The General Association of Stockbreeders is the continuer of the "Honrado Concejo de la Mesta" (Honorable Council of the Mesta) and was created by the Royal Order issued on the 31st of January 1836. The Presidency did not have the judicial functions anymore. The regulations issued on the 31st of March 1854 exposed that even though the livestock population was entrusted to the Association, the Ministry of Public Works was in charge of the inspection and jurisdiction of the royal cattle track (cañadas reales). The General Association of Stockbreeders operated until 1931. After the Civil War, the Archive of the Mesta, compounded by the fonds of the Concejo de la Mesta and the General Association of Stockbreeders was delivered to the "Sindicato Nacional de Ganadería" (Stockbreeding National Syndicate), which assumed every competence taken by the General Association of Stockbreeders in that moment. When the democracy arrived and the Spanish Trade Union Organization disappeared, the Archive of the Honrado Concejo de la Mesta and the General Association of Stockbreeders were delivered to the National Historical Archive on the 26th of September 1977 for its conservation and custody within the "Sección de Diversos". Shortly after, the State started the negotiations to acquire definitively that Archive. This acquisition was made by the Ministry of Culture in different stages.