envy. Yet these defects may be explained without much puzzling, and, in
a measure, pardoned. Spaniards, through all the process of their
national development, have clung by preference to the calling of the
soldier or the priest; that is, the only occupations which directly
dissipate the revenue of the commonwealth. Since, therefore, they were
thus inclined from earliest antiquity, as well as tutored by a crafty
priesthood to believe that might or violence alone is right, the
haughtiness of the Spanish people is a logical, and indeed inevitable,
outcome of their history. Moreover, side by side with this erroneous
theory that the only prowess and decorum of a people must consist in
armed aggressiveness, as well as in a truculent and militant intolerance
in matters of religion (or rather, of superstition), there arose the
equally as mischievous and erroneous theory that the arts of peace were
venal, despicable, and effeminate, or, in the current phrase of our
contemporaries, "unworthy of a gentleman." "The Spaniards," wrote
Fernández de Navarrete, "are so proud-hearted that they do not
accommodate themselves to servile labour." Therefore this people chose
their favourites and heroes in a semi-savage freebooter; never in a
craftsman of gigantic merit, like the elder Berruguete, or Juan de Arfe,
or Alonso Cano. Sometimes, as happened with the _reja_ of the Chapel
Royal of Granada, they did not even trouble to record the surname of her
best artificers. These men, in fact, exceptions to her universal rule,
were coldly looked upon, or even persecuted.[75] Abundant proof is yet
extant of this humiliation of her merchants, craftsmen, shopkeepers, as
distinguished from her soldiery and clergy, gentry and nobility.
Undoubtedly, beneath such scorn the former of these groups were
sensitive to their position, and all the more acutely sensitive because
of their inherent Spanish pride. In fact, so sensitive were they, that
now and then the crown esteemed it prudent to appease their wounded
vanity by certain declarations or emoluments. Thus, the _Repartimiento
de Sevilla_ tells us that in the year 1255 Alfonso the Tenth rewarded
several craftsmen of his capital of Seville with the title of _Don_, "a
dignity," says Amador, "rarely bestowed at that time."[76] In 1556
Charles the Fifth resolved, in favour of the corporation of
_artistas-plateros_ or "artist-silversmiths," that the masters of this
craft, together with their wives, might dress in silk, "in that it was
an art they exercised, and not an office" (Gestoso, _Diccionario de
Artífices Sevillanos_, Vol. I., p. lx.), while Philip the Fourth decreed
that they should not be forced to contribute to the equipment of his
troops, but should only be invited to contribute, _just as with the
nobles_. Nevertheless, Rico y Sinobas points out (_Del vidrio y de sus
artífices en España_) that Philip the Fifth and Ferdinand the Sixth, on
founding the royal glass factory of San Ildefonso, did not dare to
ennoble the Castilian workmen.
[75] The treatment of distinguished craftsmen by the Spanish church was
often sheerly villainous. A document, inserted by Zarco del Valle
among his collection of _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de
las Bellas Artes en España_, p. 362, and in the handwriting of
"Maestre" Domingo (see Vol. I., pp. 148, 149), states that after
making the choir-_reja_ for Toledo cathedral, "so richly wrought,
that in the elegance and rarity thereof it far surpasseth all that
has been witnessed in our time, whether in his majesty's dominions
or abroad," and expending on it "all the money I had earned in my
youth," this eminent _rejero_ found himself by now "owing a great
quantity of _maravedis_, seeing that I am utterly without
resources," concluding by an appeal to the archbishop to "take heed
how that I shall not perish through such poverty, and my wife and
children in the hospital."
In another document the same artificer complains that in producing
the aforesaid _reja_, he had sacrificed "not only my labour, but my
property to boot, having been compelled to sell my house and my
inheritance to compensate me for my losses," adding that the
cathedral authorities had violated their engagement with him.
In answer to a series of petitions such as this, the archbishop
tardily gave orders for the payment to Domingo of a lump sum of
fifteen thousand _maravedis_ and a pension for the rest of his life
of two silver _reales_ of Castilian money, "to aid him to support
himself." This was in A.D. 1563. By 1565 death had ended the
miseries of the master-craftsman, and again we find his widow and
children knocking at the archbishop's door, pleading that "extreme
is our necessity," and declaring that Domingo had succumbed
overburdened with debt, _affirming on his deathbed that the
cathedral owed him three thousand ducats, being half the value of
a reja he had made_.
