32
THE MESTA
and pastoral products had to be registered, and the collection of
heavy registration fees caused frequent quarrels between the ex-
asperated herdsmen and the Overzealous royal collectors.1
In Aragon the migratory sheep industry lacked that national
organization which gave the Castilian shepherds such power in
their dealings with the crown’s tariff collectors. The Aragonese
migrants were split up into various local units — the mesta of
Albarracm, the Casa de Ganaderos of Saragossa, the Iigajo of CaIa-
tayud, the cofradia of shepherds of Letux, etc. As a result of this
lack of cohesion and unity of action, the marketing activities of
the migrating herdsmen could readily be checked both by the
crown and by the leagues or Comunidades of pasturage towns.2
Gild rules were imposed by the central government, establishing
certain regulations to govern the marketing of wool and its
products.3 Nevertheless, there was a fairly active trade carried
on by the Aragonese herdsmen, who brought down dairy products
for the coast cities and wool for export and for the VaIencian cloth
factories. This trade between the Aragonese highlanders and the
southeastern seaboard sprang up immediately after the Moors
had been driven from the coastal plains during the middle decades
of the thirteenth century. The customs barriers upon the traffic
of the Aragonese migrants were not removed until the close of the
seventeenth century. In 1693 the Royal Council finally granted
the privilege of free and unrestricted movement across the border.4
Thus one of the fiscal relics of mediaeval Spain, the Spain of sep-
arate kingdoms, contending sectionalism, and closely restricted
marketing, was swept aside.
The migratory pastoral industry was evidently a force of con-
siderable importance in breaking down the confining barriers of
mediaevalism which had prevented any acceleration of com-
mercial activity. The long and regular marches of the herdsmen
and their animals spread the market area for pastoral products
* Arch. Mesta,H-ι, Huélamo, 1526 ff.: documents of a long series of such
disputes during the sixteenth century.
2 See below, p 299.
s Parral, Fueros de Aragin, ii, pp. 403, 414: For. Regni Arag., lib. 4, tits. 627,
633-634-
4 Arch. Mesta, H-r, Huélamo, 1695.
MARKETING 33
beyond the restricted local areas and even beyond the national
frontiers.
The Castilian towns displayed this same spirit of hostility
toward the marketing activities of the migratory shepherds. The
universality of portazgos and similar taxes upon goods brought to
local fairs and markets by strangers 1 was due, in part, to the
widespread movements of the migrating flocks. The latter were,
however, by no means friendless in their wanderings. From the
earliest times, royal charters were issued in favor of the migrants
of loyal towns or monasteries, granting them unrestricted and
untaxed entry into local markets in a large part or the whole of
the realm.2 In some rare instances, the favored flocks were
granted exemption from the royal customs duties levied at the
frontiers.3
The first known charters of the Mesta — those of 1273 and
1276 — guaranteed to the members of that organization the right
to trade their pastoral products for supplies in wayside markets,
and to dispose of not more than sixty sheep from every flock in a
given town, regardless of local ordinances prohibiting trading by
strangers.4'' This was one of the most jealously guarded priv-
ileges of the Castilian migrants; confirmation of it was secured on
every favorable occasion, not only from the crown 5 but also by
written agreements with the towns themselves.’
It should be carefully noted that the Mesta itself entered into
no commercial relations, owned no sheep, and took no part in
marketing any pastoral products. It was simply a protective
association, designed to facilitate the operations of its members,
ɪ See below, p. 165.
’ Munoz, i, p. 509: fuero of n33; Ulloa, Prins, de Cdceres, p. 115: edict of
1293 ; see also below, p. 168.
, Gonzilez, vi, p. ɪɪo: an exemption of 1258 in favor of the flocks from AIicante
which crossed the Aragonese border.
4 Quad. 1731, pt. 1, pp. 38-41.
* Ibid., pp. 23, 42-45, 61: charters of 1285, 1295, 1347, 1395 fl. See also Nov.
Pecop., lɪb. pl tit. 4.
4 Arch. Mesta, T-2, Toledo, 1376: a Concordia or agreement between the Mesta
aod Toledo, granting the former certain privileges in the markets of the latter.
Similar agreements were made with such important metropolitan markets as
ɑranada and Seville.