38
THE MESTA
successive manufacturing processes were completed in turn by
different groups of workmen, operating through intermediaries
not unlike the entrepreneurs of the seventeenth-century English
cloth industry.1
The expulsion of the Jews in 1492 made necessary a further
impetus to the exportation of wool and other available raw ma-
terials. This was due to the fact that the Jews formed the largest
group of merchants in Spain familiar with money economy, and
handled most of the operations of foreign exchange. The interval
between their expulsion and the coming of the Flemish and Italian
satellites of the Emperor Charles—a gap of nearly thirty years—
was a period of confusion in the affairs of Castilian merchants.
It was inevitable, therefore, that the latter should be encouraged
by their sovereigns to turn to the exploitation of the wool trade
as one of the obvious means of adjusting their foreign obligations.
This was the situation which in 1494 brought into existence the
famous Consulado or foreign trade house of Burgos, to be fol-
lowed in 15 г г by the establishment of a similar institution at
Bilbao on the north coast. After the edict of expulsion of 1492,
business, particularly the wool export trade, had become hope-
lessly clogged. Litigations were being delayed, apparently be-
cause of inadequate experience with the mechanism of foreign
trade, until, in the words of the decree of 1494, “ some commercial
suits bade fair to become immortal.” The Consulado `ftas there-
fore founded at Burgos on the lines of certain trade administrative
courts of Barcelona and Valencia. According to the decree, the
ɪ Nueva Recop., lib. 9, tit. 27, ley 6; tit. 28, ley ι, and tit. 29, ley 6; Prescott,
Ferdinand and Isabella, pt. 2, chap, xxvi; Capmany, Cuestiones crit., pp. 25-72.
Guicciardini, Opere, vi, pp. 275-276, makes mention of some attempts to promote
a cloth industry in 1512; see also Clemencfn1 Elogio, p. 244; Cortes, Madrid, 1515,
pet. 14; and the city ordinances of Seville, approved by Ferdinand and Isabella
in May, 1492, regulating the operations of 31 weavers in that capital: Ordenantas
de Sevilla (Seville, 1527), fols. 206-211. The latter were elaborated by Ferdinand
in 1511 into a code of 118 paragraphs specifying details on wool-washing, widths
and weights of cloth, adulteration, dyeing, inspection, and the distribution of the
cloth in successive stages of completion among various crafts: cf. Ramirez, Prag-
mdticas, fols, clxxvii-clxxxiv. Upon earlier regulations of the native cloth industry
and the restriction of the sale of foreign cloths, see Ramirez, fols, cxvii-cxix
(1494-1501).
MARKETING 39
institution was intended “ to expedite shipping by organizing the
exportation of goods in fleets, to prevent fraud and theft by mer-
chants and intermediaries,” and, in short, to build up an efficient
marketing organization to handle the raw materials of northern
Castile, especially the wool from the Mesta flocks.
The establishment of this export house, coming as it did upon
the heels of the first extensive codification of the laws of the
Mesta itself,1 was clearly a part of a broad plan to build up for the
whole wool industry, from pastures to market, a comprehensive
organization to facilitate the exploitation of this great resource.
The details of the operations of the Consulado were carefully
defined, and the specifications were strictly enforced by the
watchful Isabella and her agents. The prior and Consulado of
Burgos were to be under royal supervision, and were to have
charge of the loading and allocation of the ships belonging to the
fleets (Jlotas). After these vessels had assembled at north coast
ports, notice was sent to wool growers of Burgos, Segovia, Lo-
grono, and the other home towns of Mesta members, announcing
the time when and where their wool for export was to be gathered.
The ships used were to belong only to native Spaniards. Fac-
tories or selling agencies were to be maintained in Flanders,
France, and England at specified points; and the factores were to
carry on all their operations according to instructions from the
Burgos office, to which they were to send their accounts each year
for auditing. The books were then to be sent to the great fair at
Medina del Campo in charge of a committee of merchants, two
representing the Burgos office and two the wool growers and mer-
chants of other towns. The committee was then to assign the
Proper shares of the profit to each of the growers and merchants
contributing wool for the transactions of the Consulado. These
claims of Mesta members upon shares in the profits of the wool
trade were frequently used, during the financial difficulties of the
first Hapsburgs, as securities for heavy loans to the crown by the
Mesta.2 It is clear, then, that although the latter had no share
1 See below, p. 49, on the code of Malpartida, 1492.
Arch. Mesta, Cuentas, Feb., 1537, Aug., 1537, Feb., 1344: the accounts of
sUch transactions. See also below, pp. 279 ff.