El negocio de la trashumancia en el siglo XVIII: la cabaña de Rojas (1746-1808)

This article attempts to clarify how sheep and goat transhumance developed within the Crown of Castile during the second half of the eighteenth century. It analyses the case of the Rojas herd from the accounting and administrative documentation preserved in the Count of Bornos Archive (Nobility Section of the National Historical Archive). The study establishes that although the evolution of prices adversely affected overall income from sheep and goat commerce, it continued to be profitable until the War of Independence. Nevertheless, in order to maintain the total volume of revenue, the decrease in the profit per unit had to be compensated with an increase in the number of heads of cattle, which required access to new pastures. As a result, the social position of the herd owners grew in importance. Moreover, it seems that over the course of this period there was a significant redistribution of the income generated by transhumance, which benefitted large-scale ranchers at the expense of the smaller-scale operations and shepherds.