288
THE MESTA
rights without payment of taxes.1 When the fiscal agents of the
crown endeavored to assess servicios upon all non-migratory
sheep which made use of comunidad pasturage, the Cortes
promptly declared that the strict confinement of the servicio to
transhumantes was an indispensable prerequisite to the vote of
the millones.2
It was not long before the redress of servicio grievances became
one of the regular features of the millones subsidy, just as the
latter offered similar opportunities to the towns for adjusting
their difficulties with the crown over the Mesta.3 The Cortes
deputies from some of the larger northern cities’ whose con-
stituents included many Mesta members, even went so far as to
insist that their ancient charter exemptions from ‘ all montazgos ’
included the servicio y montazgo. They declared that the latter,
like all servicios, was a purely voluntary vote of an extraordinary
subsidy by the sheep owners, and that it was not a regular tax
at all.4 The audacity of these contentions, many of which were
actually recognized, indicates the hopeless incompetence and
irresolution of those in charge of the royal exchequer.
This condition is even more clearly emphasized by the almost
ludicrous extremities to which the fiscal agents of the crown were
reduced in their efforts to raise additional revenues from the
pastoral industry. Juros or annuities were lavishly conferred
1 The name and many of the practices of these Castilian Comunidades were
probably adopted from the Aragonese town leagues. See above, p. 148.
2 Arch. Mesta, Provs. i, 94, 98, ι∞, 103; ii, 42 (1601-54). Among the griev-
ances included in these millones complaints were the usual ones regarding un-
authorized toll points or puertos. These Condiciones de millones were subsequently
incorporated in the general code. Cf. Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 27, Ieyes 21-23;
Escrituras de Millones (Madrid, 1734), fol. 78; Paris, Arch. Aff. Etrangères, Fonds
Divers, T. 47 (Mémoires et Does., Espagne), pp. 144-152: Condiciones de la
Mesta, 1638.
s See above, p. 120.
4 Brit. Mus., 1320 1 7, no. i, and Arch. Ayunt. Burgos, Ms. 95τ (1627).
Burgos endeavored at the same time to secure exemption from the derecho de Pala
hendida or ‘ tax of the cloven hoof.’ This was assessed both by the crown and by
various towns on owners of swine and cattle within the twelve league zone along
the border of Castile, Navarre, and Aragon as a penalty for not registering their
stock in order to check illicit border traffic. Cf. Nueva Recop., lib. 6, tit. ι8,
Ieyes 21-22 (1404, 1552)-
ROYAL SHEEP TAXES OF THE AUTOCRACY
289
upon the Mesta and its more influential members, in exchange
for gifts of money and sheep, for a tenth of the proceeds from the
Mesta’s sales of lost animals, for a tenth of the membership dues,
and for shares in the receipts from entregador fines.1 From 1650
to about 1655 the crown was receiving about ι,700,000 mara-
vedis annually, as its share in these transactions, while the
Mesta’s profits from the juros and similar royal incomes were
well over 2,000,000 maravedis. The ‘salary ’ paid by the Mesta
to its President, who was also the senior member of the Royal
Council, was raised to extravagant figures ; and the increase was
paid into the royal coffers by the recipient, with the reluctant con-
sent of the Mesta, which now needed more than ever the support
of its only friend, the Council.2
The fiscal operations of the Mesta during this dreary period
reveal further evidence of the use of its funds to secure support
for its cause. This was accomplished by methods which are
strangely suggestive of much more recent times. It will be re-
called that attacks upon the Mesta by the Cortes became in-
creasingly virulent toward the close of the sixteenth century,
and that because of the threats of the deputies there had been
no session of the Mesta in 1603.3 In the following year, the sheep
owners devised a new plan to nullify the opposition of the Cortes.
232,000 maravedis were spent as “ alms among the poor ” in
certain southern pasturage cities whose deputies had been the
leaders in the Cortes agitations.4 Thereafter this item of ‘ alms ’
occurred every year in the accounts of the southern sessions.
The sums disbursed fluctuated between 175,000 and 500,000
maravedɪs a year, and were varied occasionally by gifts of hun-
1 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, September, 1629; March, 1638; September, 1639;
March, 1640; March, 1643; February, 1647; March, 1652; and March, 1684.
These juras included part or all of the alcabalas of Molina, the millones taxes of
Toro, Toledo, and Guadalajara, the salinas or salt taxes of Galicia, the censo of
Talavera.
2 Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, September, 1605; September, τ629; September, 1638.
The President’s salary under Philip II had been 50,000 maravedis a year; but by
1638 he was receiving 750,000, to which were added allowances for travelling
expenses; and the Mesta was even instructed to pay his cook.
3 See above, p. 119.
4 Arch. Mesta1 Cuentas, March, 1604.