manufactures of New Castile are the most numerous and important. Cloths
are made at Toledo, Chinchon, Brihuega, Guadalajara; serges, stuffs, and
flannels at Toledo and Cuenca. The cloths of Brihuega are of an
excellent quality, but those of Guadalajara are still superior to them;
in particular, the cloth of Vigonia. There are twenty-eight looms at
Toledo, forty at Guasmenia, a hundred at Brihuega, and six hundred and
fifty-six at Guadalajara."
Bourgoing wrote, a dozen years or so before the close of the eighteenth
century: "Spanish wool is eagerly demanded by manufacturing peoples of
the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, it is not turned to so much advantage
as it might be. French, Dutch, and English come to Spain to purchase the
wools of Segovia and León at the ports of Bilbao and Santander.[29] Not
even so much as the commission on their sale is left in power of the
Spaniards, for the foreigners buy up the wool straight from the
shepherd, and wash it on their own account. Out of one million of
_arrobas_[30] of fine wool which Spain produces annually, she exports
more than half in washed wool, and a lesser quantity, by far, of
unwashed. It has been estimated that the export duties on this wool and
which it has not been hitherto thought prudent to curtail, produce a sum
of close upon five millions for the King of Spain. Here, therefore, is
another reason for not suppressing the 'abusive measure' of which the
patriotic Spaniards complain so loudly; since it is far from easy to do
away with so appreciable a source of revenue unless one has at hand a
swift and sure alternative measure by which it may be substituted. All
the same, government is endeavouring to derive a greater fiscal profit
from the exportation of these wools, and at the same time to bring about
a greater use of them in the Peninsula. For a long time past, all kinds
of common woollen fabrics, such as clothing for the soldiery and lower
classes, have been made in Spain. The exportation of these fabrics is
prohibited. As for the finer wools, these also are employed in several
places, but more than anywhere else at Guadalajara, where I visited the
factories towards the end of the year 1783. I was surprised to remark
that in several respects the manufacture had reached a great pitch of
perfection. I say _I was surprised_, because I had heard, times without
number, that the Spaniards were completely ignorant of these processes,
and did not know how to card, or spin, or weave, or dye, or full, or
calender; that their stuffs grew loose and wore badly; that the price
was exorbitant, etc. How many prejudices of this nature was I able to
throw aside after fair and deliberate examination of the stuffs in
question! I will only quote a single point to prove that the censures
which are aimed at the Spaniards respecting the quality of their cloths
are not applicable to them all, and that they are well upon the road to
being entirely undeserving of them. I was shown at Guadalajara a piece
of scarlet cloth, which, both for its excellent quality and for its
skilful dyeing, seemed to me to be quite comparable with the best cloths
of Julienne. These latter cost at their place of manufacture as much as
thirty-nine _livres_ the ell. At Guadalajara, I noted from the tariff
established in the factory, that the price of the finest scarlet cloth
was only from thirty-one to thirty-two _livres_ the ell. Comparing these
and other figures on the tariff, I came to the conclusion that there was
about the same difference in price between Spanish cloths and French
cloths, in favour of the former. What seems more singular still is that
the factories which work at the King's expense are generally
administered in a thriftless fashion, and that the factory of
Guadalajara was being greatly mismanaged at the time in question.
However, subsequently to my visit, changes for the better have been
introduced, which will improve the quality of, as well as cheapen, its
products, though, even when I saw it, this factory was one of the most
perfect to be seen anywhere. Within a space by no means large, it
contained all the machines and apparatus required for clothmaking,
except the thin, polished pasteboards which are placed between the
folds of a piece of cloth as it is passed through the press. These were
still brought from England; but everything else was prepared upon the
spot, even to the large scissors used in the shearing. There were eighty
looms for the finest cloths, whose proper name is _cloths of San
Fernando_, from the town where they were first produced; a hundred for
cloths of the second quality; and five hundred and six for making
serges, in which, in course of time, hopes are entertained of excelling
those of England.[31] All these looms were contained in two buildings,
and kept employed three thousand eight hundred and twenty-five persons,
all of them paid by the King,[32] without counting some forty thousand
more dispersed all over the Castilian and Manchegan tableland, engaged
in spinning the wool which is made up into stuffs at Guadalajara. It
would be difficult, I am sure, to find a factory better organized. Even
the town in which it is, presents a striking contrast with others of
that neighbourhood. I did not see one single mendicant or idler among
all its fifteen or sixteen thousand inhabitants. Such are the good
results of its manufactures, and, above all, those of cloth, including
many small and detailed processes which women, children, aged people, or
even the sick are able to perform. Here, where Nature seemed to have
condemned these ailing folk to a tedious and useless existence, art, as
it were, steps in and finds employment and relief for them.
