Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/73

lv CASTILE. Iv occupation of a conquered town, we find it distrib- section uted into quarters or districts, appropriated to the '■ — several crafts, whose members were incorporated into guilds, under the regulation of magistrates and bj-laws of their own appointment. Instead of the unworthy disrepute, into which the more humble occupations have since fallen in Spain, they were fostered by a liberal patronage, and their professors in some instances elevated to the rank of knight- hood.^^ The excellent breed of sheep, w^hich early became the subject of legislative solicitude, fur- nished them with an important staple, which, to- gether with the simpler manufactures, and the various products of a prolific soil, formed the mate- rials of a profitable commerce.^^ Augmentation of 42 Zufiiga, Annales Eclesiasti- cos y Secalares de Sevilla, (Madrid, 1677,) pp. 74, 75. — Sempere,His- toria del Luxo, torn. i. p. 80. ^^ The historian of Seville de- scribes that city, about the middle of the fifteenth century, as possess- ing a flourishing commerce, and a degree of opulence unexampled since the conquest. It was filled with an active population, employed in the various mechanic arts. Its domestic fabrics, as well as natu- ral products, of oil, wine, wool, &c., supplied a trade with France, Flanders, Italy, and England. (Zu- iiiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 341. — See also Sempere, Historia del Luxo, p. 81, nota 2.) The ports of Biscay, which belonged to the Castilian crown, were the marts of an extensive trade with the north, during the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries. This province entered into repeated treaties of commerce with France and Eng- land ; and her factories were es- tablished at Bruges, the great em- porium of commercial intercourse during this period between the north and south, before those of any oth- er people in Europe, except the Germans. (Diccionario Geografico- Historico de Espaila, por la Real Academia de la Historia, (Madrid, 1802,) tom. i. p. 333.) The institution of the mesia is referred, says Laborde, (Itineraire Descriptif de I'Espagne, (Paris, 1827 - 1830,) tom. iv. p. 47,) to the middle of the fourteenth century, when the great plague, which de- vastated the country so sorely, left large depopulated tracts open to pasturage. This popular opinion is erroneous, since it engaged the attention of government, and be- came the subject of legislation as anciently as 1273, under Alfonso the Wise. (See Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, Introd. p. 56.) Cap- many, however, dates the great improvement in the breed of Span- ish sheep from the year 1394, when Catharine of Lancaster brought with her, as a part of her dowry