Note 1316 — Chapter VIII

See Dunlop's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 320; and the interesting calculations in Uztariz, Theorica y Practica de Comercio, Madrid, 1757, folio, pp. 35, 36. Owing to the ignorance which formerly prevailed respecting statistics, such estimates are necessarily imperfect; but, after the desolation of Spain in the seventeenth century, an extraordinary diminution in the population of the capital was inevitable. Indeed, a contemporary of Charles II. states that in 1699, Madrid had only 150,000 inhabitants. Mémoires de Louville, Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 72. This account is taken from ‘un mémoire manuscrit, en langue espagnole, trouvé dans les papiers du marquis de Louville.’ p. 67.