Nevertheless, it must be owned that the Spaniards (as they themselves
admit) are still a little behindhand in the method of dyeing and
fulling their cloths, though when a people possess (as they) the raw
materials needed, both for making and for dyeing, a few men skilled in
these processes are all that is wanted to perfect several branches of
this industry; especially when, as is the case in Spain, government
spares no effort to achieve this end. Guadalajara is further the only
place in Spain which produces the celebrated Vicuña cloth; an admirable
fabric for which the rest of the world has cause to envy Spanish
America.[33] As the use of this cloth has not as yet become general, it
is not continually manufactured, nor is it easy to obtain a few ells of
it without ordering them several months in advance. This stuff is also
manufactured for the King of Spain, who makes presents of it to various
other monarchs. In the year 1782, after concluding a treaty with the
Porte, he sent twenty pieces of it to the Sultan of Turkey. They gave
great satisfaction. It has been imagined from this circumstance that
Spain would not be loth to supply the Turkish market with her cloths;
and other of the manufacturing nations have felt some measure of alarm,
perhaps unnecessarily. The Spanish government has too much sense to
enter upon such a competition with other peoples as long as Spain does
not supply the whole of the two and twenty million citizens who live
beneath her rule. The same government, too, is well aware how remote is
this degree of prosperity. The clothworks of Guadalajara have a kind of
branch factory at Brihuega, four leagues distant. At Brihuega there are
a hundred looms, all used for making fabrics of the finest quality.
[29] This recalls the statement made, centuries before, by Alonso de
Cartagena at the Council of Bâle: "And if the English should vaunt
the cunning of their cloth-makers, then would I tell them somewhat;
for if our country lack the weavers to make a cloth so delicate as
the scarlet cloths of London, yet is that substance titled _grana_
(the kermes, or scarlet grain), from which the scarlet cloth
receives its pleasantness of smell and brilliancy of hue, raised
in the kingdom of Castile, and thence conveyed to England, and
even to Italy."--Larruga, _Memorias_, Vol. XIV., p. 167.
[30] "The weight of an _arroba_ is twenty-seven pounds. The average
price is from twenty-three to twenty-seven _livres_ the _arroba_
of unwashed wool of the best quality, which pays five _livres_ ten
_sols_ of export duty. The _arroba_ of washed wool pays double."
[31] "It has been calculated that Spain, about this time, paid annually
to England two million pounds sterling per annum, solely on account
of her woollens."
[32] "His Majesty maintained this factory by a monthly payment from his
treasury of one hundred and fifty thousand _livres_; an exorbitant
amount, which very possibly would not be covered by the sales of
cloth."
Townsend wrote in 1787 "Royal manufactures and monopolies have a
baneful influence on population: for, as no private adventurers
can stand the competition with their sovereign, where he is the
great monopolist, trade will never prosper. The Spanish monarch is
a manufacturer of
Broad cloth, at Guadalajara and Brihuega;
China, at the palace of the Buen Retiro;
Cards, at Madrid and Málaga;
Glass, at San Ildefonso;
Paper, in Segovia;
Pottery, at Talavera;
Saltpetre, at Madrid and various other places;
Stockings, at Valdemoro;
Swords, at Toledo;
Tapestry, at Madrid;
Tissue, at Talavera.
He has the monopoly of brandy, cards, gunpowder, lead, quicksilver,
sealing-wax, salts, sulphur, and tobacco."--(_Journey through
Spain_, Vol. II., p. 240.)
[33] "It is made from wools of Buenos Aires and Peru. The wool of the
former of these regions is the longer, but the Peruvian is the more
silky."
"Segovia, famous at all periods for the excellence of her wool, was
formerly not less so for the number and perfection of her clothworks.
Now, every patriotic Spaniard must lament to see how she has fallen. In
the year 1785 the number of her looms did not exceed two hundred and
fifty. The most important factory was that of Ortiz, founded in 1779
under the title of _Real Fábrica_: the King possessed an interest in it.
