Vaucanson's method in this region. He succeeded a Frenchman named
Reboul, who, in 1769, and holding privileges from the Crown, began
to work with Vaucanson wheels at Vilanesa, near Valencia--the same
place which Bourgoing calls _La Milanesa_. Both the king and his
minister of finance, Don Miguel de Muzquiz, were keenly interested
in these experiments, and Muzquiz, who owned an estate near the
town of Sueca, in the same neighbourhood, imported four more of
the new wheels there, under Reboul's direction. This craftsman,
however, was not successful. Lapayese, who came after him and
enjoyed the same Crown privileges, made considerably better
progress, his efforts being seconded by the Royal Junta, the
archbishop, and other bodies or individuals of Valencia, who
awarded prizes of wheels and money to the best workers in the new
style.
"He introduced the method of Vaucanson, but when I went to see his
factory he had not seen his way to recover the money which this
improvement had cost him. He employed barely two hundred persons for the
most important work; nothing more was done than to spin the silk, divide
it, and convert it into organzine. Thus treated, it cost from fifty to
sixty _reales_ more per pound than that which is prepared according to
the Spanish method, so that its success was but small.
"I shall not describe in detail either the method of dyeing the silk, or
that of weaving it. The first of these operations is readily imagined;
the second is hard to understand, and still more so to explain, unless
one is assisted by engravings. I will merely observe that all silk is
dyed in skeins, just before it enters the loom. If it be required
occasionally to dye it after it is woven, this is only when the silk is
spotted, or when the dyeing of the skeins has proved a failure. At the
time of my visit to Valencia, there were a hundred and seventeen
master-dyers in that city, but not all of them were working.
"The stuffs in which the factories of Valencia are most successful are
principally of the smooth sort; they also make there handsome damask
_brochés_ with large flowers for wall-hangings; but generally all that
is undertaken is by order of the Court, Madrid, and the provinces. The
Valencians follow as closely as possible the rapidity with which the
French designs are changed, and those who profess to invent new ones are
but copying the French ones in a greater or less degree.
Notwithstanding, the Valencian Fine-Arts Academy is taking serious steps
to form designers, and a school has been founded which has already
developed able pupils--amongst others, a young man called Ferrers, who
had died a short while before our arrival at the city, and some of whose
designs of flowers we had occasion to admire.
"But the process in which the Valencians particularly excel is that of
watering stuffs, which M. Foz has rendered absolutely perfect. He gave
us a clear account of this process, which consists in passing a cylinder
over the stuff to be watered, this cylinder being pressed upon by a
heavy mass moved to and fro by a mule which draws a lever round and
round. The stuff is folded in the manner of a closed jalousie, and these
folds require to be often varied so as to distribute the undulations
evenly. M. Foz admitted that the shape and the arrangement of these
undulations are more or less a matter of chance, but he proved to us
that it is possible to influence them to some extent by moistening the
stuff in a certain manner and direction, and this is the particular
secret which he alone possesses in the whole of Spain. The excellence of
this method is demonstrated by the beauty of the watered silk which
issues from these presses. M. Foz himself set us to judge of this by
asking us to compare the blue ribbon of the Order of Charles the Third,
watered by himself, with those of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The
comparison, I must admit, was far from advantageous to these last."
The subsequent vicissitudes of the Valencian silk trade are indicated by
Laborde, who wrote, some few years later than the conscientious and
observant author of the _Nouveau Voyage en Espagne_:--
"The mulberry-trees are of great importance; the fields of Valencia are
covered with them, particularly in the environs of that town, in the
dale of Elda, in the county of Carlet, in almost all the places situated
on the sea coast, etc. There are white mulberry-trees, which are lopped
every two years.
"The leaves of these trees serve as nourishment to silkworms, which are
raised almost everywhere in the kingdom of Valencia. Algemesi, Alcira,
Carcagente, Castillo of San Felipe, the county of Carlet, Undasuar,
Gandia, Denia, Orihuela, and all the villages near the sea are places
which produce the greatest quantity.
"The silk made from them is the finest in Spain. It would be equal to
the best and finest silks of Europe, if the Valencians, in spite of the
vivacity of their imagination, did not obstinately persist in their old
routine in the skeining; for in the skein they put an undetermined
number of threads. The government has hired a man who has the most
experience in this kind of work; but in vain does he endeavour to
instruct them, since the manufacturers continue their bad custom just
the same. The quantity of silk wound annually is, on an average, about
1,500,000 pounds of twelve Valencian ounces (1,312,500 pounds of sixteen
ounces avoirdupois). It is commonly sold raw for fifty reals of vellon a
Valencian pound, which gives a total of 75,000,000 reals of vellon
(£731,250)....
