34
THE MESTA
to plead their cases at court, and to secure for them every possible
advantage. But although the Mesta took no direct part in mark-
eting wool, its persistent activity on behalf of its members was
undoubtedly the chief reason, not only for the remarkably early
nationalization of wool and sheep marketing throughout Castile
and the breakdown of mediaeval local restrictions upon this
traffic, but also for the far more important development of an
organized, large scale export trade in wool.
The history of the Spanish wool trade is yet to be written. It
is a phase of European commercial history which for its signifi-
cance and diverse and widespread influence has long merited far
more attention than it has received.1 Here we may note only cer-
tain aspects of this extensive subject, namely the part played by
the Mesta in encouraging that trade and in the introduction of
merino wool into the markets of the world.
At least as early as the twelfth century there had grown up a
more or less irregular exportation of Spanish wool to England.
In г г 72 Henry II of the latter country had attempted to protect
the interest of the English wool growers by forbidding this traffic.2
A century elapsed, however, before an overseas wool trade was
undertaken by the Spaniards with any regularity; and then,
within a generation after the founding of the Mesta, the fine
Castilian wools were beginning to appear in the ports of England
and Flanders. It was soon found necessary to establish a factory
or trading post of Spanish wool merchants at Bruges.3 Further-
more, the customs reports of the incoming trade of Southampton,
Sandwich, and Portsmouth, from 1303 onward, note the arrivals
1 There is a wealth of untouched material upon this subject in the town archives
of such north coast ports as Bilbao, San Sebastiân, and Santander, and of the
important interior wool markets of Burgos and Segovia. The archives of the
ancient consulados of some of these cities are also prolific in manuscripts on this
topic. Simancas documents upon the fairs of Medina del Campo are an obvious
source of further data, since that city was one of the points of concentration for
outward bound wool shipments. A beginning has been made in the study of the
east coast wool trade by Ventall6 Vintr6,s Historia de la Induslria Ianera Catalana
(Barcelona, 1907).
2 Adam Anderson, Origin of Commerce, i, p. 127; ii, p. 350; John Smith,
Chronicon Rusticum, i, p. 69.
3 Cartulaire de l’ancien consulat de l’Espagne à Bruges.
MARKETING
35
0f various consignments of the Spanish staple almost every year.1
These shipments evidently came from ports on the north coast of
Spain — San Sebastian, Santander, and Bilbao — where the
wools of Mesta flocks were concentrated for shipment each sum-
ιner after the northward migration. As a result of this rapidly
growing trade, various cofradias or gilds of merchants and ship-
ping interests were soon organized in the north coast cities.2
It is evident, then, that an active export traffic in wool was
noticeable at least fifty years before those middle decades of the
fourteenth century which were marked by the vigorous patronage
of Alfonso XI and the devastations of the Black Death. It will
be recalled that Alfonso and the Plague have commonly been
held responsible for the introduction of sheep migrations on a
large scale and' for the rise of the Mesta. The Great Pestilence
may have cleared the land for more pasturage and the support of
Alfonso XI undoubtedly helped the Mesta, but it is certain that
a rapidly growing Castilian sheep raising industry was making
itself felt in the foreign wool markets many years before the days
of the great Alfonso and the epidemic of 1348-50. While the
development of the overseas wool trade was perhaps too early in
the history of the Mesta to permit us to ascribe it entirely to
the appearance of that body, nevertheless the two events are evi-
dently associated. The Mesta, as will be explained later, grew in
power, and the wool exportations expanded, because the industry
which both represented was steadily increasing in importance.
Castile had, in fact, by far the most active and productive pastoral
indu try of any country in Europe in that period. Instead of re-
ceiving her first highbred sheep from England, as has been some-
ɪ N. S. B. Gras, Early English Customs System (Cambridge, 1917), §§ 32, 35, 37,
39, 43-
2 Cf. Eloy Garcfa de Quevedo y Concell6n, Ordenanzas del Consulado de Burgos
(Burgos, 1905), and Ordenanzas de la Ilustre Universtdad Casa de Conlratacion y Con-
sulado de San Sebastidn (Oyârzun, 1814), drawn up in 15rι for the newly organized
Consulado of Bilbao. In each of these cases, however, the origins of the organiza-
tions can be traced back to the early fourteenth century. See also the Documentas
• ■ ■ para la Historia de Pontevedra, iii (1904), containing the ordinances of a
slmilar gild in Pontevedra. These mediaeval codes were used as models for the
0rdinances of the merchant gilds of Saragossa (1771) and Valencia (1776).