Editing Mesta (section)

===The right of ''posesión''===
Perhaps the most controversial of the Mesta's privileges was the right of ''posesión'', which established the Mesta's perpetual title to tenancy for all pasturess leased by its members.<ref>Klein, p.92</ref> Its origin lay in the Mesta's code for its own internal administration, dated 1492. One clause attempted to prevent competition among the sheep owners for winter pasturage through an arrangement for the joint bargaining for pasture leases by lessees acting for the Mesta. Each of the four quadrillas selected a representative annually, to proceed to Extremadura and Andalucía before the annual migration and arrange the terms of grazing leases for the coming winter season. Each member was only assigned sufficient land for his flocks, and each landowner was to be treated equally. The aim was to prevent competition between Mesta members or joint action by the landowning lessors to raise rents.<ref>Klein, p.322</ref>

The 1492 ordinance was an internal Mesta measure only, but a significant action taken by Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1501 in support of the Mesta was to create a law of posesión, which granted Mesta members the permanent tenancy of a stated pasture field, either at the rental paid under their earliest lease, or if a flocks occupied such fields for a season unchallenged or undiscovered by the landowner, for no payment. The probable intention was to prevent competition for grazing among Mesta members, by guaranteeing the earliest flocks to arrive were given priority for leases. However, the Mesta was able to have an interpretation of the rule of posesión accepted  by the courts that was more favourable to its interests, arguing that, as its charter allowed it to represent all sheep owners, it had the right negotiate and allocate all pasturage leases in Castile to prevent disputes or competition between its members.<ref>Klein, pp.323-4</ref>

Although this interpretation was disputed by the landowners of southern Castile, including towns, ecclesiastics, military orders and private individuals, it was upheld by the courts and confirmed in a series of laws passed in 1505. One interpretation, based on the assumption that the privilege of posesión operated strictly in accordance with these laws and could be enforced, was that it retarded the growth of agriculture and had a negative effect on Spain's political development for centuries,<ref>Klein pp.325-6</ref> a view that ignores the active and passive resistance to this legislation.<ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), pp.100-1</ref> An alternative view is that the right of posesión was a form of rent control that guaranteed shepherd access to the pastures at stable prices.<ref>García Sanz, (1998), p.82-4</ref>

The Habsburg monarchs were inconsistent in granting exemptions from the Mesta's privileges, including posesión, in return for payment. However, in 1633, after a sharp downturn in wool sales and the related tax revenue, the rules of posesión were renewed, and pastures converted to arable were ordered to be restored to pasturage. It has been suggested that a weak monarchy and strong local resistance reduced the effect of this measure,<ref>Klein p.339</ref> but a survey of sheep owners in the [[province of Soria]] indicates that far more of them included rights of posesión in their wills in the 17th century, regarding these rights as part of their patrimony, than did so in the 16th century, and that such rights were exchanged between such owners. Although posesión gave rise to frequent legal disputes, these demonstrate an increase in the practice as much as opposition to it.<ref>Diago Hernando, p.70</ref>

The first two Spanish Bourbon kings, under the influence of the doctrines of [[mercantilism]] current in France, renewed Mesta privileges in 1726 and extended the law of posesión to Aragon.<ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), p. 384</ref> Their action was more successful than the 1633 renewal, as appeals in pasture disputes were moved to a court more favourable to the Mesta.<ref>Klein p.343</ref> In contrast to his predecessors, Charles III and his reforming ministers regarded posesión as a mediaeval survival that had outlived its usefulness and considered that its continuation inhibited a necessary growth in cereal cultivation.<ref>Marín Barriguete, (2015), pp. 389-91</ref> This led, firstly to a restriction of the right of posesión in 1761, and then its complete abolition in 1786.<ref>Klein pp.345</ref>