26
THE MESTA
series of menus prepared in 1529 by a cook of Charles V, three-
fourths of the 140 items or courses mentioned were meat and
fowl, but only four of these were mutton.1 The whole organiza-
tion of the Mesta was shaped toward the growing of wool, and any
consideration given to the production of meat was only incidental.
The animals at the head of the rebano, as it set out upon its
long march, were the sick and delicate sheep, the breeding ewes
(parideras), and the rams (morruecos). These were the favored
ones, which were thus given first access to the pastures along
way. They were subject to special exemptions from confiscation
for tolls and taxes, as were also the bellwethers (mansos or
encencerr ados') ?
Any comment upon the number of migratory sheep in Spain
must begin with the immediate dismissal of the extravagant and
quite unauthenticated estimates of Саха de Leruela,3 Bourgoing,4
Laborde,5 Randall,6 and others, who picture the Mesta as being
made up of from 5,0∞,∞0 to 7,000,000 sheep in the sixteenth
century. These imposing figures, we are assured, shrank in the
seventeenth century to 2,500,000, largely as a result of the
reforms enforced by the Cortes.
Previous to the sixteenth century, few reliable figures can be
cited on the size of the migratory herds? Fortunately, however,
the account books of the Mesta, which are available from 1512,
contain valuable statistics on this topic. Each year, at the winter
meeting of the Mesta, the accounts of the previous year were
balanced and dues were assessed. These dues were based upon
l Acad. Hist., Sempere Mss., Papeles varies Econ. Polit. B-127. See also Mar-
tinez Montino, Arte de Cocina (many eds., 1653 ff.) ; Labat, Voyages en Espagne et en
Italie (1730, 8 vols.), i, pp. 242-243.
s Quad. 1731, pt. i, pp. 16-18 (1285); Arch. Mesta, C-10, Canaleda, 1488; T-3,
Toledo, 1555; Provs. i, 15 (1496), 57 (1554), 59 (i539)i ɪɪ. 23 (1636); Arch. Osuna,
Santillana Mss., caj. 9, leg. ɪ, no. 7 (1426).
’ Restauracibn de la Abundancia de Espafla (Naples, 1631). Leruela, who was
an entregador in 1623-25, was endeavoring to show the havoc wrought in the in-
dustry by the reformers of his time.
4 Tableau de l’Espagne moderne (2d ed., Paris, 1797, 3 vols.), i, p. 89, note.
5 Itinéraire deseriptive de VEspagne (3ded., Paris, 1827-30, 6 vols.), v, p. 248.
, Fine Wool Sheep Husbandry (New York, 1863), pp. 6-7.
’ The accounts of the royal sheep toll in the Arch. Simancas, Cuentas, Servicio,
y Montazgo, are fragmentary before the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.
MIGRATIONS
27
the debit balance, which was distributed among the members in
accordance with the number of sheep that each possessed. That
number was ascertained by representatives {procuradores) of the
Mesta, who were present at the royal toll gates along the canadas.
During the greater part of the sixteenth century, when the Mesta
was at the height of its strength and importance, this pro rata
assessment was fixed as accurately as possible. After 1566 the
tendency was to form only a rough estimate of the flocks and use
that as a basis for the assessment. The results of this count will
serve to indicate the average size of the Mesta flocks during its
most prosperous period:1
|
1477.. |
. .2,694,032 |
i53i∙∙ |
. .2,521,200 |
I547∙∙ |
■ ■ 2,693,302 |
|
1512.. |
. . 2,590,661 |
1532.∙ |
. . 2,600,000 |
1548∙- |
■ 2,738,677 |
|
I514∙■ |
• -2,895,471 |
1533∙ ∙ |
. . 2,5∞,0∞ |
1549-∙ |
.. 2,705,000 |
|
I5i5∙ ∙ |
• ∙ 2,745,546 |
1534∙∙ |
. . 2,600,000 |
ɪssɪ- ∙ |
.. 2,227,182 |
|
1516.. |
■ .2,775,25° |
I535∙ ∙ |
. . 2,380,000 |
1552-. |
• ∙2,863,750 |
|
i517∙ ∙ |
. .2,860,632 |
1536-■ |
• ∙ 2,495,797 |
1553∙∙ |
. .2,857,214 |
|
1518.. |
■ ∙ 2,934,057 |
1537∙ ■ |
. . 2,066,554 |
1554∙∙ |
. . 2,75O,OOO |
|
1519.. |
. .3,177,669 |
1538.. |
. . 2,650,914 |
i555∙∙ |
. .2,372,OOO |
|
1520.. |
. .3,027,608 |
i539∙■ |
• ■ 2,905,548 |
1556-. |
. .2,622,890 |
|
1521- ∙ |
■ -2,538,270 |
154°.∙ |
• ∙ 2,678,947 |
1557∙■ |
. . 2,180,074 |
|
1523-∙ |
. . 2,822,264 |
1541-∙ |
. . 2,528,590 |
1558.∙ |
.. i,903,636 |
|
1524-∙ |
• -2,543,961 |
1542. . |
. .2,711,213 |
i559-■ |
. . I,746,8ll |
|
1526-∙ |
■ ■ 3,453,ι68 |
i543∙∙ |
. .2,780,764 |
1560.. |
. .2,034,911 |
|
1527- ∙ |
. . 2,853,648 |
i544∙∙ |
. .2,302,018 |
1561. . |
. .2,128,797 |
|
1528.. |
• ∙3>°14,44o |
1545∙∙ |
.. 2,580,000 |
1562. . |
••1,673,551 |
|
1529-■ |
. .2,613,OOO |
1546.■ |
. .2,712,548 |
1563-■ |
. . 2,303,027 |
|
ɪʒʒo-■ |
. .2,528,883 |
Two points of fundamental importance are brought out by
these figures : first, in no year did the number of sheep equal even
half of the estimate of the writers cited above; and second, the
decline began long before the reforms of the early seventeenth
century were undertaken. At no later period was the average of
ɪ The figures for 1477 are from the Censo de Poblaciin (Madrid, 1829), p. 108. All
are given as ‘ sheep,’ though they include a few cows, horses, goats, and swine, which
were resolved into ‘ sheep ’ on the basis of six sheep for one cow or horse, with goats
and swine counting the same as sheep. The number of these was so few, however,
that this point does not materially detract from the value of the figures. During
the first half of the sixteenth century the ‘ sheep ’ rating of these animals averaged
between 250,000 and 3∞,0∞ a year. The figures given for the years 1532-35, in-
■ elusive, are evidently estimates.