In answer to this terrible appeal, the thrifty prelate ordered that
_since it was found to be true that Master Domingo had lost his
maravedis in making the rejas of the choir_, his widow and children
should receive a daily pension of one _real_, and that a suit of
clothes should be given to each of his sons and his two daughters.
[76] So rarely, that Salazar de Mendoza affirms in his book upon
_Castilian Dignities_ that this "high prenomen" (_alto prenombre
Don_) might properly be used by none but kings, _infantes_,
prelates, and the _ricos-homes_ of the realm.
In A.D. 1626, Fernández de Navarrete complained of the tendency
prevailing among the Spaniards generally to usurp the title _Don_.
"Nowadays in Castile," he wrote (_Conservación de Monarquías_,
p. 71, etc.), "exists a horde of turbulent and idle fellows that so
style themselves, since you will hardly find the son of a craftsman
(_oficial mecánico_) that does not endeavour by this trick to filch
the honour that is owed to true nobility alone; and so, impeded and
weighed down by the false appearance of _caballeros_, they are
unsuited to follow any occupation that is incompatible with the
empty authority of a _Don_."
Some of the reasons why these rogues or _pseudonobles_ (as
Fernández de Navarrete called them), attempted to pass for
_hidalgos_ or "sons of somebody," are disclosed by Townsend,
writing a century and a half later. "Numerous privileges and
immunities enjoyed by the _hidalgos_ or knights, sometimes called
_hijos dalgo_, have contributed very much to confirm hereditary
prejudices to the detriment of trade. Their depositions are taken
in their own houses. They are seated in the courts of justice, and
are placed near the judge. Till the year 1784, their persons, arms,
and horses were free from arrest. They are not sent to the common
jails, but are either confined in castles or in their own houses on
their parole of honour. They are not hanged, but strangled, and
this operation is called _garrotar_, from _garrote_, the little
stick used by carriers to twist the cord and bind hard their
loading. They cannot be examined on the rack. They are, moreover,
exempted from the various taxes called _fechos_, _pedidos_,
_monedas_, _martiniegas_, and _contribuciones reales_ and
_civiles_: that is, from subsidies, benevolence, and poll tax, or
taille paid by the common people, at the rate of two per cent., in
this province, but in others at the rate of four. They are free
from personal service, except where the sovereign is, and even then
they cannot be compelled to follow him. None but the royal family
can be quartered on them. To conclude, the noble female conveys all
these privileges to her husband and her children, just in the same
manner as the eldest daughter of the titular nobility transmits the
titles of her progenitors.
"The proportion of _hidalgos_ in the kingdom of Granada is not
considerable; for out of six hundred and fifty-two thousand nine
hundred and ninety inhabitants, only one thousand nine hundred and
seventy-nine are noble; whereas, in the province of León, upon
little more than one-third that population, the knights are
twenty-two thousand. In the province of Burgos, on four hundred and
sixty thousand three hundred and ninety-five inhabitants, one
hundred and thirty-four thousand and fifty-six are entitled to all
the privileges of nobility; and in Asturias, of three hundred and
forty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, nearly
one-third enjoy the same distinction."--(_Journey through Spain in
the years 1786 and 1787_: Vol. III., pp. 79, 80.)
"I bestow the name of craftsmen in silver (_artífices plateros_), not
upon all who handle silver or gold, but only upon such as draw, and
grave, and execute in relief, whether on a large or small scale, figures
and histories from life, just as do the sculptors." These words are
quoted from a book, the whole of which was written with the aim of
proving that certain classes of Spain's older craftsmen were less abject
than the rest.[77] It is not so long ago that the expression _viles
artesanos_ ("vile artisans") was banished from the legal phraseology of
Spain. "That prejudice," wrote Laborde, "which regards the mechanic arts
as base, is not extinguished in Spain, but only abated: hence it happens
that they are neglected or abandoned to such unskilful hands that they
are wonderfully backward in these matters. The influence of this cause
is striking: in Catalonia, laws, customs, and opinions are favourable to
artisans, and it is in this province that these arts have made the
greatest progress."
