The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 40

[73] En la nombrada y gran ciudad de Granada, Agosto 20. Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 135.

[74] Pragmaticas del Reyno, pa.s.sim.--Diccionario Geografico-Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 333--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. part 3, cap.

2.--Mines of lead, copper, and silver were wrought extensively in Guipuzcoa and Biscay.--Col. de Ced., tom. i. no. 25.

[75] Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 127, 128.--Ante, Part II., Chapter 3, note 12.--The cortes of Toledo, in 1525, complained, "que habia tantos caballos Espanoles en Francia como en Castilla." (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 285.) The trade, however, was contraband; the laws against the exportation of horses being as ancient as the time of Alfonso XI. (See also Ordenancas Reales, fol. 85, 86.)

Laws can never permanently avail against national prejudices. Those in favor of mules have been so strong in the Peninsula, and such the consequent decay of the fine breed of horses, that the Spaniards have been compelled to supply themselves with the latter from abroad. Bourgoanne reckons that 20,000 were annually imported into the country from France, at the close of the last century. Travels in Spain, tom. i. chap. 4.

[76] Hist. del Luxo, tom. i. p. 170.--"Tiene muchas ouejas," says Marineo, "cuya lana estan singular, que no solamente se aprouechan della en Espana, mas tambien se lleua en abundancia a otras partes." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 3.) He notices especially the fine wool of Molina, in whose territory 400,000 sheep pastured, fol. 19.

[77] Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. pp. 338, 339.--"Or if ever exported," he adds, "it was at some period long posterior to the discovery of America."

[78] Pragmaticas del Reyno, pa.s.sim.--Many of them were designed to check impositions, too often practised in the manufacture and sale of goods, and to keep them up to a fair standard.

[79] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.

[80] Ibid., fol. 19.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 26.--The Venetian minister, however, p.r.o.nounces them inferior to the silks of his own country.

[81] "Proueyda," says Marineo, "de todos officios, y artes mecanicas que en ella se exercitan mucho: y princ.i.p.almente en lanor, y exercicio de lanas, y sedas. Por las quales dos cosas biuen en esta ciudad mas de diez mil personas. Es de mas desto la ciudad muy rica, por los grandes tratos de mercadurias." Cosas Memorables, fol. 12.

[82] Ibid., fol. 15.--Navagiero, a more parsimonious eulogist, remarks, nevertheless, "Sono in Valladolid a.s.sai artefici di ogni sorte, e se vi lavora benessimo de tutte le arti, e sopra tutto d'Argenti, e vi son tanti argenteri quanti non sono in due altre terre." Viaggio, fol. 35.

[83] Geron. Paulo, a writer at the close of the fifteenth century, cited by Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 3, p. 23.

[84] The twentieth Il.u.s.tracion of Senor Clemencin's invaluable compilation contains a table of prices of grain, in different parts of the kingdom, under Ferdinand and Isabella. Take, for example, those of Andalusia. In 1488, a. year of great abundance, the _fanega_ of wheat sold in Andalusia for 50 maravedies; in 1489 it rose to 100; in 1505, a season of great scarcity, to 375, and even 600; in 1508, it was at 306; and in 1509, it had fallen to 85 maravedies. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. pp. 551, 552.

[85] Compare, for example, the accounts of the environs of Toledo and Madrid, the two most considerable cities in Castile, by ancient and modern travellers. One of the most intelligent and recent of the latter, in his journey between these two capitals, remarks, "There is sometimes a visible track, and sometimes none; most commonly we pa.s.sed over wide sands. The country between Madrid and Toledo, I need scarcely say, is ill peopled and ill cultivated; for it is all a part of the same arid plain, that stretches on every side around the capital; and which is bounded on this side by the Tagus. The whole of the way to Toledo, I pa.s.sed through only four inconsiderable villages; and saw two others at a distance. A great part of the land is uncultivated, covered with furze and aromatic plants; but here and there some corn land is to be seen." (Inglis, Spain in 1830, vol. i. p. 366.) What a contrast does all this present to the language of the Italians, Navagiero and Marineo, in whose time the country around Toledo "surpa.s.sed all other districts of Spain, in the excellence and fruitfulness of the soil;" which, "skilfully irrigated by the waters of the Tagus, and minutely cultivated, furnished every variety of fruit and vegetable produce to the neighboring city." While, instead of the sunburnt plains around Madrid, it is described as situated "in the bosom of a fair country, with an ample territory, yielding rich harvests of corn and wine, and all the other aliments of life." Cosas Memorables, fol. 12, 13.-- Viaggio, fol. 7, 8.

