It is evident that nearly all this legislation was of a mischievous character, nor can it cause surprise that certain of the silk-makers of this locality should have been in the habit of committing many kinds of fraud, such as mixing salt or oil with the raw material, in order to increase its weight. Thus, at the same time that the laws themselves were made more numerous and stringent, the more elaborate and various were the shifts invented by the citizens as a means to violate those laws. The inspectors were empowered to enter a shop and examine its contents at any hour. Sometimes, we read, such ingress was denied them, and the door was kept closed, or slammed in their faces. The penalty for this resistance was a fine of two thousand maravedis and twenty days imprisonment. No silk-spinner was allowed to possess more than two spinning-wheels (Ordinance of November 18th, 1501), or to keep these working after midnight, for we are told that in this way the veedores were impeded from paying their official visit in the small hours of the morning, and much “deceit and insult” was the consequence. This Ordinance was confirmed by a royal rescript of 1542.
VII
VELVET MADE AT GRANADA
(Late 15th Century)
Another group of Ordenanzas concerns the weavers and the silk-merchants of the Alcaicería, determining that no silk was to be imported from the kingdoms of Valencia or Murcia, and that no merchant was to buy the raw material in order to resell it at a profit, but might only trade in the productions of his own factory. Minute instructions are appended for weaving the various stuffs which had a silk foundation, such as several kinds of damask, scarlet velvet[16] many kinds of satin, velvet dyed with Brazil-wood, taffeta of four leishes, taffeta of two leishes, and sargas, or silken serge. Other fabrics mentioned in the Ordinances are tocas called “San Juanes,” campuses moriscos (elsewhere “las tocas moriscas que se llaman campuzas”), “las tocas moriscas labradas que se dizen coninos,” quinales and alfardillas, alcaydias, tocas de Reyna, and espumillas. Most of these names are of obscure meaning at the present day; but I find that espumillas were silken crape, while alfardillas are defined in the old dictionary of Fathers Connelly and Higgins as “an ancient kind of silken ribbon, or tape.”
No weaver was allowed to be the owner of more than four looms for making velvet, satin, damask, taffeta, or silken serges. The apprentice to a satin-maker required to be bound for a minimum term of three years, the apprentice to a damask-maker for five years, the apprentice to a taffeta-maker for three years. No weaver was to have more than three apprentices at one time, except in the case of the damask-makers, who might have four. No weaver might dismiss his apprentice without deponing to the cause before the city officers, nor might he accept money, or anything in lieu of money, from an apprentice. Master-weavers were required to pass their examinations in Granada; no other city would suffice.
We further learn that many of the apprentices were “of evil character,” and damaged velvet stuffs “maliciously, though knowing perfectly how to weave the same.” If any worker at this craft fell sick, the guild or oficio was to defray the expenses of his cure, including physic “until he be recovered, provided his be not a venereal ailment, or a wound inflicted with a knife.” If he succumbed, the guild was to bury him; and when a master-weaver died, his apprentices were compelled to serve out the rest of their indentures with his widow, or his sons. No slave might learn to weave, even though he should be made a horro or freedman.
Other ordinances refer to the officers known as Xelizes and Almotalefes of the silk, the privilege of appointing whom had been conferred upon the town-council by Ferdinand and Isabella. It was the business of the almotalefe or motalefe to collect silk throughout the alcarias or villages of the surrounding districts, and convey it, on behalf of the owner, to a xeliz or “superintendent of the market,” attached to one or other of the three Alcaicerías of the kingdom of Granada. The xeliz, in his turn, was required to see that the parcel was put up for sale by public auction and disposed of to the highest bidder, after which he handed to the motalefe a certificate of the price obtained, together with the corresponding cash, less certain fees deducted for himself and calculated on a reasonable scale. The number of motalefes throughout this region was evidently large, because in the year 1520 the town-council resolved to appoint as many as “one or two in every town and district.”
Ordinances to the above effect were notified to the city of Almuñecar, and the towns of Motril, Salobreña, and the Alpujarras; from which we must infer that, though subordinated to the capital herself, these places also were silk-producing centres of no slight importance.
Further laws relating to the Xelizes were passed in 1535. On August 13th, the mayor of Granada (described as the “very magnificent” Señor Hernan Darias de Saavedra) summoned before him these officials in order to admonish them respecting certain fresh decisions that had been adopted by the councillors. The said Xelizes were six in all, known severally as Juan Ximenez, Hernando el Comarxi, Juan Infante Zaybona, Juan de Granada, Lorenzo el Mombatan, and Francisco Hernandez Almorox—names which are of interest, as showing that the Morisco element was still of weight among the manufacturers and merchants of Granada. From this time forth, and by the resolution of the town authorities, the Xelizes in question were called upon to lodge a deposit of one thousand ducats as security for the value of the silk entrusted them for sale. Besides this, the silk was to be sold in the Zaguaque—that is, by public auction “as in the time of the Moors,” from two in the afternoon onward. The buyer was required to settle his account before ten in the morning of the day next following his purchase. Failing this, the silk was to be again put up for sale, and the costs of this new operation were charged to the defaulting first purchaser, who was further obliged to pay a daily compensation of two reales to the motalefe who had brought the silk to market. Xelizes were strictly forbidden to traffic on their own account, and the fines for infringing any of these laws were heavy. If the infraction were repeated once, the fine was doubled; if twice, in addition to the same amount in money, the transgressor was banished for all his lifetime from Granada.