Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/486

458 458 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART could be more impolitic than these various provis- ' ions directed against manufactures, which, under proper encouragement, or indeed without any, from the peculiar advantages afforded by the country, might have formed an important branch of industry, whether for the supply of foreign markets, or for home consumption. Notwithstanding these ordinances, we find one, in 1500, at the petition of the silk-growers in Gra- nada, against the introduction of silk thread from the kingdom of Naples ; " thus encouraging the production of the raw material, while they inter- dicted the uses to which it could be applied. Such are the inconsistencies, into which a government is - betrayed by an overzealous and impertinent spirit of legislation ! The chief exports of the country in this reign, were the fruits and natural products of the soil, the minerals, of which a great variety was deposited in its bosom, and the simpler manufactures, as sugar, dressed skins, oil, wine, steel, &,c. ''^ The breed of Spanish horses, celebrated in ancient times, had been greatly improved by the cross with the Ara- bian. It had, however, of late years, fallen into neglect ; until the government, by a number of judi- Principal ex- ports. on petition of cortes, in the year preceding^. Sempere, in his sensi- ble *' Historia del Luxo," has ex- hibited the series of I he manifold sumptuary laws in Castile. It is a history of the impotent struggle of authority, against the indulgence of the innocent propensities im- planted in our nature, and naturally increasing with increasing wealth and civilization. 73 En la nombrada y gran cibdad de Granada, Agosto 20. Prag- maticas del Reyno, fol. 135. 74 Pragmaticas del Reyno, pas- sim. — Diccionario Geografico-Hist. de Espana, tom. i. p. 333. — Cap- many, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. part. 3, cap. 2. — Mines of lead, copper, and silver were wrought extensively in Gnipuzcoa and Bis- cay. — Col. de Ced.jtom. i. no. 25.