Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/492

464 464 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART most exceptionable laws sanctioned bj their names, '■ — are to be charged on their predecessors, who had ingrafted their principles into the system long be- fore ; ^° and many others are to be vindicated by the general practice of other nations, which author- ized retaliation on the score of self-defence.^^ Nothing is easier than to parade abstract theo- rems, — true in the abstract, — in political econ- omy ; nothing harder than to reduce them to prac- tice. That an individual will understand his own interests better than the government can, or, what is the same thing, that trade, if let alone, will find its way into the channels on the whole most advanta- geous to the community, few will deny. But what is true of all together is not true of any one singly ; and no one nation can safely act on these principles, 12; on woollen manufactures, lib. and admitting the importation of 7, tit. 14-17, et leges al. Perhaps the raw material. By this saga- no stronger proof of the degenera- cious provision, both the culture of cy of the subsequent legislation silk, and the manufacture were can be given, than by contrasting speedily crushed in Castile. it with that of Ferdinand and 9" See examples of these, in the Isabella in two important laws, reigns of Henry III., and John II. 1. The sovereigns, in 1492, re- (Recop. de las Leyes, tom. ii. fol. quired foreign traders to take their iSO, 181.) Such also were the nu- returns in the products and manu- merous tariffs fixing the prices of factures of the country. By a law grain, the vexatious class of sump of Charles v., in 1552, the expor- tuary laws, those for the regula- tation of numerous domestic manu- tion of the various crafts, and, factures was prohibited, and the above all, on the exportation of the foreign trader, in exchange for do- precious metals, mestic wool, was required to im- 91 The English Statute Book port into the country a certain alone will furnish abundant proof amount of linen and woollen fab- of tliis, in the exclusive regulations rics. 2. By an ordinance, in 1500, of trade and navigation existing at Ferdinand and Isabella prohibited the close of the fifteenth century, the importation of silk thread from Mr. Sharon Turner has enumerated Naples, to encourage its production many, under Henry VIII., of sim- at home. This appears from the ilar import with, and, indeed, more tenor of subsequent laws to have partial in their operation than, those perfectly succeeded. In 1552, how- of Ferdinand and Isabella. Histo- ever, a law was passed, interdicting ry of England, vol. iv. pp. 170 et the export of manufactured silk, seq.