Note 73 — Appendices
Reading edition
This did not happen only at Valencia. The Cortes assembled at Valladolid in 1537 complained that it was “tolerable that costly stuffs should be worn by lords, gentlemen, and wealthy persons; but such is become our nation, that there is not an hidalgo, squire, merchant, or oficial of any trade, but wears rich clothing; wherefore many grow impoverished and lack the money to pay the alcabalas and the other taxes owing to His Majesty.”
Fernandez de Navarrete stated, in 1626, that “the wives of common mecánicos (i.e. craftsmen) furnish their dwellings more luxuriously than titled personages of the realm were wont to furnish theirs some few years ago,” and that hangings of taffeta or Spanish guadamecíes were now regarded with contempt, being replaced, even in the homes of the moderately well-to-do, by sumptuous fabrics of Florence and Milan, and by the costliest Brussels tapestry.—(Conservación de Monarquías, p. 246).