In 1785 Ortiz was still employing three thousand workers in and about
Segovia, and manufactured every quality of cloth in sixty-three looms,
from the pieces which contained the two thousand threads prescribed by
the _Ordenanzas_, to those which should contain four thousand. His
energy was only hampered by the indolent character of the Segovians. The
privileges wherewith the government has sought to stimulate his first
experiments in this craft are not at all injurious to the other
manufacturers. They all concur to sell their goods, and at a reasonable
price. In September of 1785, the most expensive cloths cost only ninety
reals the _vara_; that is to say, about thirty-one _livres_ and ten
_sols_ the ell."
[Illustration: X
PRIEST'S ROBE; SPANISH
(_Embroidered in Gold on Green Velvet. About A.D. 1500_)]
Townsend wrote, precisely at the same time as Bourgoing: "Segovia was
once famous for its cloth, made on the King's account; but other nations
have since become rivals in this branch, and the manufacture in this
city has been gradually declining. When the King gave it up to a private
company, he left about three thousand pounds in trade; but now he is no
longer a partner in the business.[34] In the year 1612 were made here
twenty-five thousand five hundred pieces of cloth, which consumed
forty-four thousand six hundred and twenty-five quintals of wool, and
employed thirty-four thousand one hundred and eighty-nine persons; but
at present they make only about four thousand pieces. The principal
imperfections of this cloth are, that the thread is not even, and that
much grease remains in it when it is delivered to the dyer; in
consequence of which the colour is apt to fail. Yet, independently of
imperfections, so many are the disadvantages under which the manufacture
labours, that foreigners can afford to pay three pounds for the _arroba_
of fine wool, for which the Spaniard gives no more than twenty
shillings, and after all his charges can command the market even in the
ports of Spain.
"In the year 1525, the city contained five thousand families, but now
they do not surpass two thousand--a scanty population this for
twenty-five parishes; yet, besides the twenty-five churches, together
with the cathedral, they have one and twenty convents. When the canal is
finished, and the communication opened to the Bay of Biscay at
Santander, the trade and manufactures of Segovia may revive; but,
previous to that event, there can be nothing to inspire them with hope."
[34] A report presented by the Council of Commerce to the Marquis of la
Ensenada, put forward, in 1744, the absurd pretence that the king
of Spain maintained his factories "not for any State convenience
or _ad lucrum captandum_, but in order to augment our own products,
and diminish those which are imported from abroad."--Larruga's
_Memorias_, Vol. XV., pp. 70 and 247. Also see the conference
delivered by the Count of Torreánaz in 1886, in the Royal Spanish
Academy of Moral and Political Science; p. 27, note.
Several of the Spanish Crown factories were finally taken over by
the association--immensely wealthy at one period--known as the Five
Chief Gremios of Madrid (_Los Cinco Gremios Mayores de la Villa de
Madrid_), and it is clear that the investment of a large amount of
capital, subscribed by many shareholders, would of itself be
calculated to destroy the narrow ideals and what I may term the
individually greedy spirit which hitherto had ruled within the
craftsman's private family. Private interests, in short, were
superseded by the larger interests of a powerful company. That
which I have mentioned was composed of the five _gremios_ of the
capital of Spain which subscribed the largest sums in taxes to the
national exchequer; namely, the drapers, haberdashers, spicers and
druggists, jewellers, cloth-merchants, and linen-drapers. For many
years this association administered, on government's behalf, the
_alcabalas_, _tercias_, and _cientos_ of the town and district of
Madrid, and subsequently (A.D. 1745) the _millones_ tax, together
with other important dues, and ultimately, as I have stated, took
over, on a liberal scale of purchase, the royal cloth and silk
factories of Talavera de la Reina (A.D. 1785), San Fernando,
Guadalajara, Brihuega, Ezcaray, and Cuenca. The decay and downfall
of the company was due to gross mismanagement, and indeed, the
idiosyncrasies of the Spanish character render this people, even
at the present day, but little fitted to embark upon commercial
schemes requiring competent directors, heavy capital, and confident
assistance, moral and material, from a large body of investors.
Spaniards, as I have insisted elsewhere, do not pull well together;
and so, early in the nineteenth century, the association of the
five great _gremios_, which had possessed at one time many millions
of _pesetas_, suspended payment of all dividends. It is fair to
add, however, that this collapse was partly owing to the wars
between France and Spain.
