∑7o
THE MESTA
strange ground to them. The conquest simply made this region
more readily accessible, and made migrations possible on a larger
scale and with longer marches.
This period of reconquest, the sixty years preceding the found-
ing of the Mesta, put an end to the vague generalities in which
both the privileges to collect sheep taxes and the exemptions
from such taxes had been expressed. The question had hitherto
not come to a clear issue between the opposing parties, because
the grants were made as isolated instances of compensation for
services rendered. The origins of these local dues appeared at
least as early as the dim records of the darkest period of the
Christian kingdoms. There had always been sheep migrations;
and in consequence there had always been local tolls and penal-
ties. With the establishment of a condition approaching peace
over a large area of pastoral country, there followed naturally a
considerable increase in the activity of the industry. This re-
sulted in the crystallization of the various laws concerning mi-
grants. More especially was this true of the local regulations of
sheep taxes. We may now review in detail the salient features of
the local tolls, and their establishment upon a fixed, recognized,
and systematized basis, a step which was a natural accompani-
ment of the organization of the sheep owners into the Mesta.
The first characteristic of the local sheep dues of this period is
to be found in the tone of the royal restrictions laid upon their
too extensive prevalence. As was noted above, the earlier exemp-
tions from these tolls were limited in their scope, for the crown felt
itself capable of safeguarding the flocks only within restricted
areas.1 The triumphs of the new crusade of 1212-62 against the
Moors gave a different tone to these exemptions. The migrants
1 One of the few survivals of this old restricted form in the period under discus-
sion is to be found in the fuero of Câceres of 1229 (renewed in 1231). In this the
sheep of the town inhabitants are exempt “ from montazgo only as far as the
Guadiana River,” which gave the flocks a free zone of but a few leagues beyond the
town’s jurisdiction. Ulloa, Privs. de Cdceres (1676?), p. 3; Gonzâlez, vi, pp. 91-95.
See also a similar survival of a restricted montazgo exemption in the privilege from
Alfonso X to Briones in 1256, favoring only such sheep as return from their migra-
tions at nightfall. Acad. Hist., Ms. Е-ггб, fols. 79-95. Gonzâlez, vi, pp. 156-
158 (1272), has a grant of exemption for the sheep of Alcazar de Baeza from local
tolls as far as the Tagus River.
MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE 171
were now assured that ‘ they might move unmolested through all
parts of the realm, pasturing wherever the royal flocks them-
selves had access, and on no account was any harm to be visited
by any town upon the shepherds, nor was any tax to be levied
upon the sheep.’1
Furthermore, there appears in the available documents of this
period the first detailed specifications of the rates of these local
taxes and the definite establishment of fixed points for their col-
lection. Instances of the old vague indications of exemption from
‘ all montazgos in all parts of the realm ’ are, of course, still fre-
quent, and continue to be so for centuries.2 The new and striking
development is evidenced by such specifications as those laid
down in the royal privilege of the Order of the Temple, granted in
1237, for faithful service to the warrior Ferdinand III.3 By this
instrument, the towns under the jurisdiction of the Order were
authorized to collect “ one horse for every five thousand sheep on
their way to southern pastures, and one horse for every five hun-
dred cows; and of those with fewer animals the rate was one
maravedi for every five hundred sheep and one for every fifty
cows.” This was to be valid for all migrants, whether from
Castile or Leon, a clause which for the first time links the two
kingdoms as the joint sources of these flocks, just as,they were
later to be linked in the ‘ Mesta of Castile and Leon.’
By far the most important piece of evidence upon the early
codification or standardization of the hitherto haphazard collec-
tion of local tolls on passing flocks is to be found in the famous
code of ‘ the lands of Santiago de Compostella ’ of 1253.4 This
document prescribed certain rules for the collection of the mon-
tazgo, which subsequently appeared in most of the important
l Acad. Hist., Mss. Docs. Monas. Suprim., no. 20: an exemption of the mon-
astery of S. Pedro de Gusniel de Izan, dated 1232.
2 Acad. Hist., Ms. 25-ι-C x, fol. 2 r. : an exemption for the flocks of the cathe-
dral of Oviedo, dated 1236, from montazgos in all parts of the realm. See Gonzilez,
v and vi, passim, for others of the same period and import.
s Cf. Arch. Osuna, Béjar Mss., leg. 351, no. ɪ; and ibid., Gibrale6n, caj. ι, no. 2
(1267-68): two curious agreements among four towns, Niebla, Huelva, Gibrale6n,
and Aymarte, exempting one another from montazgos in their respective public
Pastures.
* A. L6pez Ferreiro, Fueros Municipales de Santiago, i, p. 365.