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THE MESTA
Hmes alleged, she had long been “ famous . . . for fine cloth, be-
fore the English knew what it was to be clothed.” 1
In order to prevent the development of foreign competition in
the fine wool trade, the strictest rules were laid down by the na-
tional Cortes, at the behest of the Mesta, prohibiting the exporta-
tion of sheep from Spain.2 Migratory flocks crossing the frontier
on their annual migrations into Portugal, Aragon, or Navarre
were required to register in order to insure the return of all ani-
mals. Heavy penalties were levied upon any herdsman within
twelve leagues of the borders if he could not produce a registration
card for his sheep.3 The export of the wool itself came to be re-
stricted in the course of the fifteenth century, when the native
cloth factories had become important enough to demand con-
sideration. In 1442 schedules of cloth prices were promulgated
so as to protect the coarser native fabrics. Seven years later,
heavy import tariffs and frequent prohibitive edicts were used to
check the importation of foreign goods. Finally, in 1462, the
exportation of more than two-thirds of the wool clip for any given
year was prohibited.4 Charles V later undertook to limit the
supply for foreign trade to a half of the annual clip, with a view
toward further encouraging the native cloth industry. This
brought forth, however, such vehement protests from the Mesta,
and from the merchant gild of Burgos, where the exportable wool
was gathered for overland shipment to the north coast ports, that
the original proportions of two-thirds for export and one-third for
home consumption were restored.
The energies of the Mesta leaders, who were never far from the
court, had been concentrated more and more, toward the close of
the fifteenth century, upon the necessity of expanding the over-
’ Smith, Chronicon Ruslicum, i, p. 69.
2 Cortes, Palencia, 1313, pet. 17; Burgos, 1315, pets. 17, 18; Valladolid, 1322,
pet. 43; Madrid, 1339, pet. 5.
3 Nueva Recop., lib. 6, tit. ι8, ley 21.
, Nueva Rccop., lib. 6, tit. 18, ley 46; Cortes, Toledo, 1462, pet. 27; Laborde,
Itinéraire deseripiif de VEspagne (3d ed., 1827-30), v, p. 330; Las premdticas
que S. M. ha mandado hazer . . . (Alcalâ, 1552). The last-named volume com-
prises a rare collection of edicts concerning the wool trade during the period 1440-
1551. A copy of it is in the Paris Bib. Nat. (Rés. F. 1257:9) See also Monterroso,
Prdctica para escribanos (Madrid, r545), p. 143.
MARKETING
37
seas wool trade. This was, according to their arguments, an indis-
pensable source of royal revenue, a certain means of making
England and Flanders the debtors of Castile, and, in short, of
capitalizing most advantageously the leading natural resource of
the peninsula.
It was during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella that this
policy of aggressively promoting wool exports received its greatest
encouragement. It became the keynote of the commercial pro-
gramme of those royal devotees of mercantilism. With their
characteristically shrewd appreciation of Spanish regard for
tradition, they ostentatiously turned to the past, avoided abrupt
innovation, and veiled the coming of their wool trade campaign
by confirming the edict of 1462. As we have noted, the latter
document undertook to conserve the supply of Spain’s ‘ classic
staple ’ as the basis of a native textile industry. As time went on,
however, it gradually became apparent that, for the first time in
history, the commercial affairs of the Spanish kingdoms were
administered upon a carefully planned policy aimed persistently
at one definite purpose, namely, the exportation of those raw
materials for which the greatest quantities of gold and foreign
commodities could be secured in return.1
The first step of Ferdinand and Isabella in this programme was
in connection with the organization of the wool export trade. The
efficiency of the Spanish factories at Bruges, London, La Ro-
chelle, and Florence was given careful attention and the mer-
chants interested in them were endowed with special privileges.2
The importation of foreign cloths into Castile, which had long
been extensive and had now taken on increased activity as a
corollary to the heavy wool exports, was at first encouraged. It
was not until after Isabella’s death (1504) that Ferdinand made
some attempts to develop a native woollen cloth industry. He
introduced elaborately detailed gild regulations and even pre-
scribed a form of domestic or ‘ putting out, system, whereby
l Further details of this mercantilism of the Catholic Kings may be found in
Haebler, Wirtschaflliche Bliile Spaniens, pp. 6-7, and in Ansiaux, “ Hist. écon. de
l’Espagne,” in Revue d’économie politique, June, 1893, p. 528.
2 Nueva Recop., lib. 3, tit. 13, ley ι.