The name is absent

THE MESTA

largely an organization of middle class sheep owners, with a con-
siderable proportion of the poorer pastoral element during its
earlier years, and with perhaps a slight tendency toward more
concentrated ownership during and after the latter part of the
sixteenth century. At no time, however, in its long history was it
in any sense a combination of large owners.

In general the internal organization of the Mesta was simple,
efficient, and, because of its concentration under the President
and the quadrilla heads, eminently fitted for the work with which
it was entrusted. The whole purpose of the Mesta required,
above all things, concerted action, whether it be in the prosecu-
tions of its itinerant legal staff, in its financial obligations to the
crown, or in its collective bargaining with pasturage owners. As
we proceed to examine the history of each one of these three fun-
damental interests or activities of the organization — judicial,
fiscal, and pastoral — the efficient functioning of the internal
mechanism just described will become evident. It was not until
the demoralization of the eighteenth century that the institution
became encumbered with throngs of notaries, superfluous at-
torneys, and bailiffs. The curse of empleadismo which has long
been one of the plagues of the Spanish body politic then settled
upon the ancient gild of the sheep owners, and bankruptcy,
followed by disintegration, soon overwhelmed it.

While study of the internal organization of the Mesta might
be interesting and instructive, because of the light which it throws
upon a practicallyunexplored field of economic history, namely the
industrial and gild life of Spain, it is the external relations of the
institution which reflect its real importance in the evolution of
Spanish society. From the time when the name of the Honorable
Assembly of the Mesta of Shepherds was first inscribed on the
parchments of the thirteenth century, until the organization was
converted into the present-day Stock Owners’ Association in 1836-
it was always the zealous and able guardian of the welfare of its
members in their relations with those whom they met on their an-
nual marches. As has been indicated above, these relations fall into
three main categories, namely, judicial, fiscal, and pastoral, using
the last in the limited sense of pertaining to pasturage. These

INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA 63
were, of course, by no means mutually exclusive; the chief func-
tions of the itinerant judiciary of the Mesta, for example, involved
the protection of the flocks from extortionate tolls and pasturage
rentals. A historical survey of each of these activities will present,
far more effectively than a study of formal charters and bulky
ordinances, a fair and accurate picture of the part actually played
by the Mesta in the economic history of Castile.

<<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   >>

More intriguing information