166
THE MESTA
to take the place of the theoretically royal but actually local
portazgos, namely the alcabala, a tax on sales, which became
common in the fourteenth century.1 Although the portazgo was
supposedly levied upon goods and animals en route to a neighbor-
ing market, the destination of those paying the tax was quite
likely to be remote from the point where it was paid, since the
jurisdiction of the mediaeval Spanish town frequently included
many square leagues of rural districts and scores of villages. There
are even instances of ρortazgos being collected by Castilian towns
and churches from shepherds on their migrations across the
southern borders into the Moorish kingdoms. For the Mesta,
therefore, the local portazgo lost its original meaning of an octroi
on sheep or wool en route to the local market; and, like the mon-
tazgo, it came to be but another wayside toll on the migratory
herds.2
In theory, then, and according to some of the earlier codes, such
as the Partidas, the collection of these two imposts was an attri-
bute of the sovereign; but in actual practice, since their earliest
appearance, they had been levied by local or private authorities,
pp. 73-79∙ ɪhe rates are all given in money, and they give an excellent idea of the
diversity of internal commerce in mediaeval Castile. They include food stuffs,
iron, copper, lead, Moorish slaves, shoes, mirrors, and woollen cloth from Segovia,
one of the Mesta’s headquarters.
1 See below, p. 260. The Iezda of Aragon and Navarre has been sometimes con-
fused with the portazgo, but it, like the alcabala, was a crown tax, though it re-
sembled the portazgo in that it was levied upon goods brought to the town markets
for sale. Cf. Yanguas, Dice, de Aniigiledades, ii, p. 603; Arch. Hist. Nac., Floranes
Mss. 12-24-1, B-ιo.
2 In 1200 the bishop of Cuenca was levying a portazgo on sheep being taken to
the lands of the Moors to be sold, “ et quod ganatum in terram Maurorum non
vendidit portaticum illud reddat.” Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-ι-C xg, fols. 483-484.
This clause brings out clearly the theory that the portazgo was levied upon animals
to be sold, but the fruitless protests of the Mesta in later years gave evidence that
the Portazgueros were seldom particular as to the objects or destinations of their
victims. Further evidence of sheep migrations and trade between Christian and
Moorish territory is found in Munoz, Colecci6n de Fueros, pp. 375 (1137), 417
(ɪɪʧ), 464 (1131). Other instances of portazgos upon migrants going long dis-
tances are found in Arch. Osuna, Béjar Mss., leg. 351, no. ɪ (1237); Acad. Hist.,
Ms. 12~19-1, fols. 172 ff. (1217). Reductions or removals of portazgos were one
of the common devices employed by Castilian towns in the Middle Ages to promote
trade on certain market days, or in certain commodities. Cf. Arch. Osuna, Béjar
Mss., leg. 33, no. 15; leg. 44, no. 18.
MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE
l67
sometimes with, but more often without royal consent. This
inconsistency between the general law of the realm and the actual
administration of the tax seems to have escaped the majority of
investigators who describe both the portazgo and the montazgo
as royal incomes? This divergence of accepted custom from the
written law regarding the ownership and administration of the
tax was due to the obvious fact that the king of Castile was not
an autocrat. The powerful monarchy was distinctly the excep-
tion in mediaeval Castile. The Moorish wars, as well as certain
geographic and linguistic factors, had given the dominant influence
to local units: to the towns, with their tax and other privileges
acquired in exchange for military support; the rich churches and
monasteries, with their crusade exemptions and ecclesiastical
prerogatives as leaders of a nation devoted to war against the in-
fidel; and the great barons with their cliques and military orders.
It was inevitable, then, that the portazgo and montazgo should
have become, in fact, local taxes, and that the development of
their various characteristics, as indicated above, should have been
governed by the general political history and social evolution of
the country.
A new era had dawned with the union of Castile and Léon under
Ferdinand I (1037-65), an era of consolidation which was soon to
lead to conquests. The capture of Toledo (1085) marked the
permanent establishment of Christian sway over a large part of
the plains of southern or New Castile. It is true that the triumph
was marred for a time by the disaster at Zallaka (1086), and that
the two kingdoms were separated again for over seventy years
(ɪɪ 57-1230), during which period the Moors won another great
victory, that at Alarcos (1195). Nevertheless, the twelfth cen-
tury was notable for the steady extension of Christian domination
over the great southern pasture lands,2 to which the migrating
flocks had probably obtained access in the earlier turbulent cen-
l Cf. Altamira, ii,p. 58; PiemasyHurtado, ii, p. 43; CoImeiro, i, p. 470; Mariejol,
L’Espagne sous FMinand et Isabelle, p. 217.
2 The more notable of these early Christian victories were achieved at Toledo
(1°8s)> TaIavera (1085), CoImenarde Oreja (1139), Coria (1142), Calatrava (1147),
Alcintara (1166), Cuenca (1177), and Plasencia (1189): all in regions highly
valued for pasturage by the northern migrants.