The wool industry and trade
Since the late Middle Ages, the exit of raw materials and manufactured goods to the different commercial circuits was carried out through narrow bridle paths such as the one of the pylons. This route connected the towns of the high mountain ranges of Gúdar-Maestrazgo where there was an intense production of wool.
Maestrazgo wool
The most important economic sector that developed in the Maestrazgo in the late medieval and modern period was agriculture and livestock. The existence of large flocks of sheep, due to the granting of special privileges and concessions to farmers, allowed the production of large quantities of wool that were exported to the powerful textile industries of various cities in the Western Mediterranean, mainly in France, Italy, the Netherlands and England.
Thus, the development of the textile industry and specialization of the territory that developed in parallel was conditioned by the orography of the region, with large production centers along with small centers of dispersed production. The harsh climatic conditions of winter made the inhabitants of the region take advantage of the wool surplus to produce, in the coldest months, different products such as cloths, cloths, cordellates or estameñas in their looms. Later, in the warmer months, these products were marketed over a wide geographical area.
Thus, the textile industry was an important activity that made possible, in certain periods, the demographic flourishing of the region to a greater extent than a traditional agricultural economy would have allowed.
Textile production centers
In Maestrazgo there were different textile production centers located in the towns scattered throughout the territory, with a large number of people dedicated to this industry. In some towns there were specific guilds of pelaires and weavers, each with its own organization and governed by overseers and clavarios, people who were dedicated to controlling the production, quality and prices of the products.
In Villarroya de los Pinares, in 1582 King Philip II granted a privilege to the local pelaires and weavers, establishing the guild’s trades. Each had its own organization and were under the patronage of Nuestra Señora de la Expectación del Parto and Santa Lucía, with festivities on December 13 and 18. For the service of both guilds there was a fulling mill on the Guadalope River.
In addition to selling to individuals, orders were also placed for the military. In fact, throughout the 18th century, the pelaires and weavers of Villarroya de los Pinares were commissioned to make different pieces for the clothing of the army troops.
A society halfway between the Middle Ages and the modern era
In the early times after the Christian conquest, in the territory of Maestrazgo a society begins to take shape in which the bulk of the population are peasants, who are engaged in the exploitation of land and livestock. Along with them, there were artisans and merchants who specialized in the production and trade of wool and fabrics, notaries, ecclesiastics and families of the lower nobility.
The rural elites owned important agricultural properties and controlled the direct exploitation of sheep farming, combining these activities with the trade of fabrics and money lending at interest. The crisis suffered between the middle of the 14th century and the end of the 15th century due to periods of famine, outbreaks of plague and wars, produced an important demographic decline in the region. From the 16th century onwards, a new period of prosperity began, in which some members of the local oligarchies built the imposing palaces that are preserved in the monumental urban centers of the towns of Maestrazgo.
Traveling on narrow roads
The high mountain ranges of Gúdar-Maestrazgo were a place of passage for numerous products. Wheat and wool were produced in the area, and the latter was transformed into manufactured products. All of this was exported to other places from which products that the area lacked were obtained. Thus, this system generated an important transit of people, goods and animals. Travel along these routes was done on foot or with pack animals. Due to their robustness, size and resistance, mules (a cross between a mare and a donkey or ass) were usually used, animals that were driven by transport professionals or by people who alternated this activity with others.
These routes were not free of risks. In fact, one of the most feared was the existence of bandits, highwaymen and men of bad life that made the transit between villages difficult.
Banditry was especially intense between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries in these mountain areas, a situation that forced the declaration of a state of exception for the Baylías of Aliaga, Cantavieja and Castellote, where harsher penalties than those of the Aragonese fuero were applied.
In the documents preserved, special mention is made of banditry, vagrancy and the formation of gangs in the mountains and on the roads. Those who manufactured, sold or repaired weapons for the bandits or gave them food were also punished, except those who were forced to do so and gave an account to the Justice or Jurors of the town.
The groups of bandits were composed of the most disadvantaged, poor peasants or people who were poorly integrated into society. Banditry proliferated in times of low agricultural production and in periods of war and conflict and especially affected areas of complicated orography, trade routes and border areas where to take refuge.
Bibliography
ASSO, Ignacio de, “Historia de la economía política de Aragón”, Zaragoza, 1798, (prologue and indexes by José Manuel Casas Torres), Zaragoza, CSIC, 1947.
FEBRER ROMAGUERA, Manuel Vicente; SANCHIS ALFONSO, José Ramón, “La configuración del dominio feudal de la Orden de San Juan del Hospital en las Bailías de Aliaga, Cantavieja y Castellote (siglos XII-XIX), Villarroya de los Pinares, Ayuntamiento de Villarroya de los Pinares, 2003.
MADOZ, Pascual, “Diccionario Geográfico-Estadístico-Histórico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar”, Madrid, 1845-1850.
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ROYO PÉREZ, Vicent (coord.) “When Maestrazgo raised its palaces. Society, architecture and art in medieval and modern times”. Comarca del Maestrazgo, 2022.