They were not to dye with pomegranate or sumach, and if the rind of the
former fruit were found in their houses, they were liable to a fine of
six thousand _maravedis_ and thirty days' imprisonment. Dyeing with
Brazil-wood was also prohibited in the case of silks of finer quality
exposed for sale in the Alcaicería. Elaborate directions follow as to
the manner of applying the dye. In the case of silks dyed blue or
purple, the dyer, before he drew the fabric from the vat, was required
to show it to the _alamin_ or inspector of the silk, or else to one of
the _veedores_ nominated by the city councillors. The fines imposed upon
the dyers who were found to contravene these regulations were
distributed in the following proportion: one-third towards repairing the
ramparts or _adarves_ of Granada; another third between the _alamin_,
the _veedores_, and the other officials who discovered and denounced the
culprit; and the remaining third between the magistrates and other
authorities who tried and sentenced him.
Further, each silk-dyer was to have six _tinajas_, or large jars (see
Vol. II., pp. 120 _et seq._), kept continually full of dye, well
settled, and liable at any hour to be analyzed by the _veedores_. In
dyeing fabrics black, each pound of silk was to be treated with ten
ounces of foreign galls of fine quality, two ounces of copperas, and two
ounces of gum-arabic.
It is evident that nearly all this legislation was of a mischievous
character, nor can it cause surprise that certain of the silk-makers of
this locality should have been in the habit of committing many kinds of
fraud, such as mixing salt or oil with the raw material, in order to
increase its weight. Thus, at the same time that the laws themselves
were made more numerous and stringent, the more elaborate and various
were the shifts invented by the citizens as a means to violate those
laws. The inspectors were empowered to enter a shop and examine its
contents at any hour. Sometimes, we read, such ingress was denied them,
and the door was kept closed, or slammed in their faces. The penalty for
this resistance was a fine of two thousand _maravedis_ and twenty days
imprisonment. No silk-spinner was allowed to possess more than two
spinning-wheels (Ordinance of November 18th, 1501), or to keep these
working after midnight, for we are told that in this way the _veedores_
were impeded from paying their official visit in the small hours of the
morning, and much "deceit and insult" was the consequence. This
Ordinance was confirmed by a royal rescript of 1542.
[Illustration: VII
VELVET MADE AT GRANADA
(_Late 15th Century_)]
Another group of _Ordenanzas_ concerns the weavers and the
silk-merchants of the Alcaicería, determining that no silk was to be
imported from the kingdoms of Valencia or Murcia, and that no merchant
was to buy the raw material in order to resell it at a profit, but might
only trade in the productions of his own factory. Minute instructions
are appended for weaving the various stuffs which had a silk foundation,
such as several kinds of damask, scarlet velvet[16] many kinds of satin,
velvet dyed with Brazil-wood, taffeta of four leishes, taffeta of two
leishes, and _sargas_, or silken serge. Other fabrics mentioned in the
Ordinances are _tocas_ called "San Juanes," _campuses moriscos_
(elsewhere "las tocas moriscas que se llaman _campuzas_"), "las tocas
moriscas labradas que se dizen _coninos_," _quinales_ and _alfardillas_,
_alcaydias_, _tocas de Reyna_, and _espumillas_. Most of these names are
of obscure meaning at the present day; but I find that _espumillas_ were
silken crape, while _alfardillas_ are defined in the old dictionary of
Fathers Connelly and Higgins as "an ancient kind of silken ribbon, or
tape."
[16] Granada was especially renowned for her velvets (Plate vii.),
grounded or relieved, in the oriental manner, with gold or silver.
No weaver was allowed to be the owner of more than four looms for making
velvet, satin, damask, taffeta, or silken serges. The apprentice to a
satin-maker required to be bound for a minimum term of three years, the
apprentice to a damask-maker for five years, the apprentice to a
taffeta-maker for three years. No weaver was to have more than three
apprentices at one time, except in the case of the damask-makers, who
might have four. No weaver might dismiss his apprentice without deponing
to the cause before the city officers, nor might he accept money, or
anything in lieu of money, from an apprentice. Master-weavers were
required to pass their examinations in Granada; no other city would
suffice.