[86] Capmany has well exposed some of these extravagances. (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. in. part. 3, cap. 2.) The boldest of them, however, may find a warrant in the declarations of the legislature itself. "En los lugares de obrages de lanas," a.s.serts the cortes of 1594, "donde se solian labrar veinte y treinta mil arrobas, no se labran hoi seis, y donde habia senores de ganado de grandisima cantidad, han disminuido en la misma y mayor proporcion, acaeciendo lo mismo en todas las otras cosas del comercio universal y particular. Lo cual hace que no haya ciudad de las princ.i.p.ales destos reinos ni lugar ninguno, de donde no falte notable vecindad, como se echa bien de ver en la muchedumbre de casas que estan cerradas y despobladas, y en la baja que han dado los arrendamientos de las pocas que se arriendan y habitan." Apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist, tom.

vi. p. 304.

[87] A point which most writers would probably agree in fixing at 1700, the year of Charles II.'s death, the last and most imbecile of the Austrian dynasty. The population of the kingdom at this time, had dwindled to 6,000,000. See Laborde, (Itineraire, tom. vi. pp. 125, 143, ed. 1830), who seems to have better foundation for this census than for most of those in his table.

[88] See the unequivocal language of cortes, under Philip II. (supra.) With every allowance, it infers an alarming decline in the prosperity of the nation.

[89] One has only to read, for an evidence of this, the lib. 6, t.i.t. 18, of the "Nueva Recopilacion," on "cosas prohibidas;" the laws on gilding and plating, lib. 5, t.i.t. 24; on apparel and luxury, lib. 7, t.i.t. 12; on woollen manufactures, lib. 7, t.i.t. 14-17, et legas al. Perhaps no stronger proof of the degeneracy of the subsequent legislation can be given, than by contrasting it with that of Ferdinand and Isabella in two important laws. 1. The sovereigns, in 1492, required foreign traders to take their returns in the products and manufactures of the country. By a law of Charles V., 1552, the exportation of numerous domestic manufactures was prohibited, and the foreign trader, in exchange for domestic wool, was required to import into the country a certain amount of linen and woollen fabrics. 2. By an ordinance, in 1500, Ferdinand and Isabella prohibited the importation of silk thread from Naples, to encourage its production at home. This appears from the tenor of subsequent laws to have perfectly succeeded. In 1552, however, a law was pa.s.sed, interdicting the export of manufactured silk, and admitting the importation of the raw material. By this sagacious provision, both the culture of silk, and the manufacture were speedily crushed in Castile.

[90] See examples of these, in the reigns of Henry III., and John II, (Recop. de las Leyes, tom. ii. fol. 180, 181.) Such also were the numerous tariffs fixing the prices of grain, the vexatious cla.s.s of sumptuary laws, those for the regulation of the various crafts, and, above, all, on the exportation of the precious metals.

[91] The English Statute Book alone will furnish abundant proof of this, in the exclusive regulations of trade and navigation existing at the close of the fifteenth century. Mr. Sharon Turner has enumerated many, under Henry VIII., of similar import with, and, indeed, more partial in their operation than, those of Ferdinand and Isabella. History of England, vol.

iv. pp. 170 et seq.

[92] Ordenancas Reales, lib. 6, t.i.t. 4, ley 6.

[93] Archivo de Simancas; in which most of these ordinances appear to be registered. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 11.

[94] "Enn.o.blescense los cibdades e villas en tener casas grandes e bien fechas en que fragan sus ayuntamientos e concejos," etc. (Ordenancas Reales, lib. 7, t.i.t. 1, ley 1.) Senor Clemencin has specified the nature and great variety of these improvements, as collected from the archives of the different cities of the kingdom. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi.

Il.u.s.tracion ll.--Col. de Cedulas, tom. iv. no. 9.

[95] Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 63. 91, 93.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 5, t.i.t. 11, ley 12.--Among the acts for restricting monopolies may be mentioned one, which prohibited the n.o.bility and great landholders from preventing their tenants' opening inns and houses of entertainment without their especial license. (Pragmaticas del Reyno, 1492, fol. 96.) The same abuse, however, is noticed by Mad. d'Aulnoy, in her "Voyage d'Espagne," as still existing, to the great prejudice of travellers, in the seventeenth century. Dunlop, Memoirs of Philip IV. and Charles II., vol. ii. chap. 11.

