Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/512

484 484 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART II. Augmen- tation of 'flvenue. played new and more beautiful varieties, under the influence of Italian culture. ^^^ With this moral developement of the nation, the public revenues, the sure index, when unforced, of public prosperity, went on augmenting with aston- ishing rapidity. In 1474, the year of Isabella's accession, the ordinary rents of the Castilian crown amounted to 885,000 reals i'^^ in 1477, to 2,390,078 ; in 1482, after the resumption of the royal grants, to 12,711,591 ; and finally in 1504, when the acquisi- tion of Granada ^^^ and the domestic tranquillity of the kingdom had encouraged the free expansion of all its resources, to 26,283,334 ; or thirty times the amount received at her accession.^^° All this, it i37 See the concluding note to this chapter. Erasmus, in a lively and elegant epistle 10 his friend, Francis Ver- gara, Greek professor at Alcala, in 1527, lavishes unbounded panegyric on the science and literature of Spain, whose palmy state he attrib- utes to Isabella's patronage, and the cooperation of some of her en- lightened subjects. " Hispa- nia; vestrae, tanto successu, priscam eruditionis gloriam sibi postliminio vindicanti. Qusa quum semper et regionis amosnitate fertilitat6que, semper ingeniorum eminentium ubere proventu, semper bellica lau- de floruerit, quid desiderari polerat ad summam fclicitatem, nisi ut studiorum et religionis adjungeret ornamenta, quibus aspirante Deo sic paucis annis effloruit ut caeteris regionibus quamlibet hoc decorum genere praecellentibus vel invidias queat esse vel exemplo. ***** Vos islam felicitatem secundiim Deum debetis laudatissimaj llegi- narum Elisabetse, Francisco Car- dinali quondam, Alonso Fonsecse nunc Archiepiscopo Toletano, et si qui sunt horum similes, quorum autoritas tuetur, benignitas alit fo- vetque bonas artes." Epistolis, p. 978. 138 The sums in the text express the real de vellon ; to which they have been reduced by Seilor Cle- mencin, from the original amount in maravedis, which varied very materially in value in different years. Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., torn, vi. Ilust. 5. 139 The kingdom of Granada ap- pears to have contributed rather less than one eighth of the whole tax. I'W In addition to the last men- tioned sum, the extraordinary ser- vice voted by cortes, for the dowry of the infantas, and other matters, in 1504, amounted to 16,113,014 reals de vellon ; making a sum total, for that year, of 42,396,348 reals. The bulk of the crown revenues was derived from the akavalas, and the tercias, or two ninths of the ecclesiastical tithes. These impor- tant statements were transcribed