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Exporting Merino Sheep from Spain Was Once Punishable by Death

For several centuries, Spain maintained a royal monopoly on Merino sheep, the breed that would go on to underpin Australia wool industry. Exporting live Merino animals was a capital offence, and the penalty was death. The ban was eventually lifted in the 18th century, and flocks were gifted to allied European courts, eventually reaching Australia in the 1790s.

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The Merino breed, known for producing exceptionally fine and soft wool, was developed in Spain during the Middle Ages and became the foundation of Castile economic power. So valuable was the breed that the Spanish Crown treated it as a state asset. For centuries, exporting live Merino sheep was strictly forbidden, and those who attempted to smuggle animals out of Spain faced execution. The embargo held for hundreds of years until the 18th century, when King Charles III began gifting small flocks to allied European courts as diplomatic gestures. These sheep eventually found their way to South Africa, and in 1797, Captain John Macarthur and others purchased Merino descendants from the widow of the Dutch garrison commander in Cape Town. Brought to Sydney and bred selectively over the following decades, these animals became the foundation of the Australian wool industry. By the 1840s, wool had overtaken almost every other Australian export, earning the phrase Australia rode to prosperity on the sheep back.