[96] Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 93-112.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 5, t.i.t. 21, 22.

[97] "Ut nulla unquam per se tuta regio, tutiorem se fuisse jactare possit." Opus Epist., epist. 31.

[98] For various laws tending to secure this, and prevent frauds in trade, see Ordenancas Reales, lib. 3, t.i.t. 8, ley 5.--Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol.

45, 66, 67, et alibi.--Col. de Cedulas, tom. i. no. 63.

[99] The fullest, though a sufficiently meagre, account of the Navarrese const.i.tution, is to be found in Capmany's collection, "Practica y Estilo,"

(pp. 250-258,) and in the "Diccionario Geografico Hist, de Espana," (tom.

ii. pp. 140-143.) The historical and economical details in the latter are more copious.

[100] "Queste furono," says Giannone, "le prime leggi che ci diedero gli Spagnuoli: leggi tutte provvide e savie, nello stabilir delle quali furono veramente gli Spagnuoli piu d' ogni altra n.a.z.ione avveduti, e piu esatti imitatori de' Romani." Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 5.

[101] Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 29, cap. 4; lib. 30, cap. 1, 2, 5.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. p. 84.--Every one knows the persecutions, the exile, and long imprisonment, which Giannone suffered for the freedom with which he treated the clergy, in his philosophical history. The generous conduct of Charles of Bourbon to his heirs is not so well known. Soon after his accession to the throne of Naples, that prince settled a liberal pension on the son of the historian, declaring, that "it did not comport with the honor and dignity of the government, to permit an individual to languish in indigence, whose parent had been the greatest man, the most useful to the state, and the most unjustly persecuted, that the age had produced." n.o.ble sentiments, giving additional grace to the act which they accompanied. See the decree, cited by Corniani, Secoli della Letteratura Italiana, (Brescia, 1804-1813,) tom.

ix. art. 15.

[102] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.--According to Martyr, the two mints of Hispaniola yielded 300,000 lbs. of gold annually.

De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.

[103] The pearl fisheries of Cuhagua were worth 75,000 ducats a year.

Herrera, Indian Occidentales, dec 1, lib 7, cap. 9.

[104] Oviedo, Historia Natural de las Indias, lib. 4, cap. 8.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 165.

[105] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. doc.u.mentos 1-13.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1. lib. 7, cap. 1.

[106] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 48, 134.

[107] Bernardin de Santa Clara, treasurer of Hispaniola, ama.s.sed, during a few years' residence there, 96,000 ounces of gold. This same _nouveau riche_ used to serve gold dust, says Herrera, instead of salt, at his entertainments. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 7, cap. 3.) Many believed, according to the same author, that gold was so abundant, as to be dragged up in nets from the beds of the rivers! Lib. 10, cap. 14.

[108] Ante, Part II., Chapter 24.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 10, cap. 6, 7.

[109] "Per esser Sevilla nel loco che e, vi vanno tanti di loro alle Indie, che la citta resta mal popolata, e quasi in man di donne."

(Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 15.) Horace said, fifteen centuries before,

"_Impiger extremes curris mercator ad Indos, Per mare pauperiem fugieus, per saxa, per ignes._"

_Epist. i. 1._

[110] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 10.--Almost all the Spanish expeditions in the New World, whether on the northern or southern continent, have a tinge of romance, beyond what is found in those of other European nations. One of the most striking and least familiar of them is that of Ferdinand de Soto, the ill-fated discoverer of the Mississippi, whose bones bleach beneath its waters. His adventures are told with uncommon spirit by Mr. Bancroft, vol. i. chap. 2, of his History of the United States.

[111] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 2, lib. 1, cap. 7.

[112] The life of this daring cavalier forms one in the elegant series of national biographies by Quintana, "Vidas de Espanoles Celebres," (tom. ii.

pp. 1-82), and is familiar to the English reader in Irving's "Companions of Columbus." The third volume of Navarrete's laborious compilation is devoted to the ill.u.s.tration of the minor Spanish voyagers, who followed up the bold track of discovery, between Columbus and Cortes. Coleccion de Viages.

[113] Las Casas, Memoires, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 189.

[114] "Y crean (Vuestras Altezas) questa isla y todas las otras son asi suyas corao Castilla, que aqui no falta salvo asiento y mandarles hacer lo que quisieren." Primera Carta de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 93.