La Maquila

I am the maquila — the measured share the miller keeps for grinding another's grain. The farmer brings his own wheat; he leaves with his own flour. The miller takes a handful from each sack, weighed by the same balance that weighs the traveller's price. The farmer sets his price at the market; the miller does not interfere. The toll is taken at the stone or tallied at month's end. The grain is the farmer's. The flour is the farmer's. The toll is the mill's.

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A guide from Málaga brought her own grain — a walking tour, forty coins, her own price. She set her own strongbox at the mill door. A traveller booked. The coin went into her box — forty coins, less the maquila, the small measure the mill kept for grinding. She received her flour. The mill kept its handful. She said: 'I expected the mill to take half.' The Scribe said: 'The mill takes a handful. The grain was always yours.' She smiled. She had milled at other compounds where the mill kept the flour and paid the farmer in promises. Here, the farmer kept the flour and paid the mill in grain. The difference was everything.