[77] Licentiate Gaspar Gutierrez de los Ríos, _Noticia general para la
estimación de las Artes y la manera en que se conocen las liberales
de las que son mecánicas y serviles_. Madrid, 1600. I again have
occasion to mention this curious work in my chapter on Spanish
tapestries.
Townsend commented as follows on what he called the _national prejudice_
against trade. "Whilst the Jews were merchants, and the mechanic arts
were left either to the Moors or to the vilest of the people, the
grandees or knights were ambitious only of military fame. After the
conquest of Granada, the Moors continued to be the principal
manufacturers, and excelled in the cultivation of their lands. When
these, with the Jews, were banished, a void was left which the
high-spirited Spaniard was not inclined to fill. Trained for many
centuries to the exercise of arms, and regarding such mean occupations
with disdain, his aversion was increased by his hatred and contempt for
those whom he had been accustomed to see engaged in these employments.
He had been early taught to consider trade as dishonourable; and whether
he frequented the theatre, or listened to the discourses of the pulpit
orators, he could not fail to be confirmed in his ideas. Even in the
present day, many, who boast their descent from noble ancestors, had
rather starve than work, more especially at those trades by which,
according to the laws, they would be degraded, and forfeit their
nobility."--(_Journey through Spain in 1786 and 1787_, pp. 240, 241.)
Laborde endorsed these assertions by uncharitably remarking that "the
Spaniard had always fortitude enough to endure privations, but never
courage enough to encounter work." In our time judgments of a still
severer kind have been passed upon the Spaniards by various of their own
countrymen--among others, Unamuno, Ganivet, and Pompeyo Gener.
It is evident, too, that the cause of the relentless exclusion, by the
Spanish guilds, of Moors, Moriscos, Jews, or converts--men who, owing to
the unsubstantial taint of heresy, were hated and derided by the Spanish
nation almost to a man--resided also in this morbid sensitiveness. Had
not the Moorish prisoner been formerly considered as the merest chattel,
legally equivalent to a beast of burden?[78] How, then, should he be
ever equalled with the Christian Spaniard? These haughty and extravagant
notions operated, in the seventeenth century, to bring about the general
ruin of Spanish trades and manufactures. Bertaut de Rouen wrote at this
time:--"L'acoûtumance qu'avoient les Espagnols de faire travailler les
Morisques, qui estoient libres parmi eux, et les Mores esclaves, dont il
y a encor quelques-uns qu'ils prennent sur leurs costes et sur celles
d'Afrique, les a entretenus dans la faineantise et dans l'orgueil, qui
fait qu'ils dédaignent tous de travailler. Ce qui achève de les y
plonger, c'est le peu de soucy qu'ils prennent de l'avenir, et l'égalité
du menu peuple et de tous les moindres marchands et artisans qu'ils
nomment _officiales_, avec les gentilshommes, qui demeurent tous dans
les petites villes."
[78] It is stated in the Fuero of Nájera (A.D. 1076) that the price of
the blood of a Moorish slave was twelve _sueldos_ and a half, while
the Fuero Viejo of Castile (Book II., Tit. III., Ley IV.) contains
the significantly contemptuous phrase, "If a man demand of another
a beast or a Moor" (_si algún ome demanda á otro bestia ó moro_).
The Countess d'Aulnoy wrote in 1679;--"There are here (at Madrid) a
large number of Turkish and Moorish slaves, who are bought and sold
at heavy prices, some of them costing four hundred and five hundred
_escudos_. Until some time ago the owners of these slaves possessed
the right to kill them at their pleasure, as though they had been
so many dogs; but since it was remarked that this usage tallied but
poorly with the maxims of our Christian faith, so scandalous a
license was prohibited. Nowadays the owner of a slave may often
break his bones without incurring censure. Not many, however,
resort to so extreme a chastisement."
