Gay has been in close touch with this investigation since its inception some seven years ago, and any merits which it may have as a contribution to economic history are due entirely to his sympathetic understanding of the problems encountered, and to his unfailing interest in the progress of the work in spite of his many serious and urgent duties during the war.

To my wife the work owes more than any words of mine can express. Every page, I might almost say every line, has benefited from her patient scrutiny and judicious criticism.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

April, 1919.

J. K.

CONTENTS

PART I-ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER I

ORIGINS.

The pastoral industry of the Moors. The origins of the merino sheep.

Sheep raising in mediaeval Spain. The meetings or mestas of shepherds

for the disposal of strays.

CHAPTER II

MIGRATIONS

Sheep highways in Mediterranean countries. The Castilian cañadas.

Traffic routes of the Teamsters' Gild of Castile. Organization and size of

the Mesta flocks. On the march. Wool clipping.

CHAPTER III

MARKETING

Wool marketing in Italy and Aragon. Early exports of Spanish wool to

England. Organization of the export trade by Ferdinand and Isabella.

The Burgos Consulado or Trade House. Its foreign branches. Its con-

tact with the Mesta at the Medina del Campo fair. The Mesta and the

trade with the New World. Organization of the domestic wool trade.

Dealing in 'futures.' Middlemen. Trade policies of the Hapsburgs.

CHAPTER IV

INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MESTA.

Ordinances. Meetings. Elections. Membership. The President and

other officers. Legal staff. Fiscal agents. Proportion of large and small

owners. Shepherds; their duties and privileges.

3

17

30

49

PART II-JUDICIARY

CHAPTER V

ORIGINS OF THE ALCALDE ENTREGADOR

Itinerant officers in mediaeval Europe. Judicial protectors of migratory

flocks in Italy and in Aragon. Sheep protection in mediaeval Castile.

Inter-class litigation. Early relations of the entregador with the crown.

CHAPTER VI

THE ENTREGADOR AND THE TOWNS

Functions of the entregador. Inspection and protection of the cañadas.

Restraint of marauders. Supervision of pastures, enclosures, and com-

mons. Conflicts with the Cortes and with towns. Exemptions from the

entregador's visitations. Residencias or hearings of complaints. Re-

strictions upon entregadores by higher courts, Cortes, and town leagues.

CHAPTER VII

Hostility of the Cortes in the seventeenth century. Appeals to the chan-

cillerías. Inefficacy of royal a to the Mesta. Collapse of the entre-

gador system in the eighteenth century.

67

86

117

PART III-TAXATION

CHAPTER VIII

SHEEP TAXES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

Significance of sheep dues as a pre-feudal tax on movable property. Town

or local sheep taxes in North Africa, Provence, the Pyrenees, Aragon,

Valencia, Navarre, and Portugal. Royal or state sheep taxes in southern

Italy, Aragon, Valencia, and Navarre.

CHAPTER IX

MEDIAEVAL SHEEP TAXES IN CASTILE

Early local taxes. The montazgo and the portazgo. Effect of the Moorish

wars. Beginning of large scale sheep migrations, standardized taxation,

and fixed toll points.

139

161

CHAPTER X

LOCAL TAXES DURING THE RISE OF THE MESTA (1273-1474) 176

Fiscal clauses of the Mesta charter of 1273. Policies of Alfonso X (1252–

84) and Sancho IV (1284-95). Aggressive fiscal administration of Al-

fonso XI (1312-50). Sheep taxes during the civil wars of the later

Middle Ages. Extravagant tax concessions to the town and liberal ex-

emptions of the Mesta.. Concordias or tax agreements.

CHAPTER XI

LOCAL TAXES UNDER FERDINAND AND ISABELLA (1474-1516) 208

Fiscal reforms. Tax inquisitors. Fiscal duties of the corregidores. Stan-

dardization of local sheep tolls. Political aspects of the tax situation.

Effect of the rising of the comuneros (1500-21) upon the fiscal affairs of

the Mesta Royal agents defend the Mesta. Sheep taxes of the Military

Orders and of the Church. Diezmos. Fiscal disorders under the later

Hapsburgs. Local taxes in the eighteenth century.

227

CHAPTER XIII

MEDIAEVAL ROYAL SHEEP TAXES.

Share of the crown in local taxes. Moorish sheep tolls. The servicio de

ganados or subsidy from domestic animals. Origin of the servicio y mon-

tazgo. Royal sheep tolls during the period of fifteenth-century profligacy.

The tax schedule of 1457.

254

CHAPTER XIV

ROYAL SHEEP TAXES OF THE AUTOCRACY

Reforms of Ferdinand and Isabella. The crown and the fiscal rights of

the Military Orders. Hapsburg exploitation of the pastoral industry.

The Fuggers and the Mesta. Bankruptcy of the monarchy in the seven-

teenth century. Reforms of Charles III.

270