Editing Mesta (section)

==Foundation==
Although the earliest surviving charter granting royal protection and grazing and other privileges to the Mesta was issued by [[Alfonso X of Castile]] in 1273, it claimed to replace four separate older documents, and it did not so much create the Mesta as assume its existence when granting it royal protection from the local taxes and restrictions it was encountering.<ref>Bishko (1963), p.61</ref><ref>Klein, pp. 176-7</ref> The charters and privileges of the Mesta resemble those of mediaeval merchant [[guild]], but it was actually a protective association, facilitating the business of the sheep and other livestock owners without engaging directly in their business. It did not own any sheep or pastures, buy and sell wool or control markets, and its close association with the Spanish government gave it a status and extensive presence unmatched by any guild.<ref>Klein, pp.354, 357</ref>

Sheep numbers in Castile and León had increased greatly in the 12th and early 13th centuries, outgrowing the available local grazing and encouraging transhumance to more distant pastures.<ref name="pastor 364">Pastor de Togneri. p. 364</ref> This transhumance was a frequent cause of dispute between the shepherds and local inhabitants, and the Cortes of 1252 enacted laws regulating the number and amounts of tolls that could be levied upon the flocks moving through a district. It also allowed them to use streams and customary sheepwalks (cañadas) and prevented the enclosure of previously open pasturage, foreshadowing the privileges granted to the Mesta. During the Cortes of Burgos in 1269, the king imposed the ''servicio de los ganados'', a tax on migratory flocks and herds, and the recognition of the Mesta in 1273 allowed Alfonso to derive a greater portion of the resources of the sheep-herding industry more efficiently.<ref>O’Callaghan, p.47</ref>

[[File:Cannada-real-vera-de-la-sierra.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Royal ''cañada'' trail through Old Castile (Segovia, Spain)]]

Klein noted three possible origins for the word ''mesta''. Firstly, it might be related to annual assemblies to dispose of strays that were called ''mezclados'', as they were mixed with a strange flock or herd, the name ultimately deriving from the Latin {{Langx|la|mixta|lit=mixed}}, the explanation he preferred.<ref name="klein 9-10">Klein pp. 9-10</ref> An alternative, also based on the Latin ''mixta'' is that it refers to the common ownership of the Mesta's animals by multiple parties.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/245235|title=Oxford English Dictionary Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|edition=3rd|chapter=Mesta, ''n.''}}</ref> However, the animals were individually owned, not common property, and generally different owners' flocks were kept separate.<ref>Klein p.27</ref>

Secondly, it might be related to the ''amistad'' or amity, which Klein regarded as unconvincing.

Finally, Klein mentions the name ''mechta'', used by Algerian nomads for their winter sheep encampments, as a possibility.<ref name="klein 9-10" /> There were very few references to Castilian mestas in the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries, and these may apply to the guardian escorts of the transhumant sheep rather than any assembly of sheep owners. The Arabic ''meshta'' for a winter gathering of sheep may have been transferred to the meetings of animal owners held at that time, and later, to local sheep-owners' associations in Andalucía and to the national body, both composed of such owners.<ref>Bishko (1978), pp.348-9</ref>

The word ''mestengo'', (now spelled '{{lang|es|mesteño}}') referred to animals of uncertain ownership, literally ''belonging to the mesta'', deriving from the name of that body.<ref name="etymoonline2">{{cite web|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mustang|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605083253/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mustang|archive-date=June 5, 2015|access-date=May 21, 2015|work=EtymOnline.com}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124238|title=Oxford English Dictionary Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|edition=3rd|chapter=mustang, ''n.''}}</ref> In [[New Spain]] in colonial North America, [[feral horse]]s came to be known as {{lang|es|mesteños}}, from which is derived the English word [[mustang]], used for the free-roaming horses of the modern Western United States.