40
THE MESTA
directly in the development of improved marketing methods, it
supplied a considerable part of the machinery needed by the
sheep raisers to carry out their part in the new arrangements.
In the end, the Mesta profited heavily in the large sums it was
able to raise from the Medina bankers during the sixteenth cen-
tury, thanks to the annual liquidation of the wool export obliga-
tions at the great fair?
A further feature of interest in connection with this matter of
the organization of the wool trade is the fact that the shipping
department of the Consulado of Burgos became the immediate
model for the more famous Casa de Contratacion at Seville.
This ‘ House of Trade ’ was established in 1503, for the manage-
ment of the transatlantic flotas, and in fact the whole of the
trade with the New World.2 The experience of the Spanish mon-
archs in organizing their wool export had, in fact, been almost
their only training in dealing with such a problem of commercial
administration. Out of this successful experience there grew the
conviction that large scale overseas traffic was best handled by the
flota or fleet system — a device well known long before this to the
Venetians and other traders — and by a concentration of foreign
trade management in a single institution having both judicial and
administrative functions.
Simultaneously with this unusual interest in the organization
of exporting, came an appreciation of the necessity for more care-
ful attention to the promotion and regulation of internal market-
ing. The easy-going Henry the Impotent, Isabella’s brother and
predecessor, had lavished various commercial concessions upon
his favorites. The diezmo del mar, or export tax collected at the
ports, was bestowed in 1469 upon one of the courtiers, who pro-
ceeded to reap a rich harvest in wool export taxes.3 This valuable
1 The full text of the 1494 edict is found in Ramirez, fols, cxlvi-cxlviii. See also
Clemencfn, EUgio, p. 249; Haebler, op. cit., p. 50, n. 9; Ventalld, op. cit., passim',
Altamira, Hist, de Espana, ii, pp. 490-5∞; T. Guiard y Larrauri, Hist, del Con-
sulado de Bilbao, vol. i (1913); Garcfa de Quevedo y Concell6n, Ordenanzas del
Consulado de Burgos.
2 Cf. C. H. Haring, Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies (Cam-
bridge, 1918).
3 Haebler, op. cit., pp. 113, 119.
MARKETING
41
source of income was not regained by the crown until 1559.
Henry had also disposed of monopolies covering the domestic
trade in certain pastoral products, notably hides, but these con-
cessions were soon revoked by Ferdinand and Isabella.1 Con-
structive legislation was then undertaken in order to build up
internal commerce within and between the now united kingdoms
of the peninsula. A series of decrees was issued modifying the
previously prohibitive customs duties and restrictions upon
trade across the Castilian-Aragonese border.2 These measures
were particularly welcome to the Mesta herdsman, whose migra-
tions into Navarre and Aragon were much hampered by the
refusals of the royal agents at the puertos secos, or border customs
houses,3 to allow any supplies to be carried by the shepherds
without payment of diezmos, or export duties. In some cases
these restrictions had even been interpreted so as to prevent
the flocks themselves from leaving Castile. Arrangements were
now made for the registration of flocks crossing the frontiers and
for the assessment of nominal tariffs, or none at all, upon such
animals as were sold before returning to Castile.4 An edict was
also issued establishing standard grades and weights for the wool
trade throughout the kingdom — a measure which was epoch-
making in the commercial history of Spain and was profoundly
significant in the development of the pastoral industry.6
Even more important evidence of the improvement in market-
ing methods is found in the regulation of what had been regarded
as the questionable operations of middlemen (reuendedores)6 and
dealers in wool ‘ futures.’ The latter class had been most obnox-
ious, especially because of the “ dangerous atmosphere of chance
which was about all their transactions,” according to the Mesta
1 Cortes, Toledo, 1480, cap. 79.
’ Ramirez, op. cit., fols, xc-xcii, cxxxiii, cxlv-cxlvi (1488-1503).
’ For a brief account of these puertos secos see Ripfa, Rentas Reales, iv, pp. 180 fi.
4 Cortes, Toledo, 1480, pet. in; Arch. Mesta, A-5, Alcâzar, 1487, exempting
a∏ supplies and animals en route to Murcia from tariffs; similarly, Prov. i, 10
(i488) ; C-I1Ciceres,1494, established rules for the registration of flocks crossing
1h≡ Portuguese border.
5 Clemencfn, Eligio, pp. 248-251; Arch. Mesta, Prov. i, 55 (1488).
Concordia de 1783, i, fols. 239-240: texts of ordinances of 1511 regulating the
tranSactions of wool middlemen.