ι4?
THE MESTA
sured an unhindered right of way across the unoccupied lands of
all towns along their accustomed routes. Legitimate damage
claims of landowners were to be paid, but the town officials were
not to collect any tolls from passing flocks which enjoyed a brief
rest on the town commons.
In spite of the sweeping assurances of these exemptions, the
sheep owners were compelled to recognize the long established
right of many localities to collect certain dues. This is made
evident by certain ordinances of the Saragossan Casa instructing
the members to report all cases of payment to town officers for
the use of montes blancos y communes (unoccupied and common
woodlands), so that ‘ any unjust exactions might be prosecuted.’1
Under no circumstances was any member of the Casa to make an
agreement with a town as to any sheep dues to be paid by
him. Such individual bargaining broke down the efficacy of the
organization and was “ the cause of great inconvenience to the
city of Saragossa, to this Casa and its members.” 2 This strict
insistence upon unified action was the result of much experience
with the strong comunidades, or town leagues of the pasturage
districts. There were four of these associations, with headquar-
ters at Daroca, Teruel, Calatayud, and Albarracin, respectively.
They were able to impose heavy penalties upon trespassing herds-
men, though the latter were consoled by the assurances of their
Casa, which stood ready to “ reimburse members to the extent of
all damages, costs, and losses resulting from any excessive fines
for the use of commons.” With the rise in power of the Casa
during the sixteenth century, these penalties were graded down
and stabilized as regular and mutually recognized tolls.’
The most important of these local sheep taxes in Aragon was
the montaticum or montazgo, which will be discussed in detail
Alcaniz, Teruel, and various points in Valencia are specified as illegal, but the
constant repetition of this in successive documents indicates the inefficacy of the
prohibition.
1 Ibid. (ed. of 1640), pp. ʒo-ʒɪ. 2 Ibid., p. 52.
3 Instances of these tolls and of local ordinances regulating the passage of sheep
through the town lands in charge of a local guide are to be found in the Ordenanzas
de la Junta de Goviemo y Pueblos de la Comunidad de Calatayud (1751), pp. 41-42,
and in the Ordenanzas reales de la Comunidad de Daroca (1741), p. 27. These
regulations date back to 1270 and 1336.
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 149
below.1 For the present we may note that it was the ancient
penalty used by the towns to punish intruders in the local montes
or wooded commons. The montazgo was much older and more
widespread than any royal or national tax on migratory sheep;
references to it occur in the earliest mediaeval ordinances of nearly
every inland town in the peninsula. Curiously enough, the exist-
ence of this tax in Aragon has apparently been quite unknown to
the acknowledged authorities on the economic history of that
kingdom,2 though there is an instance of it in that region, probably
as the equivalent of the French tax montagium or montage, as
early as the ninth century.3 The common assumption on this
subject has been that the Castilian montazgo was the same as the
Aragonese earnerage.i This is quite inaccurate; in fact the only
characteristic in common between these two taxes was that they
were both paid by migrating shepherds. The montazgo in Castile,
as in all other parts of the peninsula, was always a local penalty
for trespass, whereas the carnerage, a tax seldom found outside of
Aragon, was a royal toll collected, as will be shown later, purely
for revenue purposes. If a counterpart of the Aragonese carne-
rage is sought in Castile, it can be found in the servicio y montazgo.
The carnerage corresponds exactly to the latter, which should be
carefully distinguished from the Ordinarymontazgo just described.
The montazgo in Aragon, as elsewhere, was a penalty levied by
town officers for trespasses on the town commons. Its proceeds
were turned over entirely to the local treasury.6
l See below, pp. 163 S. Monies were not forests, but rolling country with scat-
tered trees. Bosques were the more densely wooded areas. In the eighteenth cen-
tury the term montazgo was also applied, especially in the forested north coast
provinces, to certain parts of the trees used for naval construction. This was,
however, only a provincialism. Cf. Jordana, Voces Forestales, p. 178.
2 Asso, Historia de la Economia Politica de Aragon (Saragossa, 1798); Lopez de
Ayala op. cit.; Colmeiro.
3 Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montaticum, citing a document of about the year
880.
4 Asso, op. cit., p. 480; Lopez de Ayala op. cit., p. 650; Colmeiro, i, p. 492.
6 Ducange, I. c., besides giving the illustration for ca. 880, referred to above,
which is from the Spanish March, cites another for the year 1164 of the Spanish
ɛra, from a charter issued by Alfonso the Emperor. Similar cases are found in the
fuero of Teruel, dated 1176 (Forum Turolii, ed. F. Aznar y Navarro, Saragossa,
19°5, tit. 477), and in the ordinances of Daroca, cited above, p. 36. The laws of