Swinburne had written of the same city ten years earlier (1776): "The
inhabitants do not appear much the richer for their cloth manufactory.
Indeed, it is not in a very flourishing condition; but what cloth they
make is very fine."
[Illustration: XI
PRIEST'S ROBE; SPANISH
(_Embroidered in Gold on Green Velvet. About A.D. 1500_)]
The Ordinances of Granada (A.D. 1532), from which we learn that cloth
was also manufactured at that capital, contain the usual dispositions
relative to the stamping of this product by the city officers. The
stamps were in a box which was kept in a corner of the cathedral and
closed by two keys, guarded severally by a councillor and an inspector
of the trade, or _veedor_. On every day except a public festival,
between the hours of ten and eleven of the morning, and three and four
of the afternoon, it was the duty of these two authorities to proceed to
the Alcaicería, and ascertain if any cloth required stamping. If so, the
stamps were fetched forthwith from the cathedral, the cloth was marked,
and the stamps were solemnly restored to their chest beneath the double
key.
Among the woven fabrics other than those of silk, and which are
specified in the Ordinances of Granada relative to the _tundidores_ or
shearers, are cloths of Florence, Flanders, London, Valencia, Zaragoza,
Onteniente, Segovia, and Perpignan; _velarte_ (a fine cloth manufactured
at Granada), red _burel_ (kersey) of Baeza, black kersey of Villanueva
and La Mancha, _ruan_ (Roan linen), fustians, friezes, and _cordellate_
(grogram) of Granada, Valencia, Toledo, Segovia, and Cuenca. According
to Capmany, cloths of the commoner kind, and which were popular about
this time, were the _granas treintenas_ and black cloths of Valencia,
the white or yellow _veintiseiseno_ cloths of Toledo, the white cloths
of Ciudad Real, the green _palmillas_ of Cuenca, and green
_dieciochenos_ of Segovia, the _contrayes_ of Cazalla, and the
_pardillos_ of Aragon. Spanish cloth was also manufactured at Vergara,
Cordova, Jaen, Murcia, Palencia, Tavira de Durango, and Medina del
Campo.
[Illustration: XII
EMBROIDERED CHASUBLE
(_Palencia Cathedral_)]
Laborde says: "In the archives of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile there
is a notice of the duties paid from the thirteenth to the end of the
seventeenth century for foreign cloths sold in Spain, and for other
articles of consumption coming from abroad. The principal cloths came
from Bruges, Montpellier, and London; the velvets from Malines,
Courtrai, Ypres, and Florence. This trade became so injurious to Spain,
that Ferdinand and Isabella thought themselves bound to limit it
entirely to the stuffs required for ornaments of the church, which of
itself was a considerable quantity. Their prohibition is the subject of
the rescript of September 2nd, 1494, for the provinces of the Crown of
Castile. Even so far back as the Ordinances of Barcelona in 1271,
mention is made of the taxes levied on the cloths of Flanders, Arras,
Lannoy, Paris, Saint Denis, Chalons, Beziers, and Reims."[35]
[35] In the reign of Francis the First, the importation of Catalan cloth
into France was prohibited altogether.--Levasseur, _Histoire des
classes ouvrières en France_, Vol. II., p. 73.
Among the various cloths (exclusively or chiefly of the less
expensive kinds) which were manufactured in the capital and country
of Cataluña, we read of those of pure scarlet, scarlet tinted with
light or dark purple, ash-coloured, carmine, and rose; of cloth of
combed wool, _medias lanas_ (half-woollens), serges, and _cadinas_
or _banyolenchs_. But before the close of the fifteenth century
the production of these fabrics had suffered a serious decline
caused by the tactless government of Ferdinand the Catholic, and
above all, by the introduction of the Inquisition into Barcelona.
A privilege of Ferdinand, granted on November 4th, 1493, to the
Barcelonese clothmakers, admits that this was the foremost and
most useful local manufacture ("no y ha altre art ni offici que mes
util done"), adding, however, that it had fallen into a state of
sad prostration "owing to the indisposition of these times."
(Capmany, _Memorias_, Vol. II., _Doc._ ccxliv).
