The finest or at least the most expensive brand of raisins made is the
_Dehesa_ raisin of Malaga. They are produced from the Muscatel variety
and the name they bear has an interesting origin, giving us at the same
time an insight in the development of the agricultural and horticultural
resources of Spain. The word “Dehesa” is found by reference to a good
Spanish dictionary to mean pasture ground. The “Dehesa” raisins then are
pasture-ground raisins, or raisins grown on former pasture ground. The
way the raisins came to be given such a name is as follows. Between the
years 800 and the end of the fifteenth century, the fairest part of
Spain as well as Portugal was occupied by the Moors. Contrary to their
nature in other countries, they proved here extremely industrious, and
excelled both as merchants, artisans and agriculturists. The waters of
the streams were conducted to the land in aqueducts, dams were thrown
across the rivers, reservoirs were formed, and the whole of Southern
Spain became most highly cultivated, rich and prosperous. In fact, if
the historians are to be believed, and the yet remaining views of former
grandeur can be trusted, no country either in ancient or modern times
has ever in prosperity rivaled the ancient Moorish kingdoms of Granada
and Andalusia. In the thirteenth century the Christian knights and kings
of Central and Northern Spain succeeded in conquering the Moors, who
again were unmercifully expelled, massacred or enslaved, their cities
burned and razed, and the fertile and cultivated districts utterly
ruined. Vast tracts were depopulated and abandoned, and, nature taking
its course, wild grass, shrubbery and trees soon covered the former
highly cultivated plains. In the course of time these uncultivated lands
attracted the attention of the highland shepherds, who drove their herds
to them during the winters, again returning to the mountains at the
advent of the dry season.
By degrees the self-taken rights of the sheepmen became more widely
recognized, and, while the less valuable lands were taken possession of
by the poorer peasantry, these pasture lands were set apart for the
exclusive use of the sheep-owners. The pasture lands thus being free, it
was no wonder that the sheep industry flourished, and that the flocks
increased. The wool industry soon became one of the most important in
Spain. The flocks were principally owned by nobles and monks, and the
poor peasants, who constituted the only agricultural population, had
very little if any chance to oppose the ever greater encroachments of
the wandering flocks or their insolent owners. The Merinos, or moving
sheep, were wintered in the warm valleys of Andalusia, Murcia and
Estremadura, only to be again removed to the cooler mountains of Leon
and Castille at the advent of spring. What curse this would entail on
the agricultural population is easy to be seen. The sheep were moving in
bands of 10,000 each, and 700 to 800 such flocks were moved annually
twice through a country devoid of fences or inclosures of any kind.
Numerous disputes and constant bloody fights arose between farmers and
the shepherd, to settle which the “Council of the Mesta” was instituted.
In tyranny, this dreaded institution was only equaled by the famous
Inquisition, with which in birth and death it was almost
contemporaneous. In the year 1556 a code of laws was promulgated, and a
compromise was entered upon. But the tyranny of the shepherds, upheld
through their “Mesta,” was in no way diminished. The latter continually
extended its power, encroached upon new territory, appropriating
gradually the finest pastures of Spain, and finally obtained a monopoly
of the wool trade. Its tyranny became at last intolerable. The shepherds
of the Mesta were more dreaded than robbers and highwaymen in every
place through which they passed. Agriculture became almost impossible.
At last the “Mesta” was abolished by the Cortez in Cadiz in 1812, and a
few years afterwards the pastures or Dehesas were sold. One of the
finest Dehesas near Velez, Malaga, was planted to Muscatel grapes, and
through the combined fertility of the soil, and the abundance of
moisture, the vineyard proved a great success. So fine were the grapes
grown there that they attracted great attention; no such fine grapes had
ever been seen in Andalusia before. The merchants to whom the first
raisins were sold were much astonished, and wonderingly asked whence
they came. The reply, “from the Dehesa,” was from that time on applied
to the finest Muscatel grapes.