In the same century the Countess d'Aulnoy recorded comical instances of
the pride of the tradesmen of Madrid. "One morning," she says, "we
stopped awhile in the Plaza Mayor to await the return of a servant whom
my aunt had sent with a message to some place not far away. Just then I
saw a woman selling some slices of salmon, crying them aloud and
proclaiming their freshness in tones which positively molested the
passers-by. Presently a shoemaker came up (I knew him to be such,
because they called him the _señor zapatero_), and asked for a pound of
salmon; since here they sell everything by the pound, even to coal and
firewood. 'You have not been through the market,' cried the woman who
sold the fish, 'because you fancy that my salmon is cheap to-day; but
let me tell you that it costs an _escudo_ the pound.' Furious that his
poverty should thus be hinted at in public, the shoemaker exclaimed in
angry tones: 'It is true that I was not aware of the price of fish
to-day. Had it been cheap, I would have bought a pound of it; but since
you say it is dear, give me three pounds.' With these words, he held out
his hand with the three _escudos_, jammed his hat upon his eyebrows
(tradesmen in this town wear small hats, and persons of quality hats of
great size), and then, twisting the ends of his mustachios, and clapping
his hand to his rapier, the point of which bobbed upward, carrying with
it a fold of his ragged cloak, caught up his purchase and strode home,
looking at us with an arrogant air, as though he had performed some
heroic deed and we had witnessed it. Yet the drollest part of it all was
that beyond doubt the fellow had no money left at home, but had spent
his week's wages upon the salmon, so that his choleric and haughty act
would keep his wife and children famishing for all those days, after
supping once upon abundant fish. Such is the character of this people;
and there are gentlemen here who take the feet of a fowl and hang them
so as to show beneath the hem of their cloak, to make it appear as
though they really bore a fowl. But hunger, in truth, is all they carry
with them.
"You never see a shopman here who does not clothe himself in velvet,
silk, and satin, like the king; or who is not the owner of a mighty
rapier, which dangles from the wall, together with his dagger and
guitar. These fellows work as little as they may, for, as I said, they
are by nature indolent. Only in case of extreme necessity do they work
at all, and then they never rest, but labour even throughout a
feast-day; though when they have finished what was needed to procure
them money, they deliver the product of their toil, and with its value
relapse into fresh idleness. The shoemaker who has two apprentices, and
who has only made one pair of shoes, hands to his lads a shoe apiece and
makes them walk before him as though they were his pages; he that has
three apprentices is preceded by all three; and when occasion rises, the
master-_zapatero_ will hardly condescend to fit upon your feet the shoes
which his own hands had put together."
It seems that the shoemakers of Madrid were distinguished for their
insolence and vanity above the rest of her tradespeople. In 1659 Bertaut
de Rouen wrote of the two _corrales_ or theatres of this town, that they
were "toujours pleines de tous les marchands, et de tous les artisans,
qui quittant leur boutique s'en vont là avec la cappe, l'épée, et le
poignard, qui s'appellent tous _cavalleros_ jusques au _çapateros_; et
ce sont ceux qui décident si la comedie est bonne ou non, et à cause
qu'ils la sifflent ou qu'ils l'applaudissent, et qu'ils sont d'un costé
et d'autre en rang, outre que c'est comme une espèce de salve, on les
appelle _Mosqueteros_, en sorte que la bonne fortune des autheurs dépend
d'eux."
The foregoing narratives sound absurd, and are particularly prone to be
considered so from being of foreign authorship. Their tenor,
notwithstanding, is supported by the following declarations, gravely set
down in writing by a Spaniard, within some half a dozen years of the
visit to Madrid of the Countess d'Aulnoy. The name of this author is
Alonso Nuñez de Castro, and the title of his work (published towards the
close of the reign of Philip the Fourth), _El Cortesano en Madrid_.
"What man," demands this _madrileño_ of a bygone century, "eminent in
any of the arts, has belonged to other nations, but has sought in Madrid
the applause and gain which his native country would not, or could not,
bestow upon him? Thus, either he in person, or else his master-works,
visit with frequency this court of ours, wherein they meet a better fate
than in their birthplace, since only at Madrid is properly esteemed the
value of illustrious effort. Let London manufacture as she may her
famous cloths, Holland her cambrics, Florence her satins, India her
castors and vicunas, Milan her brocades, Italy and the Netherlands the
statues and oil-paintings which seem to breathe the very life of the
original: our Court enjoys these products one and all, proving hereby
that other nations generate artists for Madrid, who is, in sooth, the
supreme Court of Courts, seeing that she is served by all, yet in her
turn serves none.
