ɪsɛ
THE MESTA
The situation in Navarre, so far as royal taxes on sheep were
concerned, was dominated by the fact that the Bardenas region,
which comprised practically all of the pasture lands frequented
by the migrants, had from time immemorial been part of the
crown demesne.1 These lands were accessible upon payment each
year of taxes called pechos or cameras. Occasionally, as a reward
for special service, a limited exemption was granted to the herds
of some locality or monastery. Instances of this occurred during
the turbulent times of the Reconquest and the later wars.2 Usually
these grants were in the form of restricted favors, such as the
right to cut green wood for making corrals, or to pasture a certain
number of sheep free of charge. Even in these cases the tax on a
whole flock was seldom cancelled altogether, but was commuted
into a small fixed annual tribute — a practice which seems to have
had its beginnings during the first half of the fifteenth century.
The ordinances of 1499 governing the use of the Bardenas pas-
tures establish clearly the absence of sheep taxes levied by way-
side towns, but such exactions began to appear soon after that
date.3 The process of alienating the royal tax on migrants by
concessions and sales to towns and villages was in full swing by
about 1650; and by 1755 the local officials in and near the
Bfirdenas region had bought up all such crown levies.4
This survey of the taxation of migratory sheep in various
western Mediterranean countries presents three conclusions.
First, and most important from a general point of view, we are
here confronted with a distinctly non-feudal fiscal system, which
is based upon a tax on movable property. The widely accepted
theory which undertakes to explain the appearance of taxation on
movables as an aftermath and solution of the growing inadequacy
l Yanguas, op. cit., ii, p. 418.
2 Ibid., i, p. 85; ii, p. 421: instances of 1092, 1117, 1329, ɪʒʒo, 1412, and later.
3 Ibid., i, pp. 87-92; ii, pp. 414, 595, 626. The crown also levied numerous taxes
{lezda, peaje, saca, chapilel, etc.) upon the importation, exportation, and sale of
supplies to transients, especially to migratory flocks. Ibid., ii, pp. 596, 6ι8, 629-
630. Compare with the Castilian portazgo (below, p. 164) and alcabala (p. 260).
4 See above, p. 152.
SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 159
of the old feudal land taxes is, therefore, of dubious value, so far as
these countries are concerned. Secondly, we note the widespread
local taxes and penalties upon migratory sheep. These were the
earliest manifestations of any financial relations between the
towns and their annual visitors. Indeed, these assessments ap-
pear with the first traces of the industry itself ; they are the fiscal
expression of the ancient social conflict between pastoral and
agrarian interests, and they are to be found whenever and when-
ever that conflict occurs. Thirdly, as a consequence and develop-
ment of the local taxes, there came the taxation of the flocks by
the central government. This phase simply expresses the growth
of national out of local economy, a process, let it be repeated,
which was in no sense a substitution of the new order for the old,
since both national and town taxes continued to be levied upon
the migrating flocks. In two instances, Valencia and Navarre,
we observed the disappearance of the royal taxes through their
reversion to the towns. The royal or state assessments differed
from the local ones in that their object was not penal but strictly
fiscal, being intended only as a source of revenue. These national
tolls are notable, furthermore, because they made necessary an
elaborate system of state maintenance of sheep highways, pasture
lands, toll stations, and rate schedules: in other words, a con-
siderable piece of administrative machinery, which soon developed
into a thorough organization of the industry. This was notably
the case with the dogana of Italy and the Casa de Ganaderos of
Aragon.
With these details in mind regarding the fiscal relations between
the sheep owners and the governments, both local and central, in
other lands, we are prepared to approach the same questions in
Castile. Are there evidences in that kingdom of a pre-feudal tax
on movable property on any considerable scale ? How early and
in what form do local taxes and penalties on migratory flocks
make their appearance ? Does the unusual wealth of materials
available on the history of this industry in Castile enable us to
follow closely the evolution from local to royal taxes, from town
to national economy ? Does the Castilian experience establish