"Silk is twisted in different places in the kingdom of Valencia, for
which purpose machines and mills are established at Gandia, San Felipe,
Carcagente, Orihuela, and Valencia. The most important establishment of
this kind is at La Milanesa, near the last mentioned town. Nevertheless,
these machines are not able to furnish as much as the manufactures of
the country require. Part of the silk is sent to Priego and Toledo in
Andalusia, whence it is returned into the kingdom of Valencia to be
worked....
"A great many impediments are thrown in the way of the exportation of
silk, which is only allowed for six months after the harvest. If in that
period the national manufacturers want it, they are at liberty to take
it from the merchants who have bought it, on reimbursing them the
purchase-money together with six per cent. interest. The consequence is
that the merchants, uncertain whether they will be allowed to export the
silk which they have purchased, no longer take any foreign commissions
for it, and so this branch of exportation has fallen. Besides this, a
duty has been laid upon the silk sent out of the kingdom, of nine reals
of vellon and one quartillo (1s. 11-1/4d. sterling) on every pound of
twelve Valencian ounces, which is almost a fifth of its value. This is
another obstacle to the exportation of it. A very small quantity,
twisted and dyed, is sent into Portugal.
"Generally 1,500,000 pounds of silk are made annually, of which
1,100,000 are consumed in the province, and 400,000 pounds are exported
to Talavera de la Reina, Requeña, Toledo, Granada, Seville, Priego, and
Cataluña. From this results a product of 20,000,000 reals (£208,333,
6s.)."
Of the city of Valencia, Laborde wrote:--
"The manufactories of silk are the most considerable. They employ nearly
25,000 persons, and make taffetas, serges, silks, satins, plain damasks,
striped, printed, of one colour and of mixed colours, full velvets,
flowered velvets, plain and of various colours. The plain stuffs are
those in which they succeed best. There are also fine damasks made and
worked with large flowers."
According to the same writer, the manufacture at Valencia of silk
stockings, galloons, silk ribbon, handkerchiefs, and sashes revived to
such an extent, that in the year 1799 the looms for producing these
articles were 423 more than they had been in 1769. "There are 3618 silk
looms, which work about 800,000 pounds of silk annually; the
handkerchiefs, sashes, and other little articles of lace consume 100,000
pounds."
[Illustration: VIII
THE DAUGHTERS OF PHILIP THE SECOND
(_By Sanchez Coello. Prado Gallery_)]
Equally as instructive is Laborde's account of Barcelona.[24] After
remarking that the decay in her manufactures lasted from the end
of the sixteenth century till the middle of the eighteenth, he
continues:--"They are at present in a very flourishing state, and are
more numerous and varied than ever.... There are 524 looms of silk
stuffs, and 2700 of ribbons and silk galloon. The silk works consist of
taffetas, twilled and common silks, satins, and velvets of every kind
and colour. These are mixed with gold and silver. Gold cloths and
brocades are also made there.[25] The manufactures are not carried on by
companies, but dispersed among the workmen themselves, by which perhaps
the qualities may in some degree be injured. It is remarked that the
stuffs would be better if they were closer, for their texture is
commonly loose; they are also different in the gloss, which is seldom
fine, and is never equal to that in the manufactures of France. Another
fault in all these stuffs is the imperfect preparation of the silk,
which leaves it nearly always shaggy: the cause of this is the silk
being spun or twisted in an uneven manner. The same unpleasant effect is
observed in the silk stockings. They cannot be fine, their stitches
being uneven, and often large and shaggy. They do not last long, and are
as dear as the French stockings after the duty on their entrance into
Spain has been paid.
[24] The art of weaving silk appears to have found its way into
Barcelona comparatively late, for the veil-makers did not form a
guild of their own till A.D. 1553, the velvet-makers till 1548,
the silk-twisters till 1619, and the dyers of silk till 1624.
[25] Brocade (Spanish _brocado_ or _brocato_) may be generally described
as a silk-stuff woven with devices or raised figures in gold and
silver thread, or either of these metals separately (Plate viii.).