We further learn that many of the apprentices were "of evil character,"
and damaged velvet stuffs "maliciously, though knowing perfectly how to
weave the same." If any worker at this craft fell sick, the guild or
_oficio_ was to defray the expenses of his cure, including physic "until
he be recovered, provided his be not a venereal ailment, or a wound
inflicted with a knife." If he succumbed, the guild was to bury him; and
when a master-weaver died, his apprentices were compelled to serve out
the rest of their indentures with his widow, or his sons. No slave might
learn to weave, even though he should be made a _horro_ or freedman.
Other ordinances refer to the officers known as Xelizes and Almotalefes
of the silk, the privilege of appointing whom had been conferred upon
the town-council by Ferdinand and Isabella. It was the business of the
_almotalefe_ or _motalefe_ to collect silk throughout the _alcarias_ or
villages of the surrounding districts, and convey it, on behalf of the
owner, to a _xeliz_ or "superintendent of the market," attached to one
or other of the three Alcaicerías of the kingdom of Granada. The
_xeliz_, in his turn, was required to see that the parcel was put up for
sale by public auction and disposed of to the highest bidder, after
which he handed to the _motalefe_ a certificate of the price obtained,
together with the corresponding cash, less certain fees deducted for
himself and calculated on a reasonable scale. The number of _motalefes_
throughout this region was evidently large, because in the year 1520 the
town-council resolved to appoint as many as "one or two in every town
and district."
Ordinances to the above effect were notified to the city of Almuñecar,
and the towns of Motril, Salobreña, and the Alpujarras; from which we
must infer that, though subordinated to the capital herself, these
places also were silk-producing centres of no slight importance.
Further laws relating to the Xelizes were passed in 1535. On August
13th, the mayor of Granada (described as the "very magnificent" Señor
Hernan Darias de Saavedra) summoned before him these officials in order
to admonish them respecting certain fresh decisions that had been
adopted by the councillors. The said Xelizes were six in all, known
severally as Juan Ximenez, Hernando el Comarxi, Juan Infante Zaybona,
Juan de Granada, Lorenzo el Mombatan, and Francisco Hernandez
Almorox--names which are of interest, as showing that the Morisco
element was still of weight among the manufacturers and merchants of
Granada. From this time forth, and by the resolution of the town
authorities, the Xelizes in question were called upon to lodge a deposit
of one thousand ducats as security for the value of the silk entrusted
them for sale. Besides this, the silk was to be sold in the
Zaguaque--that is, by public auction "as in the time of the Moors," from
two in the afternoon onward. The buyer was required to settle his
account before ten in the morning of the day next following his
purchase. Failing this, the silk was to be again put up for sale, and
the costs of this new operation were charged to the defaulting first
purchaser, who was further obliged to pay a daily compensation of two
_reales_ to the _motalefe_ who had brought the silk to market. Xelizes
were strictly forbidden to traffic on their own account, and the fines
for infringing any of these laws were heavy. If the infraction were
repeated once, the fine was doubled; if twice, in addition to the same
amount in money, the transgressor was banished for all his lifetime from
Granada.
All pieces of stuff which measured ten yards long and upwards, and which
it was desired to sell within the capital or district of Granada,
required to be marked with the weaver's stamp. If three pieces were sold
together, or sent abroad to other places to be sold, they required to be
stamped with the city seal at a fee for stamping of two _maravedis_ the
piece. This was to be performed by the _veedores_, who were also to keep
a register of all the city looms, and pay them a visit of inspection
once at least in every month.
