Cattle originally meant property — any property, including money, land and income. It came in the mid-1200s from Anglo-French catel, from Medieval Latin capitale, "property, stock," which is the neuter of capitalis, "principal, chief," literally "of the head," from caput, "head." The same Latin word, taken later through central French rather than Norman, gave English chattel, and later still, straight from Latin, capital. Three English words, one Latin ancestor, three different social registers.
The narrowing is a fact about medieval economics. By the early 1300s cattle especially meant movable property, meaning livestock — horses, sheep, asses and cows alike — because that is what a person's wealth mostly consisted of. Only from the late 1500s did it shrink to cows and bulls specifically. English did the same thing with fee, which began as a word for cattle, and Latin did it with pecunia, "money," from pecus, "flock."
cattle (n.) mid-13c., "property" of any kind, including money, land, or income; from Anglo-French catel "property" (Old North French catel , Old French chatel ), from Medieval Latin capitale "property, stock," noun use of neuter of Latin adjective capitalis "principal, chief," literally "of the head," from caput (genitive capitis ) "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Compare sense development of fee , pecuniary . Also compare chattel , which is a doublet. in later Middle English especially "movable property, livestock" (early 14c.), including horses, sheep, asses, etc.; it began to be limited to "cows and bulls" from late 16c. also from mid-13c.