EH.R: Sheep and the Spanish Armada

[Jim Klein]

I've just found an interesting article on the Spanish Mesta.

http://libro.uca.edu/mesta/TheMesta.pdf

There's a link between wool production and the tax revenues used for  
the Armada.

It is quite clear, then, that although according to the statutes
of the realm the Mesta was in absolute command of the agrarian
situation, the actual circumstances were very different indeed.
Royal licenses to cultivate and enclose were being handed out on
every pretext: to raise funds for the equipment of the Armada,
to pay the new millones tax, to cover the salaries of other officials
in addition to the corregidor, or " to lessen the area of untilled
land and thus to destroy the refuges of wolves and foxes."

It occurs to me one cause for the Armada was the suppression of  
English wool production and export to the low countries.

Has anyone heard this suggestion before?

Thanks.

  * * * * *  J B K  * * * * *

       San Francisco

Jim Klein
Lecturer in Economics
San Francisco State University
http://bss.sfsu.edu/jklein/