328
THE MESTA
agrarian economy, which, most unfortunately for Castile, was
not to be fully appreciated until two disastrous centuries had
elapsed. The fact was that arable and pastoral life could very
well be combined, and that the two were by no means hostile
and mutually exclusive.1 After all, the best pasturage which the
Mesta flocks could find anywhere was not the open and unkempt
waste lands, nor the perennially denuded leased pastures, but the
stubble straw, the vine leaves left after the grape harvest, and
the fertile balks and fallow strips between cultivated patches.2
Charles was not long, however, in making his decision, for his
plans and ambitions were not of the type that could wait pa-
tiently upon the development of a whole new industry. He must
have funds at once, and one of the most exploitable resources
available in his Spanish realms was the long established and now
most flourishing pastoral industry, which was at just that time
more prosperous than it had ever been before, or indeed was
ever to be again. Hence the energy with which the Emperor
followed up the policy so vigorously prosecuted by Ferdinand
and Isabella. Forest conservation and arable land were both
to be subordinated to the interests of pasturage.
With reference to forestry we have already observed the in-
different and even hostile measures taken by Charles.3 The
claims of agriculture were given even less consideration. In
1525 it was decreed that all pasture lands brought under tillage
during the first eight years of the Emperor’s reign should be
turned back to their original state and placed at the disposal of
the sheep owners;4 and in 1552 a similar edict was issued, but
indicating a twelve-year period.6 These were the first of a long
series of similar enactments which punctuate the two centuries
of the Hapsburg regime. In each the time limit was made longer,
as the situation became more and more desperate for the Mesta
in its struggle against the encroachments of settled agriculture.
* Arch. Mesta, C-ιo, Cuenca, 1543: a lengthy suit between the Mesta and the
town of Cuenca, which was itself a stronghold of that body, regarding the extension
of arable into what had once been much frequented upland pasturage.
t See above, pp. 304, 320. 3 See above, p. 32r.
4 Nueva Recop., lib. 7, tit. 7, ley 22.
6 Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 53.
PASTURAGE PRIVILEGES OF THE MESTA
З29
The sheep owners’ arrangements to facilitate collective bar-
gaining for pasturage were materially assisted by their itinerant
attorneys and agents and by the royal Corregidores and special
judge-inquisitors, who were given strict orders to stamp out the
dreaded puja or competitive bidding.1 The crown gave further
aid by annulling any town ordinances which attempted to forbid
this form of collective procedure by the pasturage lessees.2 As a
part of this same policy to suppress competition, the measures
taken by the Catholic Kings against speculation in pasture lands,
as well as their edicts against sub-lessees and middlemen, were
confirmed and made more comprehensive. The operations of
such middlemen, it was alleged, were not only unnecessary but
pernicious, and were bound to increase the price of pasturage
by the fees charged, as well as to demoralize the industry by the
speculative factor thus injected into the negotiations :3 views
which have been strikingly persistent even down to the present
day.
The reigns of the Catholic Kings and of the great Emperor
brought the Mesta to the height of its prestige in the agrarian
affairs of Castile. The wishes of the sheep owners coincided
with the mercantilistic ambitions of those rulers, and were
therefore promptly gratified by royal edicts, vigorously enforced
by ubiquitous crown officials. Any opposition to the herdsmen,
whether by proponents of enclosures or by landlords who wished
to stimulate competitive bidding for pasturage leases, was met
with sharp and decisive punishment. The Mesta was to be
favored with the warm friendship of later sovereigns, but it was
never again to enjoy such powerful protection as that given it,
during the eighty years from 1476 to 1556, by Ferdinand, Isa-
bella, and Charles. When the latter forsook the glamour and
the cares of empire for the monastic quiet of Yuste, he left
the Mesta in complete control of the rural life of Castile. It
ɪ Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 27 (1528); ibid., A-5, Aldea eɪ Rey, ɪʒʒɪ; and B-r,
Badajoz, 1556.
2 Ibid., B-ι, Baeza, 1532.
s Arch. Hist. Nac., Consejo Real Exped., leg. 48: provision of 19 November,
1566, confirming one of 25 May, 1552; Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 43, 45, 46 (1538,
1551); ibid., Cuentas, February, 1544; Novisima Recop., lib. 7, tit. 25, ley 6.