134
THE MESTA
obsolete character of its privileges to the greatest possible public-
ity; subsequent events proved the wisdom of his judgment.1
Fundamentally, his view coincided with that of Acevedo just
cited, namely that ∙oecinos or townspeople had exclusive right to
enclose common land and to administer justice within their town
limits as against any intruders such as the migratory herds or
itinerant justices. This reservation of local matters for local
officers had been the keynote of the long struggles against the
entregadores in the Chancillerias and the Cortes. We have al-
ready seen how the Mesta had been gradually forced to give way
before this pressure of particularism or separatism. In each set
of instructions sent out to the entregadores by the President,
notably those of 1757, 1779, and 1782, there was further recogni-
tion of the precedence of local interests over those of the sheep
owners.2 These preliminaries led inevitably to the last step, the
abolition of the office of entregador by the decree of August 29,
1796, and the distribution of its functions among various officials,
chiefly the Corregidores.3
Campomanes reflected the intelligent opinion of his times re-
garding the Mesta and its judiciary in his summary of the charges
made by Estremadura against the sheep owners in 1764.4 In this
document he pointed out the analogy between the rights and
privileges granted in the twelfth century by grateful Castilian
monarchs to the Christian conquerors of that province, and the
similar privileges given out some four centuries later in the re-
Partimientos of the new world conquistadores. The sixteenth-
century pioneers, many of whom were Estremadurans, such as
Cortes and Pizarro, had, like their mediaeval ancestors, received
certain liberties in recognition of their services as conquerors for
their lord the king, and as warriors of their faith against heresy
and heathenism.6 These liberties took the form of a large measure
1 The copy of the Concordia de 1783 in the Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève in
Paris (Départaient des Manuscrits) has two interesting pages of manuscript notes
in a contemporary hand, giving data from the French ambassador at Madrid re-
garding Campomanes1 purposes in conducting this investigation.
t Concordia de 1783, ii, fols. 38 v, r83 v-189, 222.
• Nov. Reeop., lib. 7, tit. 27, ley ɪɪ (43 caps.).
4 Expedienle de 1771, pt. 2 (Respuestas de Ios Fiscales), fols. 40 ff.
6 Ibid., pt. 2, fol. 45 v.
DECLINE OF THE ENTREGADOR 135
of autonomy and independence from outside interference, as was
usually the case with all frontier and border settlements. This
cherished heritage of the settlers in the reconquered lands of old
Spain and in the conquered empires overseas was incorporated
in all of their fueros and other charters. It was against this an-
cient and highly prized prerogative that the Mesta and the en-
tregadores waged their long and, for them, disastrous campaign.
The migratory pastoral industry may have been inevitable be-
cause of geographic and climatic conditions in the peninsula;
but politically the whole force of tradition was set against it. No
more convincing evidence of this could be cited than that which
is revealed in the history of the alcalde entregador.