (Sara-
gossa, 1884), p. 266.
2 Illustrations are found in Urena and Bonilla, Fuero de Usagre, pp. 153-161,
and in Ulloa, Prins, de Cdceres, tits. 396-408; the former was patterned in part after
the latter. See above, p. ɪɪ, n. ι, reference to the pastoral regulations of Baeza.
3 Urena and Bonilla, Fuero de Usagre, p. 307, cite aline (c. 122 a, ed. Ducamin)
from the classic verses of the Arcipreste de Hita referring to the “ Rehalas de
Castilla con pastores de Ssoria.” In Ciceres the rafala was made up largely of
migratory herds of horses. See also Concordia de 1783, i, fol. 121, on such pastoral
organizations in the twelfth century.
4 The details of this charter of 1273 are discussed below, pp. 78 f., 176 ff.
ORIGINS
ɪɜ
were incorporated into the later codes of the national body,1 and
this resulted inevitably in serious friction and confusion.
As the national Mesta grew in strength and importance it
undertook to assert claims upon all stray sheep in the realm, since
these animals were, according to the local fueros themselves,
mestenos and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Mesta. In
other words, the national organization calmly ignored the fact
that it had preëmpted the name of the older local pastoral associa-
tions; it undertook to capitalize that name wherever and when-
ever expediency required. It appointed officers called alcaldes de
Mesta, alcaldes de corral, or alcaldes de quadrilla to serve in various
quadrillas or districts with jurisdiction over all strays found in the
migratory herds.2 These officers occupied themselves, during the
earlier centuries of the Mesta, particularly with the enforcement
of laws regarding branding, and the punishments for altering
brands so as to facilitate the disposal of mestenos? Where the
local flocks were sedentary, no difficulties developed; the officers
of the town mestas disposed of their local strays,4 and the alcaldes
of the national Mesta, until they became arrogant and ambitious
under the patronage of the sixteenth-century autocrats, were in-
terested only in the mestenos of the migrants. During the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella, however, the local sedentary pastoral
industry began more and more to assume important proportions.
The local flocks, as we shall see later, undertook limited over-
night migrations beyond the riberas or borders of the town juris-
diction, and the strays from these riberiegos soon attracted the
attention of the Mesta officials.
ɪ See below, pp 55, 74, 75.
! See below, p. 55. In the sixteenth century the number of such alcaldes
was greatly increased and each was given a district of ten square leagues. Their
functions were similar to those of the ‘ hog reeves ’ of colonial New England,
ɪhe custodian or pound keeper in actual charge of the strays was called the
reuser0.
3 Early laws on branding are found in the Fuero Juzgo1 lib. 8, tit. ʒ, ley 8, and
Qvad. ιγ311 pt. 2, tit. 20, ley ι.
ɪt was commonly the practice for a town to grant as a concession the right to
lsPose of all mostrencos within its jurisdiction. Abraham el Barchilon held such
ɑɑneession in Burgos in 1287: Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. 242. See below, Appen-
ω* C, for the text of a mostrenco concession, dated 1304.