"Yet not at slight expense does she enjoy this sovereignty, showering
upon other hands her gold and silver, that they may recreate her mouth
with choicest drinks and viands, her nostrils with delicious essences,
her eyes with wondrous works of painting and of statuary, her hearing
with the skill of world-renowned musicians, her luxury with expensive
fabrics and with precious stones; albeit these disbursements mark her,
not as prodigal, but as prudent in discovering the proper use of gold,
together with the fitting aim and purpose of all riches. Who was
possessor of more gold than Midas?--seeing that not he alone, but all he
laid his hand upon, was gold; or who so wretched?--seeing that he was
powerless to keep himself alive on gold, though all he touched was
golden. Truly that man is rich that maketh gold to minister to his
wants, and he a miserable pauper that to gold himself is slave, not
knowing how to turn its uses to his good. Therefore let other peoples
accumulate wealth at ease, heaping up the gold wherewith Madrid repays
their ministration to her needs. Whereas her courtiers prove possession
of their gold, in that they amassed it formerly, those foreigners show
the evil and the mischief of their own by jealously confining it with
lock and key: nay, who shall even tell if it be theirs, seeing that they
enjoy it not, although they seem to be the lords thereof?
"You will declare that other courts enjoy the same conveniences with
less expense, because their magistrates are stricter to restrain the
tradesman from establishing his prices at caprice. Truly, it may happen
that elsewhere the price of foods and luxuries be less than in Madrid;
yet it is certain that Madrid makes fair comparison in cheapness with
the other cities of Castile. Nay, more, without there seeming to be
cause, her courtiers daily find that by a marvel articles are cheaper
here than in the soil which generated them, or in the town where they
were wrought. The fact that in comparison with other kingdoms Madrid is
in some ways the dearer, proves that she hath the money for rewarding
labour; and that in other capitals the sweat of the artificer is
worthless, because money is worth more. Always have I remarked that the
province or the realm that is awarded the name of _happy_, because all
things are purchasable there at next to no expense, is wrongly titled
so, since here is evidence, either that money lacks, or that there is no
purchaser."[79]
[79] To further show the extravagant way of thinking and behaving of the
Spaniard of the seventeenth century, the same author sets aside the
sneering objection justly made by foreign writers to the river
Manzanares at Madrid--namely, that it has no water--by remarking
with exquisite complacency, that here precisely lies the crowning
merit and advantage of the Manzanares over rival streams; in that
it amuses people without endangering their lives. In the reigns of
Philip the Fourth and Charles the Second, a favourite promenade of
the Madrid aristocracy was the waterless channel of this river, in
which, according to this work, "coaches and carriages do duty for
a gondola, and form a pleasant imitation of the boats and palaces
of Venice."
In the eighteenth century, when better sense prevailed among the
statesmen and economists of Spain, the greedy and corrupt administration
of her guilds began to be awarded greater notice. Among the enlightened
and progressive Spaniards who outspoke their minds upon this theme, were
Florez Estrada and the Count of Campomanes. These, among others of less
mark, saw and proclaimed that the harm inflicted by the _gremios_ in
some directions was incalculable, while the good they were supposed to
bring about in others was rather nominal than real.[80] Apart, however,
from the judgment uttered by these two authorities, men of acknowledged
probity and consequence who held the public ear, as well as by the
patriotic Jovellanos in his spirited appeal in favour of the _libre
ejercicio de las artes_, a number of causes, such as the propagation of
the principles of individual liberty by the French Revolution,
contributed to give the _gremios_ an archaic air, and finally to bring
about their downfall. The views concerning them which gradually filled
the popular mind, prior to their extinction as an act of government in
the year 1834,[81] are well expressed by Townsend. "In all the trading
companies or _gremios_," wrote this traveller, "religious fraternities
are formed, some incorporated by royal authority and letters patent,
others by connivance of the crown, but both in violation of the laws.
[80] The object avowedly pursued by Campomanes was not, however, the
absolute suppression of the Spanish trade-guilds, but merely their
reconstruction upon a sounder basis. He still believed that
admission to a guild should be preceded by a formal period of
apprenticeship, as well as that the title and the privileges of the
master of a trade should be hereditary. An instance of the grossly
fraudulent methods employed by the _gremios_ in order to retain the
privilege of manufacture in a certain family, is quoted by Larruga
(_Memorias_, Vol. II., p. 201), who states that the silk-cord
makers of Madrid conferred the title of _master-craftsman_ on a
babe only twenty-two months old.