Note 84 — Appendices

This meddlesomeness almost exceeds belief. It was at its worst, perhaps, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, who decreed that the wicks of candles were to be made of the same kind of tow, and horse-shoes and nails to be of the same weight in every part of their dominions. It was required that machines, which might have been to great advantage moved by mules or horses, should only be worked by the hand of man, however lengthy and exhausting this might prove. The Count of Torreánaz, who quotes these ridiculous dispositions from the Libro de bulas y pragmáticas of Juan Ramírez, further recalls that, as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, costly woven stuffs of Seville and Valencia used to be confiscated because, although the ground of the fabric was of a colour which the law allowed, the flowers or other devices which formed the decoration were of a forbidden shade. On one occasion the chief lady-in-waiting of the queen was prohibited from wearing a dress which she had ordered from a weaver of Valencia, because the flowered pattern was contrary to the ordenanzas.