This was undoubtedly the case; for in a report of the city council
drawn up in 1491, it is stated that good cloth can only be
manufactured from good wool, but that this had now become a
difficult matter at Barcelona, because the clothmakers were without
the money to purchase such wool. In consequence, they appealed to
the city (then even more resourceless than themselves) to help
them.
Although it has become fashionable in some quarters to deny that
the Inquisition contributed in a sensible degree to the decline of
Spanish arts and industries, the following passage, quoted from the
municipal archives of Barcelona, places the fact beyond all
argument as far as this locality is concerned. The city councillors
declared in 1492 that "by reason of the Inquisition established in
this city, many evils have befallen our commerce, together with the
depopulation of the said city, and much other and irreparable
damage to her welfare; and as much more harm will occur in the
future, unless a remedy be applied, wherefore the said councillors
entreat of the king's majesty that of his wonted clemency he order
the said Inquisition to cease; or else that he repair the matter in
such wise that _the merchants who departed because of the
Inquisition_ may return, and continue in the service of their God,
their king, and of the general welfare of the city aforesaid."
[Illustration: XIII
EMBROIDERED _MANGA_ OR CASE OF PROCESSIONAL CROSS
(_Early 16th Century; Toledo Cathedral_)]
In 1809 the same author remarked: "The kingdom of Valencia produces
little wool, yet there are five manufactories of woollens and coarse and
fine cloths: they are at Morella, Enguera, Bocairente, Onteniente, and
Alcoy. The small woollen stuffs are principally made at Enguera; nothing
but the coarsest cloths are made at Morella, Bocairente, and Onteniente.
The manufactory at Alcoy is the most considerable: the cloths, though
finer, are generally of an inferior quality. The woof of them is thick,
with little nap upon it. The finest are scarcely superior to the
beautiful cloths of Carcassonne."
EMBROIDERY
The art of embroidering, and especially of embroidering with the aid of
gold and silver thread, was communicated to the Spaniards by the Spanish
Moors, who doubtless had derived it from the East. By about the
thirteenth century, the needle of the Spanish embroiderer had become, in
the picturesque phrase of one of his compatriots, "a veritable painter's
brush, describing facile outlines on luxurious fabrics, and filling in
the spaces, sometimes with brilliant hues, or sometimes with harmonious,
softly-graduated tones which imitate the entire colour-scheme of
Nature." Nevertheless, it was not until the fifteenth and the sixteenth
centuries that this art attained, in the Peninsula, its topmost summit
of perfection.
It is not at all surprising that embroidery should have made great
progress among a people so devoted to the outward and spectacular forms
of worship as the Spaniards; nor have the chasubles, copes, and other
vestments of the Spanish prelacy and priesthood ever been surpassed for
costly splendour[36] (Plates x., xi., xii.). But generally where the
Spanish embroiderer excelled was in the mere manipulation of the needle.
In fertility of design he was far outdistanced by the Germans and
Italians, and was even to a large extent their imitator; for Spanish
embroidery, as occurred with Spanish painting, was influenced, almost to
an overwhelming degree, firstly by northern art, and subsequently by the
art of the Renaissance.
[36] The cathedrals of Toledo and Palencia are particularly rich in
sets of magnificently embroidered vestments. "Each set," says
Riaño, "generally includes a chasuble, dalmatic, cope, altar
frontal, covers for the gospel stands, and other smaller pieces.
The embroideries on the orphreys, which are formed of figures of
saints, are as perfect as the miniatures on illuminated MSS."
[Illustration: XIV
EMBROIDERED ALTAR-FRONT]
These tendencies or characteristics will be found in nearly all the
masterpieces of Spanish embroidery that have been preserved until
to-day, of which perhaps the most remarkable specimens are the _manga_
or case of the great processional cross presented by Cardinal Cisneros
to Toledo cathedral, and the "_Tanto Monta_" embroidered tapestry
belonging to the same temple. The _manga grande_, known as that of the
Corpus (Plate xiii.), is in the Gothic style, with reminiscences of
German art, and consists of the following four scenes arranged in panels
thirty-seven inches high, and hung successively about the handle of the
cross:--
(1) The Ascension of the Virgin Mary, who is supported by six angels.
(2) The Adoration of the Magi.
(3) San Ildefonso in the act of cutting off a piece of the veil of
Santa Leocadia, patron of Toledo.
(4) The Martyrdom of San Eugenio, another patron of the city of Toledo.