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THE MESTA
antiquated machinery of state sheep tolls thus cleared away, it
was natural for Murat to issue, as part of the whole system of
Napoleonic reforms, a decree dated May 20, 1806, abolishing the
whole system of state taxes on migrants, together with the attend-
ant guarantees of protection. The subsequent edict of November
26, 1808, was intended to confirm this reform, “ to compensate
the state for the loss of these revenues by the more lasting and
beneficial incomes from husbandry, and to assure the rural popu-
lation of Apulia of that protection to their property upon which
depends the amelioration of agriculture and the consequent aug-
mentation of national riches and population ” — a thoroughly
mercantilist pronouncement in every way. The reaction and
return of the Bourbons in 1815 swept all of these reforms away,
and brought back the flocks with their large fees for a short-sighted
royalty. It was not until after i860 that improvements, in many
respects similar to those introduced by Charles III a century
before, permanently put an end to the system of state taxation of
migratory sheep.
Royal taxation of migratory herds in Aragon consisted of the
one tax, the earner age. which was probably adapted from a local
sheep tax of the same name by the strong founder of Aragonese
centralization, James I (1213-76). During the expulsion of the
Moors, the crown had secured extensive pasture lands which had
long been frequented by the sheep of the northern highlands.1
Local sheep taxes were already common there, and suggested
to the conquerors the fiscal possibilities of the industry. As a
result, there was soon established a series of royal toll gates along
the principal sheep highways for the collection of the Carnerage2
In some cases it was levied in money, as in the collection of three
sueldos and four diner os3 from every hundred head coming down
from Ribagorza. The usual practice, however, was an assessment
1 Asso, Hist, de la Econ. Polit, de Aragon, pp. 479-480, lists these lands and
indicates the taxes collected near each tract.
2 The marked difference between the carnerage and the Castilian montazgo has
been described above, on p. 149. Such minor taxes as the royal bridge tolls, for
example the pontage collected at Saragossa, will not be taken up here. Cf. For.
Reg. Arag., lib. 4, tit. 646 (1528).
8 Asso, op. cit., pp. 429-472, discusses Aragonese money at length; see also
Swift, James I of Aragon (Oxford, 1894), pp. 275 ff.
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 157
in kind. In the thirteenth century this amounted to ten head out
of every; flock, but this exorbitant rate, due to James the Con-
queror’s heavy war expenses, was cut to five by James II in 13 26.1
By the middle of that century the royal sheep toll had become
definitely fixed as to rates and collection points, which were form-
ally announced by an edict. This act also stipulated that any
local tax purporting to be a royal one should be forthwith dis-
continued.2 Numerous later decrees and ordinances outlined the
details of the system, protected the sheep owners from abuse at
the hands of the crown’s collectors, granted the flocks ample ac-
commodations near the toll gates, and insured them free passage
over the public highways as well as over their special routes.3
Royal sheep tolls were maintained in Aragon until the agrarian
reform edicts, drawn up in 1773 and after by Charles III along the
lines of his earlier Neapolitan measures, threw open to cultivation
most of the public pastures in southern Aragon.
Royal incomes in Valencia benefited very materially by the
fact that the inviting lowland pastures of that kingdom made it a
favorite winter grazing ground for most of the Aragonese and
many of the Castilian transhumantes. In 1245, seven years after
the capture of the city of Valencia from the Moors, James I an-
nounced his royal title to the herbage and earner age, taxes which
had been levied by Valencian towns on sedentary and on migra-
tory flocks respectively.4 As a further means of increasing the
royal revenues from sheep migrations into Valencia, Philip II
introduced into that realm the Castilian royal sheep tax of ser-
vicio y montazgo.6
1 Arch. Cor. Arag., Escrituras Jayme II, no. 247 (1339), is a degree exempting
flocks of the town of Daroca from all royal dues save the payment of six head out
of every thousand.
2 For. Reg. Arag., lib. 4, tit. 587.
3 M. Dieste y Jiménez, Diccionario del Derecho Civil Aragones (Madrid, 1869),
p. 263 (1488 decree); Fueros y Actos de Corte de . . . Aragon (Saragossa, 1678),
fol. 14.
4 Branchat, op. cit., i, pp. 217 ff.; Bull. Ord. Milit. Alcant., p. 734: an exemption
from the Valencian herbagium granted in 1268 by James to the flocks of the
military Order of Alcântara. Subsequent confirmations of the decree of 1245 are
found in Branchat, ii, pp. 125-132. Cf. Llorente, Noticias Histiricas, ii, p. 159,
on the use of herbage in the northern provinces of Castile.
5 Branchat, i, pp. 226-227.