Having established that sheep of the gentile breed could also avoid transhumance provided that the corresponding fida was paid, the problem of collecting this contribution arose. For this purpose, the Doganella delle pecore rimaste, or Doganella d'Abruzzo, was established as a branch office formally associated with the Dogana di Foggia.

It soon became clear that the task assigned to the Doganella was not easy to implement. Unlike transhumant sheep in Apulia, which followed predetermined routes and stopped at assigned poste—thus facilitating the calculation and collection of the fida —the “remaining” sheep were generally small flocks that could be moved quickly along mountain paths. This greatly complicated the work of tax collectors, who often saw entire flocks disappear from one day to the next. The Doganella’s revenues were never particularly substantial; its primary function was rather to deter shepherds from avoiding transhumance.

The payment of the fida entitled shepherds to use winter grazing lands (vernotica or vernareccio) on state-owned lands in Abruzzo, which were far more limited in extent than those in Apulia. Unlike in Apulia, shepherds were not assigned a specific posta, and the available areas had to be shared among several flocks, often resulting in insufficient forage and forcing shepherds to supplement it at their own expense.

Initially, the fida was calculated on a declarative basis, but the results proved less effective than in Apulia: without a designated posta, shepherds had no incentive to declare more animals than they actually owned, and often declared fewer in order to reduce taxation. To curb such fraud, in 1621 the method of transazione was adopted: sheep were counted every three years, and that number—incremented by 10% annually—was used to calculate the fida . This system was clearly inequitable: in the event of epidemics or livestock mortality, shepherds were still required to pay for sheep they no longer possessed.

In 1590, the Doganella d’Abruzzo became autonomous from the Dogana di Foggia and, over time, assumed additional revenue-collecting functions. In Abruzzo it was customary for coastal landowners to grant local università (municipal communities), in exchange for payment and during periods when the land lay fallow, the right of vernareccio. The università resold these rights at auction to mountain shepherds, in a sale known as stoc, and the lands involved became known as stucchi. Over time, the Doganella directly acquired these rights, thereby expanding the base of taxpayers: owners of gentili , carfagne , mosce , and bigie , if interested in lowland pastures, were required to pay a tax to the Crown. Similar mechanisms were applied in the poste d’Atri, where the object of the auction was the lease of the posta itself.

In both cases, provided the fida was paid, the number of sheep introduced onto the land was not counted; however, it was forbidden to introduce animals not belonging to the individual who had won the right to use the land. This rule was intended to prevent owners of gentili from straying from state lands into the poste or stucchi, paying rent to the landholder while evading the fida owed to the Doganella. Detecting such fraud, however, remained problematic.

Over time, the Bourbon state became the principal holder of rights over Abruzzese lands and took advantage of this position to enact restrictive laws limiting the rights of landowners: they were forbidden to change the land’s intended use or to plough it, in order not to damage the pastures. The right to exploit vernotica thus evolved into a series of mandatory servitudes.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, this context fostered the emergence of movements of cultivators seeking to regain full possession of their lands. The moment was favorable: demand for fine wool declined due to foreign imports, making sheep farming less profitable, while demographic growth increased demand for agricultural products. The Doganella, which guaranteed only limited margins of profit, thus lost economic importance. In this context, Melchiorre Delfico represented the interests of cultivators, seeking either the abolition of the Doganella or at least the repeal of the most restrictive laws imposed by the Bourbons.

Despite this, the Crown maintained the institution until its definitive abolition on 8 May 1807, as a result of the Napoleonic reforms introduced in the Kingdom of Naples.