Editing Mesta (section)

==Decline of the Mesta==
The late 18th century attack on the Mesta was undertaken followers of the [[Enlightenment in Spain]] with support from [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]]. They considered that the benefit of fine wool exports was outweighed by its damage to agriculture, but based their views more on the success of the [[Second Agricultural Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]] that was taking place in different conditions in northern Europe than on actual conditions in Spain. However, instead of proposing a balance between agriculture and pastoralism, they promoted cultivation exclusively, claiming that even the driest lands with the thinnest soils could be made profitable for agriculture with the appropriate combination of seeds, cultivation techniques and manure, underestimating the actual benefit of transhumant sheep in manuring areas along their routes.<ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), pp.204-5</ref>
 
Pressure from would-be cultivators, in the face of Mesta opposition, enabled wheat to be grown on former pastures in the Andalusian plains, despite an immediate loss of royal income from wool taxes.<ref>Klein pp.293-4</ref><ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), pp.101-2</ref> These early reforming impulses of Charles III had no immediate effect on the Mesta's prosperity, which reached its highest monetary level between 1763 and 1785, although the rising price of cereals in this period and the start of a decline in wool prices suggested this prosperity was fragile.<ref name="García Martín, pp.68-9">García Martín, pp.68-9</ref>

Charles III had little interest in supporting the Mesta, and he allowed its freedom of transit to be abused by towns and landowners. His actions and inaction in the last two decades of the 18th century, made regular transhumance increasingly difficult and pushed the Mesta into a terminal decline.<ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), pp.207-95</ref> The social and commercial reforms of Charles and Campomanes included a significant reduction in Mesta pasture rights by granting towns the freedom to use their common lands as they wished in 1761, and giving local sedentary flocks preference to over transhumant ones for Extremaduran pasturage in 1783. These measures began to have an adverse effect on the Mesta in the last decades of the 18th century.<ref>García Martín, p.72</ref><ref>Klein pp.294, 345</ref> However, a very cold winter in 1779-80 that killed many sheep and a critical reduction in fine wool exports caused by declining demand were also important, as they intensified the effects of reduced availability and increased costs of winter pastures in reversing its fortunes.<ref name="García Martín, pp.68-9"/> Prices for fine wool decreased substantially between 1782 and 1799, and more dramatically between 1800 until the catastrophe of the French invasion in 1808.<ref>García Martín, pp.75-7</ref> That invasion completely disrupted the traditional patterns of transhumance and wool production,<ref>García Martín, pp.103-4</ref><ref>Klein p.346</ref> although the regime of Joseph Bonaparte attempted to revive the latter, with limited success.<ref>García Martín, p.116</ref>
  
Although Merino sheep had been exported from Spain in the 18th century, the greatest effect of the loss of Spain's virtual monopoly of producing the finest quality wools was felt in the early 19th century, when the disruption caused by the Peninsular War, which persisted for several years after the war ended, led to a decline in quantity and quality of Spanish wool produced, and allowed foreign producers of merino wool to prosper.<ref>García Martín, pp.104-6</ref> 
 
In the aftermath of the Peninsular War, [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand VII]] again ratified the Mesta's privileges in 1816 and 1827, reversing the reforms of Charles III.<ref>Klein pp.346-7</ref> This was similar to the support that [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip IV]] had given during the early-17th century crisis, suggesting that royal support was more secure in times of crisis for the Mesta than when its 18th century expansion made it a target for Charles III's reforms.<ref>Marín Barriguete (2015), p.102</ref> However, the legal situation in the early 19th century did not reflect the actual weakness of the Mesta or the strength of the opposition to it of agriculturalists and the towns.<ref>Klein pp.347-8</ref> Neither could Royal support counter the growth of merino wool production in South America, Australia and South Africa, nor the competition from the wool of other breeds that approached it for fineness. After 1808, almost all the limited quantity of Spanish wool exports were of reduced quality and sold to Britain, and the numbers of transhumant sheep fell from 2.75 million in 1818 to 1.11 million in 1832.<ref>García Martín, pp.108-9, 117</ref>  
During the latter stages of the Peninsular War, the [[Cortes of Cadiz]], inspired by the doctrines of [[liberalism]], attacked the privileges of the Mesta.<ref>García Martín, pp.113, 116</ref><ref>Klein p.348</ref> These were attacked again by the liberal government of the [[Trienio Liberal]], which replaced the Mesta with a short-lived state body. Although the Mesta was reinstated in the absolutist restoration of 1823, it was weakened and tainted by its association with [[Absolute monarchy|absolutism]].<ref>García Martín, pp.120-1</ref>

The Mesta had no place in the new social and political order introduced by the liberal government that [[Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies|the Regent Maria Christina]] had appointed in 1833. In 1835 and 1836, the Mesta lost all its private judicial powers, which were transferred to a new ''Associación General de Ganaderos'' (General Association of Herdsmen), and also its tax privileges and, on 5 November 1836, its dissolution was completed and the Mesta itself was dissolved.<ref>García Martín, pp.123-4</ref><ref>Klein pp.348, 356</ref>