This costly fabric, which may be said to have superseded the
earlier kinds of cloth of gold, was greatly in vogue in older
Spain, especially throughout the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
seventeenth centuries. It is constantly referred to by her writers
("No siendo nueva la que prohibe las telas de oro, los _brocados_,
y tabies."--Fernandez Navarrete; _Conservacion de Monarquías_,
p. 231), and denounced by her priests (Fray Luis de León, "Y ha de
venir la tela de no sé donde, y _el brocado de mas altos_, y el
ambar que bañe el guante"), or in the pragmatics of her kings
(_e.g._ that of September 2nd, 1494, and of 1611: "Está prohibido
todo género de colgaduras, tapicerias sillas, coches, y literas de
_brocados_, telas de oro ó plata.... Asi mismo se prohiben
bordaduras en el campo de los doseles y camas; pero no en las
cenefas, que podrán llevar alamares, y fluecos de oro, ó plata,
ó _brocado_").
Brocade was made in Spain at Toledo, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia
and elsewhere, but as a rule it could not be compared in quality
with that of Genoa or Venice. A cheaper, though showy and
attractive modification of brocade was brocatel, in which the silk
was mixed with common thread or flax. According to the Dictionary
of the Spanish Academy, this commoner fabric was used for hangings
for churches, halls, beds, etc., and a document of 1680 tells us
that the price of brocatel made at Granada, and containing two
colours, was twenty-two _reales_ the yard.
"At Barcelona, laces, blonds, net-work, and tapes employ about twelve
thousand persons. Galloons, laces, and gold and silver fringes, are
likewise made here; but these are of no great importance. Silk, gold,
and silver embroideries are very common, and the embroiderers are so
numerous that they are to be found in every street.
"_Silk Stuffs._--These are manufactured at Manresa, Cardona, and Mataró,
which has forty-eight looms; but principally at Barcelona, where there
are five hundred and twenty-four. There they make velvets, satins,
damasks, silks, taffetas, and gold and silver stuffs. The town of
Barcelona alone uses annually 300,000 pounds of raw silk.
"_Taffetas, Handkerchiefs, and silk sashes._--They make a great quantity
of these at Barcelona, where there are a good many little manufactories
of this kind. There are a hundred and fifty looms at Reus, and six
hundred at Manresa. At the last place sixty thousand dozen handkerchiefs
are made, which take about seventy thousand pounds of raw silk.
"_Silk twisters._--There are some of these in several towns, and a great
many in Barcelona. There are eighteen frames at Mataró, which twist, one
year with another, one hundred and twenty-four quintals of silk; and
thirty-seven at Tarragona, which twist eleven thousand quintals."
Elsewhere in the course of his exhaustive tomes, Laborde sums up the
general revival of the Spanish silk-trade in the following terms:--
"Silk stockings are woven at Málaga, Zaragoza, Valencia, and at various
other places in the kingdom of Valencia; at Valdemoro, and at Talavera
de la Reina in New Castile; also in different parts of Cataluña, more
especially at Mataró, Arenys del Mar, and Barcelona. The most extensive
manufacture is carried on at the latter city, where the number of frames
amounts to nine hundred. In the city of Mataró are fifty-two, in
Valencia one hundred and fifty, and nearly as many in Talavera. The
stockings made in Spain are of a loose texture; owing to the improper
method in which silk-throwsting is conducted, they are badly dressed and
worse glossed. The Spanish people themselves prefer French stockings,
and most of those manufactured in the country are exported to America.
"Ribbons hold a distinguished place among the manufactured articles of
Spain. Some few are woven at Jaen, Granada, and Cordova; but more at
Talavera. Cadiz has but twenty ribbon-looms, Manresa five hundred,
Mataró eighty, Vich twenty-two, Requeña two hundred, Valencia four
hundred, Murcia twelve hundred, and Barcelona nearly three thousand.
These looms are not in factories, but individually dispersed. The
Spanish ribbons are in general thin and flimsy, have little lustre, and
their colours are neither brilliant nor permanent. Ribbons are made of
floss-silk at Toledo, where there are about twelve looms, and at
Manresa, where there is a greater number.[26]
[26] Towards the nineteenth century, ribbon was a great deal worn upon,
or together with, the regional costumes of the Spanish women; for
instance, on the gala bodice or _cotilla_ of the _hortelana_ of
Valencia, who further used it to make fast her _alpargatas_ or
sandals, described in the manuscript account attached to Pigal's
plates as "espèce de cothurnes, attachés avec des rubans en soie
ou fil bleu ou rouge." The same fabric served the peasant woman
of Carthagena for securing the sleeves of her gala camisole, for
lacing the bodice of the woman of Iviza, and in the other Balearic
Islands, for tying the _rebocillo_ or _rebociño_ beneath the chin.
