Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/488

460 460 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART II. Agriculture. imply, in the character and minuteness of their regulations, a very considerable proficiency in many of the mechanic arts." Similar testimony is borne by intelligent foreigners, visiting or residing in the country at the beginning of the sixteenth century ; who notice the fine cloths and manufacture of arms in Segovia, '^ the silks and velvets of Granada and Valencia, ^'^ the woollen and silk fabrics of Toledo, which gave employment to ten thousand artisans, ^^ the curiously wrought plate of Valladolid, ^^ and the fine cutlery and glass manufactures of Barcelona, rivalling those of Venice. ^^ The recurrence of seasons of scarcity, and the fluctuation of prices, might suggest a reasonable distrust of the excellence of the husbandry under this reign. ^* The turbulent condition of the coun- ts Pragmaticas del Reyno, pas- sim. — Many of them were de- signed to check impositions, too often practised in the manufacture and sale of goods, and to keep them up to a fair standard. '3 L. Marineo, Cosas Memora- bles, fol. IL 80 Ibid., fol. 19. — Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 26. — The Venetian minister, however, pronounces them inferior to the silks of his own country. 8^ " Proueyda," says Marineo, "de todos officios, y artes mecani- cas que en ella se exercitan mucho : y principalmente en lanor, y exer- cicio de lanas, y sedas. Por las quales dos cosas biuen en esta ciu- dad mas de diez mil personas. Es de mas desto la ciuclad muy rica, por los grandes tratos de mercadu- rias," Cosas Memoraliles, fol. 12. 82 Ibid., fol. 15. — Navagiero, a more parsimonious eulogist, re- marks, nevertheless, ' ' Sono in Va- lladolid assai 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, torn. i. part. 3, p. 23. 84 The twentieth Ilustracion of SeHor Clemencin's invaluable com- pilation contains a table of prices of grain, in different parts of the kingdom, under Ferdinand and Isa- bella. Take, for example, ihose of Andalusia. In 1488, a year of great abundance, the fanega of wheat sold in Andalusia for 50 ma- ravedies ; 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., torn. vi. pp. 551, 552.