Note 35 — TEXTILE FABRICS (continued 2)

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.”