Finally, one of the most ridiculous and noxious of these ordinances
forbade the planting of more mulberry-trees in or about Granada;
notwithstanding that it was also forbidden to deal in silk imported from
Valencia or Murcia, as the merchants were said to mingle these foreign
silks with that of Granada herself, to the detriment of the latter.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the silk-trade of
this capital remained in much the same condition. In 1747 a company was
formed at Granada titled the "Compañía Real de Comercio y Fábricas de
Granada," and the formal prospectus of this society, of which document a
printed copy is in my possession, was embodied in a royal _cedula_ dated
in the same year. The preliminary remarks attached to this certificate
explain that the people of Granada were now reduced to "the most unhappy
state of poverty, insomuch that nowhere is there memory of a greater
horde of mendicants." The principal cause of this distress is stated to
be the ruin of the silk-trade, in which disaster may be recognised the
consequences of the senseless legislation I have instanced in the
foregoing paragraphs. The fifteen thousand looms which once upon a time
existed there had dwindled to six hundred, and the production of raw
silk, from one million pounds a year to one hundred thousand. The new
Company was floated with the professed ambition of restoring Granada to
a measure of her old prosperity. The capital was half a million _pesos_,
divided into shares of two hundred _pesos_ each; but silk and woven
fabrics generally, whose value had been suitably appraised by the
authorities, were admissible in payment of a share. The holder of each
five shares enjoyed one vote, except in the case of founders, who were
privileged, as "instruments of this important establishment," to vote
upon possession of a single share. If a shareholder wished to sell his
interest, the Company was to have the first refusal. It further
possessed initially in cash a sum exceeding one hundred and twenty
thousand _pesos_--sufficient to construct and work three thousand looms
in all; and it engaged, in return for certain favours and exemptions
under royal warrant, to set up twenty looms for making serges of fine
quality, and eight more in each year, for the space of ten years, for
making _carros de oro_, _medios carros_, _anascotes finos_,
_christales_, "and every other kind of stuff that is not manufactured in
this kingdom."
The favours and exemptions thus solicited were of a very mischievous
character; for the political mind of Spain was not yet shrewd enough to
grasp the fact that where all competition is removed, quality cannot but
decline. The products of the Company were freed from paying taxes for
ten, or in the case of stuffs whose price amounted to six _reales_ per
yard, for twenty years. Similarly, all of its merchandise exported to
America "in _flotas_, _galeones_, _registros_, or other craft of those
that are permitted," was freed from all except the royal dues on
loading, although if shipped to other parts it was to pay a tax of fifty
_maravedis_ for each Castilian pound of sixteen ounces. All the
materials and ingredients required by the Company in the preparation of
its fabrics were exempted from customs and other dues. The Company
enjoyed a preferential right to purchase silk throughout the kingdom of
Granada, and such as it abstained from purchasing was to be sold by
public auction in the Alcaicerías of Granada and Málaga, that of Almería
being henceforth suppressed. The Company was also empowered to introduce
silk from Murcia and Valencia, and the determination to crush all
private enterprise is clearly expressed by the twenty-second heading of
this document, which says; "All manufacturers and traders who do not
associate themselves with this body shall pay the full tariff of dues at
present established." The Company was further empowered to compel the
inhabitants of this locality to plant new lots of mulberry-trees, "in
view of the notorious fact that not the one-hundredth part remains of
all that were delivered by the Royal Census to the occupants of the
kingdom of Granada at the time of the reconquest." The Company might
further open shops and erect warehouses wherever it chose. Its assets
were to enjoy perpetual immunity from seizure by the city council,
whether as a loan or otherwise, and none of its servants might be called
upon to serve the Crown in the event of war.
Very shortly after its foundation, this Company united (each bringing
half the capital) with another powerful association titled the
Commercial Company of Estremadura, with a view to securing a conjoint
Crown monopoly or "exclusive privilege" for Portugal, "to the effect
that only these two companies may traffic there in silk, and none other
of my vassals or the inhabitants of my dominions may do business,
whether in pure silk, or silk mixed with silver or with gold, in the
kingdom of Portugal aforesaid."
The privilege was granted in these terms, and bears the royal signature,
attached at Aranjuez, June 17th, 1747. Its provisions were to last for
ten years, and, in return for their concession, the two Companies
engaged for a like term of ten years to set up fifty silk-looms annually
at Toledo, "over and above the looms at present working in that city."
I have not been able to trace, in writing or in print, the subsequent
records of the Royal Commercial and Manufacturing Company of Granada,
although I have been told that it existed for some time, and that on one
occasion there was a riot among the townsfolk in opposition to its
tyranny.[17] In 1776 Swinburne wrote of the same region: "The annual
produce of silk in this province, before the year 1726, seldom fell
short of two millions six hundred thousand pounds weight, whereas now it
does not exceed one hundred thousand." Judging from this, the Company
does not appear to have prospered. In 1775 the same author wrote of
other and more fertile silk-producing districts: "The manufacturers of
silk are the cause of a population (_i.e._ in Valencia) that may be
reckoned considerable, if compared to that of other provinces of Spain.