Also it was with ribbon that the servant-girls of Granada suspended
a cross round their necks, that the _charra_ of Salamanca
(Plate ix.) trimmed her hat, that the women of Madrid, La Mancha,
and Andalusia bound up their knots of hair (_moños
con cinta_), and that, in some localities, even ladies of the
highest class secured their shoes about the lower leg and ankle.
[Illustration: IX
A _CHARRA_ OR PEASANT WOMAN
(_Salamanca, A.D. 1777_)]
"Silk taffetas, serges, and other articles, such as common and figured
satins, damasks, and plain and flowered velvets, are made at Jaen,
Granada, Murcia, Valencia, and the adjacent villages; at Málaga,
Zaragoza, Toledo, Requeña, Talavera de la Reina, Mataró, Manresa,
Cardona, and Barcelona. The silk-trade of Jaen and Granada is at present
in a very languishing state; the manufacture of Murcia is dwindled to a
few individual looms. At Toledo are fifty looms, fifty at Mataró, forty
at Málaga, six hundred at Requeña, four hundred at Talavera, which
consume annually two hundred thousand pounds of silk; five hundred at
Barcelona, which annually manufacture, in conjunction with those of
Cardona and Manresa, about three thousand pounds weight of silk; and in
the city of Valencia are three thousand, whose annual demand of silk is
eight hundred thousand pounds, while twenty-two thousand persons are
employed in the trade. In Zaragoza are sixty looms, which consume fifty
thousand pounds of silk; but taffetas only are manufactured there. The
cities of Toledo and Talavera de la Reina are the only places where the
looms are collected together in factories: in all other places they are
separated, and are found individually at the houses of the respective
weavers.
"A great portion of the silks manufactured in Spain are stout and
excellent, but they are destitute of the brilliancy observable in French
silks. The damasks made at Valencia are extremely beautiful, and in that
city they excel in the art of mixing silk and mohair, and produce mohair
stuffs which appear to be superior to those of France and England.
"Quantities of silk handkerchiefs and bands are manufactured at Reus,
Manresa, and Barcelona. Reus had five hundred looms, Manresa six
hundred, and annually made sixty thousand dozen handkerchiefs;
Barcelona, a much larger quantity.
"At Barcelona is a very considerable manufacture of white, coloured,
plain, and figured gauzes.
"The art of silk-throwsting tends greatly to improve the silk
manufactures in Spain. Machines invented in other countries have been
adopted here, and in many places profitable changes and corrections have
taken place in the trade. Silk is principally thrown at Priego, Toledo
in Andalusia, at Murcia in the kingdom of the same name, at Cervera near
Talavera de la Reina in New Castile, at Valencia, at Milanesa near that
city, at Gandia, San Felipe, and Carcagente in the kingdom of Valencia.
The silk-throwsters, who work at their own houses, and are paid in the
great, that is, according to the quantity of work they perform, are very
numerous in Murcia; but they perform the business there in a very
slovenly way. In the city of Murcia a factory is established, where silk
is thrown in an excellent manner by means of an ingenious machine, which
has been already described. The establishment at La Milanesa is a very
important one, and well administered. At Cervera are a dozen silk-mills,
each having four large dividers, and six machines for doubling and
twisting, by which seven thousand and seventy-two threads are divided,
doubled, and twisted at the same time."
CLOTHS AND WOOLLENS
Although the history of Spanish cloths and woollens is not of great
importance, I think it well to briefly sketch their history. Sails and
other fabrics of the coarsest kind are said to have been made, almost in
prehistoric times, at Sætabi (the modern Játiva) and at Saguntum
(Murviedro). From the thirteenth century cloths of good quality were
made at Barcelona, Lerida, San Daniel, Bañolas, Valls, and other towns
of Cataluña. A privilege of Alfonso the Learned, dated May 18th, 1283,
contains the following technical disposition relative to the cloth-looms
of the city of Soria: "Que la trenza cuando sea ordida que haya 88
varas, que pese una aranzada é 5 libras de estambre; é cualquier que la
fallare menor, que peche 5 sueldos. Que todos los tejedores é tejedoras
de la dicha cibdad é de su tierra, que pongan en las telas de lino 42
linnuelos é en las de estopazo 32 linnuelos; é en las de marga é de
sayal 32 linnuelos."
