The name is absent



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
no
thing 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.



More intriguing information

1. Activation of s28-dependent transcription in Escherichia coli by the cyclic AMP receptor protein requires an unusual promoter organization
2. Design and investigation of scalable multicast recursive protocols for wired and wireless ad hoc networks
3. Stakeholder Activism, Managerial Entrenchment, and the Congruence of Interests between Shareholders and Stakeholders
4. The name is absent
5. The name is absent
6. On the origin of the cumulative semantic inhibition effect
7. Estimating the Impact of Medication on Diabetics' Diet and Lifestyle Choices
8. Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two Parts of the Same Agenda?
9. The name is absent
10. The name is absent
11. Deletion of a mycobacterial gene encoding a reductase leads to an altered cell wall containing β-oxo-mycolic acid analogues, and the accumulation of long-chain ketones related to mycolic acids
12. Midwest prospects and the new economy
13. The name is absent
14. The name is absent
15. The problem of anglophone squint
16. Spectral density bandwith choice and prewightening in the estimation of heteroskadasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrices in panel data models
17. Food Prices and Overweight Patterns in Italy
18. Program Semantics and Classical Logic
19. Crime as a Social Cost of Poverty and Inequality: A Review Focusing on Developing Countries
20. The name is absent