Mesta

The Honrado Concejo de la Mesta, to German Honorable Council of the Mesta, short Mesta, was an influential association of sheep farmers in Castile. As an organization, the Mesta was 1273-1836. You organized the annual transhumance, the migration of flocks of Andalusia and Extremadura to Castile. The Castilian kings granted the Mesta in the course of time a number of privileges that allowed them to become more powerful.

History

After the Reconquista large areas were only weakly populated in the southern Castile, Andalusia and Extremadura. The large estates ( latifundia = ) were often owned by the church and nobility. These landowners saw then in the traveling sheep an excellent way to use the pastures and to achieve economic gain.

At the request of King Alfonso X, called the way, was created in 1273 in Castile the real concejo de la mesta, a private business organization of sheep farmers. They evolved from regional precursors of a national institution, comparable to the guild, gaffs and guilds in Germany, Flanders and the Netherlands. The " honrado concejo de la Mesta " existed until 1836, when a national association of breeders took his place.

Task

In the period in which the plague depopulated the country and people were missing for working the soil, took huge merino flocks seasonal migrations between feeding grounds of the North ( agosteros = summer pastures ) and la Mancha and Extremadura in the south ( invernaderos = winter grazing ), the " transhumance " ( = transhumance ) was called. Even in the three smaller kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre and Portugal there were shepherds who drove their animals over relatively long distances, but their paths usually ended in their kingdoms. Years temporal Almauf drive and driven large flocks of sheep, there were of course not only in Spain, but it was common for centuries in the Alps, in the French Provence, but also in Sardinia and Scotland. Nowhere, however, he reached economically and politically such a high degree of organization and influence.

The " mesta de los serranos " rose in all " pecheros " ( = taxpayers ), which were subject to the royal tax liability ( " pecho ") for each sheep that crossed the central mountain range, the " servicio y montazgo " by the Castilian Cortes adopted direct control. The Mesta, as it is usually called in the literature, protected their members from 1480 to tolls and eg municipal bans on the road to trade, was responsible for the monitoring and maintenance of " cañadas real " ( = Royal Viehtrift ), the passage ways and potions. She acted long-term leases as a representative of the approximately 3,000 ranchers ( " hermanos mesteños " ) with the pasture owners. The Mesta even reached that the existence of " real cañadas " was guaranteed forever by the king.

Organization

General meetings of the delegates of the four " cuadrillas ", the districts of the sheep farmers were two to three times annually held to determine the policy of the Association and "el honrado concejo " to appoint the Honorable Council, the " alcaldes de cuadrilla " and the " Procuradores de dehesas ", the commercial agent selected. At the top of the mesta was from 1454 as determined by the royal council " alcalde entregador " which to settle the disputes of the shepherd and had to refund unlawfully confiscated goods and excessive taxes. Because in addition to the mesta de los serranos there was still a large number of local mestas who entertained stationary herds or those that migrated only in a limited area ( " travesíos " of cattle that go to other pastures ).

The wool of these sheep was based for a long time Castile whole economic pride. Between 1400 and 1500, the number of sheep tripled to nearly three million animals.

Trade routes

In the summer pastures between León and Cuenca or during the migration, the sheep were shorn. Their wool was cleaned in " lavaderos " ( = wash houses ) first and stored in " Lonjas " or " laneras " what Cáceres and Segovia - one of the main crossing points of the cañadas - center were. Merchants from Burgos, Segovia and Genoa bought already in advance a portion of the production was exported to Flanders and Italy. This resulted in the strong position of the wool market of Burgos. Burgos ' merchants talked in Antwerp, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Bruges, Dieppe, Florence, Harfleur, La Rochelle, London, Nantes and Rouen significant contacts. Addition, however, also emerged in Medina del Campo, Valladolid, Villalón de Campos and Medina de Ríoseco prestigious markets, especially the meeting held in May and October fair in Medina del Campo for wool, cloth and grain. In the south won - thanks to Genoese merchants - the markets of Seville and Cádiz great importance.

