172
THE MESTA
charters and privileges on the subject. The following are its chief
clauses:
(ɪ) All sheep and cattle which migrate to the frontier (<f estr emo) are to
pay but one montazgo in the jurisdiction of any one town. In all the lands
of the Orders of Calatrava, of Uclés, of the Temple, of AlcAntara, of the
Hospital, or of any other Order, there is to be collected but one montazgo.
The Temple is to collect its montazgo for Castile at Capiella [probably the
present Zarza Capilla], and for Le6n in Burgos or Alcocher [Alcocer]. Al-
cAntara shall collect for Castile at Benquerença [Benquerencia], and for
Ledn in Alcantara. [No points of collection are named for Uclés, Calatrava,
and the Hospital.]
(2) The rate of collection shall be thus:
Two cows for every 1000 cows, and the value of every cow shall be reck-
oned at 4 maravedis; and if it is preferred to pay the maravedis, the cows
shall not be taken.
Two rams for every ιo∞ sheep, each ram being valued at half a maravedi;
and those desiring to pay in money shall be allowed to do so.
Two pigs for every 1000, each being valued at ɪo soldos de pipiones;1 and
if money is offered, the animals shall not be taken.
For less than ιo∞ head, the rates shall be in proportion.2
The principle of limiting the montazgos to one for every juris-
diction crossed by the sheep is here expressed for the first time,
and it was subsequently incorporated into all of the notable
Mesta charters on the subject. Most worthy of note in connection
with this restriction is the rule that each military order should
collect but one montazgo within its jurisdiction. This point
assumes special significance when it is remembered that the
largest single owners of pasture lands in the southern wintering
grounds of the sheep were these military orders, which had been
rewarded with liberal grants from the crown for their services
during the Reconquest.3 Except for Burgos, all of the toll points
ɪ The sueldo de pipiones was a silver coin, probably of Aragonese origin, in cir-
culation during the first half of the thirteenth century. It was rated as one-fifteenth
of a gold maravedi. Cf. Saez, Demonstraciin Histirica de Monedas de Enrique III
(Madrid, 1796), pp. 54-64; Salat, Monedas de Cataluna (Barcelona, 1818, 2 vols.)
i, pp. 70-81; Cantos Benitez, Escrutinio de Maravedises (Madrid, 1763), p. 30;
Vicente Arguello, Memoria sobre el Valor de las Monedas de Alfonso el Sabio (Madrid,
1852), pp. 18-19.
2 Reducing these values to maravedis, the resulting montazgo per thousand
head was one and one-third nɪaravedis for pigs, one maravedi for sheep, and eight
maravedis for cows.
s See Map, p. 19.
MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE
173
enumerated in this document are in the Serena and Badajoz
region, the Estremadura district, which since the earliest times
has been the chief grazing ground for the migratory flocks from
the uplands of Leon and Castile. It is highly important that
careful note be taken of this scheme for systematizing and con-
centrating the local tolls in a set of duly authorized centres of
administration and collection, because this was the model which
was used as the basis for the system of puertos reales, or royal toll
gates, along the sheep highways. The royal Servicio y montazgo
took not only its name but its administrative machinery from the
local montazgo.
An even more significant feature of this document is to be found
in the fact that, although it was only a code of laws for Santiago
and its lands, it did not restrict its scope to the sheep of that city,
as did all of the earlier exemptions granted to favored towns. On
the contrary, the law of 1253 viewed the montazgo from the
opposite point of view: not prescribing the privileges of payees
from a given city, but defining the rates and methods of collec-
tion of that tax as one to which all migratory animals were sub-
ject. The local taxes in the lands of the military orders were
selected for first attention primarily because these lands made up
the largest group of consolidated holdings in the pasturage most
frequented by the migrants.1 Then, too, the closer association of
these orders with the crown doubtless influenced the latter in
selecting them as the means for introducing the first reforms in
the regulation arid organization of the tangle of local taxes which
hampered the flocks in their annual marches.
That this law of 1253 did not dispose of the problem is
certain. Alfonso’s wisdom as a codifier far exceeded his ability
as an administrator. In his great code, the Partidas, nearly con-
temporary with this law of Santiago, he undertook to lay down
rules to govern the granting of privileges and exemptions to
sheep owners. However, the constant reiteration of complaints
and appeals from the herdsmen during the succeeding decades
gives ample evidence of the inefficacy of these provisions. The
Partidas were not put to actual use until nearly a century after
1 See Map, p. 19.