IÔ2
THE MESTA
taxes, in exchange for loyalty and support to the crown,1 was
especially prevalent in Castile, because of the constant pres-
sure which the frequent wars put upon the royal prestige and
treasury. This circumstance has given us a full series of such
exemptions, which, be it noted, synchronize closely with the
chief campaigns against the Moors, and we are, therefore, in a
position to make a thorough survey of the local sheep taxes of the
period. Fifty or more of these documents cover the period from
the reign of Sancho the Great (970-1035), the first king of a
united Spanish Christendom, down to the founding of the Mesta
in 1273 or thereabouts. They fall into three groups: first, those
granted during the campaigns of the first Castilian Alfonso and
his illustrious companion in arms, the Cid, whose successes came
to a climax with the capture of Toledo in 1085, only to be fol-
lowed by the inglorious disaster at Zallaka in 1086; secondly,
those issued in the turbulent middle decades of the twelfth cen-
tury, during the rise of the newly established military orders;
and thirdly, those bestowed as rewards for aid in the triumphant
campaigns from Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) to Cadiz (1262),
which swept the Moors out of Andalusia and thus established
Castilian dominion over the whole of the southern pasturage
area.2
In the earlier years of the Reconquest there was a frequent
tendency to qualify these concessions to the flocks of the favored
town or monastery. This qualification sometimes took the form
of a limitation of the number of sheep to be exempt from local
tolls;3 but more frequently the area for untaxed migrations was
1 Although this was the usual cause for such exemptions, it was by no means the
only one. Religious zeal and work in the propagation of the faith were frequently
rewarded by such privileges. The migratory sheep of herdsmen and owners living
in Salamanca were so favored ‘ because of the fame of that city as the home of one
of the four great centres of learning in the world, and its consequent eminence as
one of the unique things (cosas singular es) of the Spanish kingdoms.’ Gonzalez,
v, pp. 546-551 (1465).
2 A study of the dates of some fifty similar exemptions, selected from the two
centuries after this period, will reveal a like tendency to appear during times of
stress, notably in the civil wars of Peter the Cruel and Henry of Trastamara.
• Gonzalez, v, pp. 218-220: a royal privilege to the town of Pineda, dated 1287,
exempting 15,000 sheep of that town from local tolls in all parts of the realm.
MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 163
restricted.1 In every case the obvious intention was to modify
the ancient and widespread taxation of these herds so as to favor
certain communities which were loyal to the crown.
Among the more common taxes of migratory sheep in Castile
during the Middle Ages, two were prevalent throughout the king-
dom from the earliest times : the montazgo and the portazgo. These
deserve special comment, not only because of their antiquity, but
because of the influence which they had upon the whole fiscal his-
tory of the migratory pastoral industry in Castile, as well as in
other parts of the peninsula.2
The montazgo, as we have seen, was originally a fine for tres-
pass upon the montes, or wooded pasture lands, and the assess-
ment of it was a privilege attached to the ownership of such
lands. When the lord of any given montes happened to be the
king, the montazgo was a royal income. For reasons that will be
later explained, however, Castilian royalty did not capitalize its
opportunities in this connection until the middle of the twelfth
century, when the first organized efforts were made to collect
montazgos for the royal exchequer. By that time the towns had
acquired jurisdiction, largely as rewards for services in the Moor-
ish wars, over large tracts of montes, and consequently over the
title to collect montazgos.
ɪ Munoz, pp. 292-293: the famous fuero of Nâjera (cα. 1020), which gave its
herds exemption from local tolls in all woodlands between the Ebro and Anguiano,
a radius of about a day’s journey from the town. Ibid., p. 429: the fuero of San-
giiesa (1122), which established a similar free zone for its flocks “ in circuitu San-
gossa quantum potueritis in uno die andare et tomare.” See also the fuero of
Câceres of 1229, in Ulloa, Privilégias de Cdceres. A privilege of Alfonso X to the
town of Briones ¢1256) exempted sheep of that town from montazgos, provided they
returned to Briones at nightfall. Acad. Hist., Ms. E-126, fols. 79-95.
2 Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. montatieum, gives illustrations from Sicily, France,
and Portugal. He notes the early French monta glum, which has sometimes been
confused with montazgo (ci. J. Lopez de Ayala, Contribuciones é Impuestos en Lean
У Castilla, p. 127). Occasionally the term was applied to a tax for ferrying. Besides
the usual Latin montaticum, the Sicilian montitium, the Portuguese montadego and
montado (J. de Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Elucidario das palavras, Lisbon, 1798-99, ii,
P∙ ɪʒɪ), there was also the Castilian montanera, though this was more uncommon
than the montazgo (cf. Revista de Archives, ii, p. 174)∙ Colmeiro, i, p. 95, suggests
that the montazgo and similar taxes may have originated as early as the Roman
Pe∏od, but the evidence on this is by no means convincing.