The produce of this article came this year to one million pounds, but
one year with another the average quantity is about nine hundred
thousand pounds, worth a doubloon a pound in the country. The crop of
silk this last season was very abundant. Government has prohibited the
exportation of Valencian raw silk, in order to lay in a stock to keep
the artificers constantly employed in bad years; for it has happened in
some, that half the workmen have been laid idle for want of materials.
As they are not so strict about Murcian silk, which is of an inferior
quality, I am told that some from Valencia is sent out of Spain under
that denomination. The great nurseries of mulberry-plants in this plain
(the Huerta of Valencia) are produced from seed obtained by rubbing a
rope of _esparto_ over heaps of ripe mulberries, and then burying the
rope two inches under ground. As the young plants come up, they are
drawn and transplanted. The trees, which are all of the white kind, are
afterwards set out in rows in the fields, and pruned every second year;
in Murcia, only every third year, and in Granada never. The Granadine
silk is esteemed the best of all; and the trees are all of the black
sort of mulberry."
[17] Similar companies were formed at Toledo, Zaragoza, Burgos, Seville,
and Zarza. For the Crown _cedula_, dated February 10th, 1748,
authorizing the Real Compañía de Comercio y Fábricas of Toledo,
see Larruga's _Memorias_, Vol. VII., p. 63.
According to Laborde, who wrote some twenty-five years later; "The
cultivation of silk was formerly very flourishing in Andalusia; the
kingdoms of Granada, Seville, and Jaen produced immense quantities of
it, but after the conquest of those countries it was burdened with heavy
taxes: silk was made subject to ecclesiastical tithes payable in kind;
the royal tenth it paid under the Moors was retained, estimated at three
_reales vellon_ each pound of silk. To these were added a duty of
_tartil_ of seventeen _maravedis_ per pound and duties of _alcabalas_
and _cientos_, fixed at eleven _reales_ thirty-two _maravedís_. There
accrued from it a tax of fifteen _reales_ fifteen _maravedís_ for the
king, and six _reales_, or thereabouts, for the ecclesiastical tithe,
making together twenty-one _reales_ fifteen _maravedís_, or about four
shillings and sixpence the pound, which at that time sold only for
thirty _reales_, or six shillings and three pence English. The
speculators were consequently discouraged, most of them relinquished a
labour from which they derived so little profit, and this branch of
industry entirely failed in the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, and
afterwards in those of Granada and Jaen. For some time it has been
looking up in the two latter kingdoms, but it is very far from what it
was under the Moors. The mulberries of Granada and Jaen are black; they
are suffered to grow without any care or management, are never lopped or
dressed, and look as if they were planted by chance."
Of Murcia he wrote; "This province has the raw materials of other
manufactures no less important. In the first place, it has a prodigious
quantity of silkworms, which are not turned to advantage; most of the
raw silks are sold to the neighbouring provinces, and manufactured silk
is imported from foreign looms, though the inhabitants might manufacture
their own materials, and make it an article of considerable exportation.
The town of Murcia is the only place where they work some small
quantity; there they manufacture a few slight silks, chiefly taffetas
and velvets, but of an inferior quality; and the whole is confined to a
small number of looms. They make a much greater quantity of ribbons, in
which twelve hundred looms are employed; but they are badly dyed, and
have not a good gloss. The Murcians likewise prepare the raw silk, spin,
and twist it; they have even a warden, and a great number of masters in
this business, and, in spite of its importance, they carry it on without
being subject to any superintendence, everyone doing as he pleases. The
consequence is that the silk is badly prepared and spun unequally. The
threads are collected without any method, sometimes more, sometimes
less, and then twisted unequally. They are of course unfit to make fine
stuffs, and the trade of Murcia is therefore declining.... Silk stuffs,
satins, velvets, and taffetas are made here, but there is no great
manufactory of them. They are wrought at private houses, and are but of
a middling quality."
