152
THE MESTA
barrassment of the Spanish crown in the seventeenth century,
when one city after another bought up the royal taxes levied near
its gates or on its migratory herds.1 The Cortes made several
futile attempts, notably in 1678, to check this wholesale disposal
of the royal income, but to no avail. By 1755 the great Bardenas
region yielded no further revenue to the crown, all of it having
been alienated to the towns during the preceding centuries.2 We
have, therefore, in Navarre, as in Valencia, a completion of the
cycle: the elimination of royal sheep taxes and the restoration of
the old original condition of widespread local tolls and penalties
which prevailed at the beginnings of the industry.
One more illustration from another part of the peninsula will
suffice to round out and conclude this summary of the local taxa-
tion of migrating flocks in countries adjoining Castile. In Portu-
gal, as in the regions discussed above, there was an ancient sheep
tax or penalty levied by the towns as one of their exclusive priv-
ileges. A royal charter of 1166 stipulated that “ all who stopped
over in EIbora (Evora ?) with their sheep, should pay a monta-
digo of four head from every flock.” 3 In 1518, the town officers
of Villa Nova de Gaia, near Oporto, resolved that “ in accordance
with ancient custom, there shall be collected from all strange
cattle visiting the town’s jurisdiction a montadgo, because this
land was given originally for the use of the townspeople and their
animals.” 4
We may briefly summarize, then, the experience of these coun-
tries with the question of local taxes on migratory sheep. First,
these taxes afford early evidence of the ancient conflict between
the agrarian and pastoral elements of society. Secondly, they
were originally intended as penalties, not as sources of revenue,
ɪ Yanguas, op. cit., i, pp. 94-95, gives a list of these transactions during the
period indicated, with the prices paid by the towns in each case.
2 Ibid., ii, p. 671. Alonso, op. cit., ii, p. 286, cites the unimportant pontage as
the only sheep tax remaining to the crown in the time of Charles III (1759-88).
3 Porlugaliae Monumenta Historica, Leges et Consuetudines, i, p. 392. Many
other instances of the monlaticum in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries occur in
this collection. See also Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montalicum (Alcajonas, near
Evora, saec. xii).
4 Foraes de Villa Nova de Gaya (Porto, 1823), p. 31.
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 153
though they tended to assume the latter character as time went
on. Thirdly, they continued without interruption, in spite of the
subsequent development of the fiscal relations between the crown
and the industry; and in two instances, in Valencia and Navarre,
there occurred a curious reversion to primitive conditions in
the widespread prevalence of local assessments and penalties, and
the disappearance of royal sheep dues.
With these general outlines of local sheep taxation in mind, we
may turn to an examination of the taxes collected from migrating
flocks by the central government in each of the Mediterranean
lands. The rise of a central power came as a boon to the sorely
harassed sheep owners, for it gave them an ally and defender
against the constant exactions of the local tax collectors. The
sovereign, like the migratory herdsman, found his only hope in
centralization and unity, as opposed to the independence of the
towns. In some of the countries under consideration, such as
France and Portugal, the beginnings of state taxation of the mi-
grants are obscure because of the lack of materials on the pastoral
industry during the early period. In other regions, however,
especially in southern Italy and to a less extent in Aragon and
Navarre, the earliest evidence shows the industry well organized
under the patronage of a strong central government, to which it
was paying an annual tax. The old sheep highways had been
taken over by the state, and at fixed toll points a pro rata tax was
levied each year on the passing sheep. This system was intended
partly as a substitute for many local taxes and fees levied along
the way, and partly as a guarantee of protection against abuses
by collectors of such sheep tolls as were still levied by wayside
towns.
The best example of the operations of this form of state taxa-
tion to be found, outside Castile, was that developed in southern
Italy. There the earliest traces of the industry date back to the
times of the Roman republic, and show that even then there was
a well established system of state taxation of roving flocks. The
pastio agrestis described by Varro was evidently a pastoral or-
ganization designed to facilitate the state regulation of the lands