THE MESTA
1S0
In Valencia, as in Aragon, we find the montazgos and other
local taxes which antedate the Reconquest and give evidence of
the migration of sheep from the towns of Christian Aragon into
Moorish Valencia.1 Using these ancient local taxes as models,
James the Conqueror created in 1245 a system of royal sheep
tolls.2 Thus he introduced the second or national stage of the
fiscal history of this industry. This did not mean, however, that
local sheep taxes thereupon disappeared in Valencia; on the con-
trary, they were continued in spite of all efforts of the crown to
interfere with them.3 With the coming of the strong monarchy
of the sixteenth century the royal sheep taxes were extended in
Valencia as they were in the other kingdoms of the peninsula.
The gradual spread of economic and political disintegration gave
the zealous town officials their opportunity; they proceeded to
take full advantage of the distress and impotence of the higher
authorities in Valencia, and bought up or preëmpted the royal
dues.4 In this manner the fiscal interest of the central govern-
ment in the pastoral industry of Valencia was largely eliminated,
and the tax obligations of the sheep owners reverted to their
primitive form of local penalties upon the intruding sheep.
The inviting and accessible upland grazing ground of Navarre
made that kingdom a favorite summer rendezvous for Castilian
AIbarradn of 1234 specify that “ if any strange sheep come into the town pas-
tures, they are to be fined with the montazgo and expelled without injury. This
montazgo belongs to the townspeople ” (Acad. Hist., Traggia Colec., Ms. vi, fol.
ɪɪ). Laterordinances of Albarracfn renewed this provision; cf. Suma de Fueros
de las Ciudades de Santa Maria de Albarrazin y de Teruel (Valencia, 1531), fol. viii;
Insaculacidn y Ordinaciones de la Ciudad de S. M. de Albarrazin (Saragossa, 1655)
pp. 82-83, and the same (Saragossa, 1666), p. 86.
ɪ Ordinaciones de la Mesta de Albarrazin (Saragossa, 1740) outline the organi-
zation of a typical Mesta or sheep owners’ gild of one of the towns whose flocks
moved down into Valencia each year. These ordinances give the usual details as
to the ancient montazgos.
1 Vicente Branchat, Traiado de Ios Dereehos y Regalias que Corresfonden al Real
Patrimonio en el Reyno de Valencia (Valencia, 1784-86, 3 vols.) i, pp. 217 fl.
3 As, for example, when James I created new town commons, or boalares, on
which sheep might pasture free from all taxes, local or royal (Branchat, op. cit., i,
p. 211); or when James II, in 1320, undertook to exempt various Aragonese herds-
men from Valencian town taxes (Arch. Corona Arag., Escrituras Jayme II, reg.
184 ff., 245-246).
4 Branchat, op. cit., i, p. 228: documents of 1630 and 1658.
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION lζl
and Aragonese flocks. In spite of this opportunity for rich
harvests in tolls and taxes, the Navarrese were unusually liberal
and friendly toward their visitors. The ancient fueros, or codes,
of the kingdom provided that “ strange sheep which pass a town
are to be given a place to rest one or two nights if necessary, and
the town is not to charge for this service.” 1 Later legislation con-
firmed this attitude. Access to the mountain pastures of Andia,
Encia, and Urbassa was not to be hampered by tolls levied along
the way.2 In case of damages, migratory flocks were to be as-
sessed exactly as though they were natives, “ since the sheep of
Navarre go into Aragon and Castile quite as much as those of the
latter kingdoms visit their neighbors.” 3 The earliest records
show only royal taxes on the flocks, probably because the Bar-
denas region, where most of the migrants congregated each year
and where the annual meeting of the owners was held,4 had from
time immemorial been part of the royal demesne. If any records
should be found antedating the crown’s control of that region,
they will undoubtedly show the same local taxes and penalties
which appeared in the early experience of other peoples with this
problem. The only evidences of local sheep taxes in Navarre are
found toward the close of the Middle Ages, when they appeared
in the usual form of schedules of damage charges for trespassing.8
During the early part of the modern era this local share of the
taxation levied on the wandering herds was gradually increased
at the expense of the ancient royal sheep dues. As will be pointed
out later, ‘the taxes levied by the central government were in
course of time bought up by the towns in or near which they were
collected, and in their stead a fixed annual tribute was paid by the
local authorities to the crown. This process, which began during
the period 1400-1450, was at its height during the financial em-
1 Fueros del Reyno de Navarra (Pamplona, 1815), lib. 6, tit. ι, cap. 6.
2 Nov. Recop. Nav., ii, p. 129 (1580), lib. 2, tit. 4, Ieyes 40-41,
3 Ibid., i, pp. 701, 705 (1565, 1585), lib. ι, tit. 17, Ieyes 19, 26; ii, p. 134 (ι6o8),
lib. 2, tit. 4, ley 47.
4 Compare the annual Mesta meetings in Estremadura, cited above, p. 50.
6 Nov. Recop. Nav., ii, pp. 691-695, lib. 4, tit. 5, Ieyes 1-4 (1547 fl.). Alonso,
Recop, de fueros y Ieyes de Navarra (Madrid, 1848, 2 vols.), ii, p. 359, describes the
tolls collected in mediaeval Navarre for guides supplied to the passing flocks by
the towns.