Follow

As a contemporary developing country exported Castile mainly its raw materials: In order finished products, such as Flemish cloth, fabrics from Toulouse, Carcassonne, Narbonne and Montpellier, linen from Lucca and Venice, canvas, copper, tin, and articles of manufacture to import as Venetian glass and metals, were raw materials such as wool, salt from Ibiza, Cartagena and Cadiz, from Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya iron or mercury and cinnabar from the mines of Almaden, alum from the mines of Mazarrón exported.

Since Castile despite the abundant raw wool - unlike Flanders - not enough possessed capacities in the "key industry" cloth factory to meet the domestic demand, requested the Cortes in Madrigal 1439 the ban on export of wool and cloth import. The Cortes certain 1438 and 1462 laws that one third of the wool must be the Castilian workshops reserved. In its heyday, the Spanish wool production was based on more than 4 million sheep and exported for ¼ million ducats annually raw wool. Here, the production of finer and better materials while coarser in Ávila, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Valladolid and Zamora wool concentrated for export in the cloth manufactories of Baeza, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Cuenca, Murcia, Seville, Ubeda and Toledo, of schlichterer quality for the domestic market and for export to Portugal and Granada was produced.

In the 15th century, especially Cuenca achieved great progress by the introduction of " Gremio " ( = guilds ) with the craftsmen. Attempts of a " quality management " to standardize the quality presented royal decrees of 1500 and 1511 dar. in Toledo alone 50,000 people were employed by the textile manufacturing. However, it Castile was in competition with other well-known centers of cloth production in Italy and Flanders. Due to the devastating effects of the Hundred Years War, the English and French competition in the Iberian peninsula was low initially.

The cultivation and processing of cotton, flax and hemp and the dyeing and mordant woad, dyer's madder, scarlet color, Lackmusflechte or sumac underscore the central importance of textile production. The high profitability of the olive groves of the Aljarafe example, is based less on the use of olive oil in the diet than on its use in the Andalusian soap factory and its export as a cleaning agent for the textile manufactures of Flanders and England.

The low political weight of the weavers and their guilds based on the superiority of the " haceros " or " señores de los Paños " wholesalers who committed to producing quality as the owner of all means of production and marketing took over. At the same time they set in the cities of the patriciate ( = homes principales ), which hit the local decisions is modeled on the aristocratic lifestyle and rents preferred the commercial risk.

The powerful association of sheep farmers, however, took over the supply of ruined by the pastoral economy of the peasants " regadío " or " secano " dry-land farming. She took part in turn to the tremendous forest destruction, the devastation of parts of Spain, such as Extremadura and the province of Almería was the consequence. With the introduction of cotton, sheep farming became less and less attractive.

Other associations of ranchers

Although the Castilian Mesta was the largest and most powerful organization of ranchers in Spain, next to her but there was more " mitten ". Among the Casa de Ganaderos de Zaragoza in Aragon was probably the most influential. The groupings can be roughly divided into three categories. There was, for one the traditional local assemblies of the farmers who were in the area of Cantabria and the Pyrenees in part before the time of the Visigoths. During the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities in Leon, Castile and Extremadura were granted the right in foral hold otero ( Coria, Usagre, Plasencia, Cáceres ) or esculca (eg Cuenca) called meetings. They regulated the migration between the pastures in the region and decided in smaller litigation, but were under the control of the City Council. From the second half of the 13th century, powerful, well-organized and equipped with royal privileges associations have been established in some cities. In Castile they were as mesta ( Albarracin ), referred to in Aragon as Ligallo ( Catalayud, Teruel, Daroca, Sarrión ). They had written charter, an Alcalde and stood as independent entities, at least not directly to the city councils. These local " mitten " come as a model for the Honrado Concejo de la Mesta into consideration, but they came at the same time or later. The oldest known mesta in Alcaraz ( Albacete province ) their privileges were granted by Alfonso X in 1266.

Today's meaning

Today, only very few shepherds operate the transhumance of the obtained cañadas. Cattle watering expire or be transformed, highways and railways cut the centuries-old grazing routes. Plies the pastures, which passed the sheep on their annual migrations, a maximum of one day's journey away along these paths from each other, so today must be overcome with the truck some routes, otherwise the stages would be too large for the flock, and also would be added problems with the automobile traffic.