Nature's Evil [calibre 5.27.0]

Wool and the Mesta

In Spain, the celebrated Merino sheep were migrants from North Africa. They were selectively bred to produce a fine, white wool which set the standard for woollen clothing throughout the civilised world. The sheep appeared on the Iberian peninsula before the Great Plague. An indigenous breed of sheep – the Churra, more sturdy and valued primarily for its meat and cheese – had been farmed there earlier. Churra flocks were kept on permanent pastureland. Over the centuries local workshops had used their coarse, warm wool to produce cloaks, carpets and blankets. Merino yarn was finer, more attractive and more expensive. Many Spanish shepherds were Berbers, and they taught the Spanish their unique methods of rearing their Merino sheep, which included transhumance – a seasonal migration across the hills of Castile and Aragon. From this came the unusual division of labour: the fine-fleeced Merino sheep moved from one pasture to another, crossing the peninsula annually in huge flocks; the coarse-fleeced Churra stayed on permanent pastures around the towns. The Reconquista in the thirteenth century united the southern, Muslim part of the peninsula with Christian Spain. Ever larger flocks now spent the winter on uninhabited southern pastures. Members of religious-military orders protected the flocks – some of those knights still remembered the Crusades. Travelling with the Merinos, they used force of arms to occupy the territories needed for the migrating flocks and oust the Arabs with their settled flocks of sheep. At the peak of the wool trade in the sixteenth century, there were about 3 million Merino sheep on the peninsula. The sheep were privately owned, but along with their shepherds and guards they were under the patronage of the crown. The government had a monopoly on the export of Merino wool. 14

There were many more Churra sheep than migrating Merinos; peasants used some of their wool, meat and cheese on their farms and sold the surplus to the towns. But the Merinos were considered to be creatures of a higher order. These two sorts of sheep exemplify with textbook clarity the difference between a local raw material and a resource for long-distance trade. The law forbade the killing or eating of Merinos. Their cross-breeding with Churras was banned. It was a capital crime to export live Merino sheep abroad. The Habsburg Empire depended on its Merinos more than on its Churras and, probably, more than on its men and women. The migratory pattern of the pure-bred Merinos and their contrast with the settled flocks of the peasants had something aristocratic about it, as if it evoked memories of the nomadic, foreign origins of the European nobility.

Leaving in October from León, Segovia and other inhabited areas, the shepherds and their Merino flocks travelled between 100 and 500 miles south. Their journey took a month or more. The passage of huge flocks of sheep over the craggy hills of Castile was an impressive spectacle. The lands they passed through were privately owned, but the law required the landowners to step aside while the migration took place. If conflicts arose, armed guards and special clerks defended the shepherds. The only places off limits to the Merinos were enclosed agricultural areas – fields with standing crops, orchards or vineyards. Twice a year the Merino flocks passed by the permanent pastures where the Churra grazed. Well-armed curators safeguarded the pure pedigree of the Merino flocks.

The Shepherd Brotherhood, or Mesta – the first agricultural corporation in European history – was created for dealing with the Merinos. The Mesta didn’t own any sheep and didn’t pay the shepherds; it was a guild and not a joint stock company. It branded every Merino and noted the brand markings in special books; it also licensed the shepherds. All these operations combined the ancient practice of transhumance with the complex logistics that could be achieved only by a bureaucratic state. From the end of the fifteenth century, the head of the Mesta became a member of the Consejo Real , the Spanish cabinet of ministers. The shepherds of the Mesta became a privileged stratum; they were exempt from military service and civil law. Authorised officials of the Mesta defended them in local conflicts. The courts of the Inquisition also supported them.