Segovia was another ancient centre of this manufacture, which Larruga
considers to have been transferred hither upon the extinction of the
factories of Cameros, Burgos, and Palencia. However this may be, the
_fuero_ of Sepúlveda, signed by Alfonso the Sixth, tells us that
clothworks existed here as early as the eleventh century. Towards the
end of the fourteenth, when Catherine of Lancaster was married to the
Infante Don Enrique, the English princess brought over, as part of her
dowry, a flock of merino sheep. These are believed to have pastured near
Segovia--a city where Catherine made her home for many years. In any
case, Segovian cloths improved considerably from about this time, and by
the reigns of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, when thirty-four
thousand persons were employed in the manufacture and twenty-five
thousand pieces of cloth were produced annually, were thought
(especially the baizes and the serges) to be unsurpassed in Europe.[27]
Sovereigns, including Charles the Second and Charles the Fifth of Spain,
and Henry the Eighth of England, were among the patrons of these
fabrics, while as late as the year 1700 the Franciscan friars engaged in
redeeming captives from the Turks, reported that "at Constantinople,
whither they had carried Segovian cloths as presents to the principal
rulers of that country, those cloths were spoken of in terms of high
approval."
[27] Colmenares, who wrote a history of Segovia down to the reign of
Philip the Second, says that in his time the clothmakers of this
town were "true fathers of families, who within and without their
houses sustain a multitude of persons (in many cases two and three
hundred), producing, with the aid of other people's hands, a great
variety of finest cloth: an employment worthy to be ranked with
agriculture, and that is of the utmost profit to any city, or to
any kingdom."
Early in the seventeenth century, and owing to a series of causes such
as impertinent or improvident legislation, heavy taxes, and the
importation of foreign cloths, the trade showed symptoms of decay.[28]
Bertaut de Rouen wrote in 1659, referring to the Spanish character at
this time: "Bien souvent le pain leur manque, comme j'ay veu dans
_Almagro_, petite ville située dans le meilleur pays d'Andalousie, et
dans _Segovie_, qui est une des grandes villes d'Espagne, et où il y
avoit autrefois des plus riches marchands à cause des draps et des
chapeaux que l'on y faisoit, qui a esté longtemps le sejour des Roys de
Castille, et qui n'est qu'environ à douze ou quatorze lieuës de Madrid,
où il n'y avoit point de pain dans toute la ville le jour que j'y
arrivay, et il n'y en eut qu'à quatre heures après midy, que l'on le
distribua par ordre du _Corregidor_, aussi bien qu'à Almagro."
[28] An amusing passage in Fernandez Navarrete's _Conservación de
Monarquías_ (A.D. 1626) tells us that most of the costlier
dress-materials used in Spain about this time proceeded from
abroad, and that they were "of so fine a texture that the heat of
an iron scorches them and wears them out in a couple of days;
while a great number of men employ themselves in the effeminate
office of dressing collars, who, ceasing also to be men, forsake
the plough or warlike exercises; for it is certain that when the
Spaniards kept the world in awe, this land produced a greater
number of armourers, and less persons who busied themselves with
looking after womanish apparel" (p. 232).
The rise, decay, and subsequent revival of the Spanish cloth industries,
and particularly the Segovian, are well described by Laborde, Bourgoing,
and Townsend. According to the first of these authorities, "at so early
a period as 1629 the merchants (of Segovia) complained that there was
every year a reduction in the fabrication of cloth, to the amount of
five thousand five hundred pieces; and that there resulted from this
deficiency an annual loss of 2,424,818 ducats and 2 reals, or about
£274,000 sterling. In the eighteenth century it appeared, from the
observations of the Economical Society, that the fabrication of stuffs
and cloths employed but one hundred and twenty looms, in which only four
thousand three hundred and eighteen quintals of washed wool were
consumed.
"About forty years ago these manufactures began to revive, the looms
were multiplied, and the consumption of wool considerably augmented. A
single individual, Don Lorenzo Ortiz, has for some years accelerated
their progress. In 1790 there was an addition of sixty-three looms,
which employed eight or nine hundred quintals of wool, and afforded
occupation to two thousand four hundred manufacturers."