Estrategias de comercialización para la maximización del beneficio entre los grandes ganaderos trashumantes de la Castilla del siglo xvi

A contribution to the study of the organization of the wool trade in the Crown of Castile during the Modern Age is presented, focusing on the case of the region of Soria during the sixteenth century, and on the group of the large transhumant stockbreeders. The author identifies the main characteristics of the strategies put into practice by the members of this group in order to sell their wools: Prolonged deferment of payment by the merchant buyers, and storage of wool for several years in order to accumulate a larger quantity. It shows that this strategy allowed them to obtain higher prices for their merchandise, that the merchants were sometimes denounced as usurious. The high prices obtained also generated uneasiness among the stockbreeders, who feared they might have committed the sin of usury.