Toledo silk, including the delicate and costly _cendal_ (see pp. 5, 6)
which is mentioned in the sumptuary law, dated 1348, of Alfonso the
Eleventh, was largely in demand from early in the Middle Ages till about
the sixteenth century. The statements of the older writers as to this
neighbourhood are contradictory. According to Damián de Olivares,
himself a native of Toledo, this city in the sixteenth century possessed
between five thousand five hundred and six thousand looms, consuming
annually more than six hundred thousand pounds of raw silk. Other
authors estimate the number of her looms at twenty, thirty, or even
forty thousand. Writing in our own time, Count Cedillo is responsible
for declaring that after the revolt of the Communities, the persons
occupied in weaving silk amounted to fifty thousand, all of whom were
natives of Toledo and the neighbouring villages; and he adds, perhaps a
little rashly, that the velvets, damasks, satins, and taffetas of this
locality were "unrivalled, even in comparison with the admirable
products of Seville, Cordova, and Granada."[18] Certainly, the silk
stockings of Toledo enjoyed a wide-spread fame, and were used, among
other distinguished patrons, by the Duke of Guise and by Philip the
Second. They were also exported in quantities to America. Banners,
altar-fronts, and vestments for religious worship were also made here in
large numbers, and of excellent quality, both in silk alone, and in this
substance mixed with gold and silver.
[18] _Toledo en el Siglo XVI._ Miquel y Badía says that in the fifteenth
century Toledo, together with Genoa and Venice, manufactured superb
velvets, coloured crimson, blue, purple, or yellow, and figured
with pineapples or pomegranates (Plate iv.). The latter tree and
fruit are commonly related, in Spain, with the city of _Granada_;
but quite apart from this, the pomegranate was formerly regarded as
a symbol of fecundity and life. (See Goblet d'Alviella, _La
Migration des Symboles_, p. 184, and also Madame Errera's
Catalogue, No. 50.) In these velvets the gold thread is woven with
consummate skill, and forms, in the costliest and most elaborate
specimens, a groundwork of exceedingly small rings. These fabrics
were used as hangings for beds and walls, as well as for the
clothing of great lords and ladies. Touching the use of silk for
certain articles of dress, an amusing story is told in the MS.
account of Valladolid, published by Gayangos in the _Revista de
España_. "One day, Don Pedro de Medicis is reported to have paid
a visit to a married lady, to whom he had presented some damask
curtains, and he was wearing at the time some taffeta hose which
made a creaking as he walked. The lady came out of her room, and,
finding him in one of the lower apartments, exclaimed, 'Why do you
come here at such an hour, and with that silk on you which creaks
so loudly? Take care my husband does not hear it.' Whereto the
gentleman replied; 'Good God, madam, is it possible that the two
hundred yards of damask which I gave you for that curtain have
made no noise at all, but that a mere four yards of simple taffeta
about my breeches should put you in such consternation?'"
Laborde wrote of all these manufactures at the time of their decline;
"It is easy to estimate their former importance from the loss they
sustained by the introduction of foreign merchandise. The memorial
states that the consumption of silk was materially diminished, and
computes the loss sustained by thirty-eight thousand artisans, from the
interruption of their occupation, at 1,937,727 ducats. Symptoms of decay
continued to increase till the middle of the sixteenth century, when
every vestige of commerce was effaced.
"Toledo remained in this state of listless despondence till the present
archbishop made a noble effort to revive the love of industry, and to
open an asylum for the tribes of mendicants, accustomed from infancy to
subsist on precarious bounty. The measure adopted by this prelate was to
establish in the Alcazar various branches of manufacture, such as linen,
ribbons, cloths, serges, woollen stuffs, and silk stuffs of every
description. He introduced also another branch of occupation,
appropriated solely to the production of sacerdotal ornaments. In 1791
there were a hundred and twelve manufactories in Toledo, ten for lawns
and canvas, twelve for ribbons, fifty-five for silk, and seven for
sacerdotal ornaments. At this period the indigent class employed in them
amounted to six hundred people, who were instructed in various
processes, and were led insensibly to acquire the useful habits of
industry. They were taught to draw, to prepare the materials, and to
perform the manufacture; and each was destined to pursue some occupation
suitable to his age, his inclination, and his abilities."