30.3 Europe: a.d. 1501 to 1600  (Page 13/29)

The potato

Very important in this industry was the Mesta, a guild of sheep owners, which arranged the movement of the herds of sheep from summer pastures in the north to winter quarters in the south, preventing landowners from fencing across the routes, ensuring the marking of the sheep, fixing the resting places and helping with the- marketing. By 1526 there were 3,400,000 sheep moving each year some 200 to 300 miles up and down Spain, averaging 5 miles a day. The crown protected the Mesta and this centralization prevented the birth of anything like a free-enterprise system and blocked progress in Spain. It is even probable that the Mesta more or less forced the Spanish kings to expel both the Moors and the Jews, because the latter groups were more concerned with farming crops than with livestock. In spite of sheep and potatoes, the years 1599 and 1600 were years of famine and plague, which decimated Andalusia and Castile. (Ref. 8 , 213 ) The government finances did not help the overall situation. By 1600 40% of the government's income went for servicing old debts. (Ref. 279 ) International capitalism had successfully captured the opportunity which the discovery of America had given Spain. There was a three-tier pyramid: the base consisted of peasants, shepherds, silk-producers, artisans and peddlers; above them were the capitalists of Castile, who controlled those local people; and finally, running everything from above, were the agents of the Fuggers and soon of the Genoese. (Ref. 292 )

Portugal

This was a golden age for Portugal, as the Age of Imperialism began with the development of an extensive empire. In addition to Brazil, the Portuguese had established a colony with a governor in India and had set up commercial relations with China. In 1509 they won a decisive battle with the Moslems for control of the Arabian Sea, off the Indian port of Diu. They had heavy ships with cannon and the Moslems were short of metal and under armed. As a result of all this, Portugal had virtually taken over the spice trade from the Venetians. In 1523 alone, some 100 tons of ginger and 2,000 tons of pepper had gone into Germany from Lisbon. By the middle of the century the Portuguese had a string of more than 50 forts and factories from Sofola on the east African coast to Nagasaki, Japan. (Ref. 211 , 8 ) Strangely enough the Portuguese merchantmen carried no artillery, even though French privateers on the Atlantic possessed it. The Portuguese carracks were the giants of the seas, however, with a displacement of up to 2,000 tons