In the same century the Countess d'Aulnoy recorded comical instances of the pride of the tradesmen of Madrid. “One morning,” she says, “we stopped awhile in the Plaza Mayor to await the return of a servant whom my aunt had sent with a message to some place not far away. Just then I saw a woman selling some slices of salmon, crying them aloud and proclaiming their freshness in tones which positively molested the passers-by. Presently a shoemaker came up (I knew him to be such, because they called him the señor zapatero), and asked for a pound of salmon; since here they sell everything by the pound, even to coal and firewood. ‘You have not been through the market,’ cried the woman who sold the fish, ‘because you fancy that my salmon is cheap to-day; but let me tell you that it costs an escudo the pound.’ Furious that his poverty should thus be hinted at in public, the shoemaker exclaimed in angry tones: ‘It is true that I was not aware of the price of fish to-day. Had it been cheap, I would have bought a pound of it; but since you say it is dear, give me three pounds.’ With these words, he held out his hand with the three escudos, jammed his hat upon his eyebrows (tradesmen in this town wear small hats, and persons of quality hats of great size), and then, twisting the ends of his mustachios, and clapping his hand to his rapier, the point of which bobbed upward, carrying with it a fold of his ragged cloak, caught up his purchase and strode home, looking at us with an arrogant air, as though he had performed some heroic deed and we had witnessed it. Yet the drollest part of it all was that beyond doubt the fellow had no money left at home, but had spent his week's wages upon the salmon, so that his choleric and haughty act would keep his wife and children famishing for all those days, after supping once upon abundant fish. Such is the character of this people; and there are gentlemen here who take the feet of a fowl and hang them so as to show beneath the hem of their cloak, to make it appear as though they really bore a fowl. But hunger, in truth, is all they carry with them.
“You never see a shopman here who does not clothe himself in velvet, silk, and satin, like the king; or who is not the owner of a mighty rapier, which dangles from the wall, together with his dagger and guitar. These fellows work as little as they may, for, as I said, they are by nature indolent. Only in case of extreme necessity do they work at all, and then they never rest, but labour even throughout a feast-day; though when they have finished what was needed to procure them money, they deliver the product of their toil, and with its value relapse into fresh idleness. The shoemaker who has two apprentices, and who has only made one pair of shoes, hands to his lads a shoe apiece and makes them walk before him as though they were his pages; he that has three apprentices is preceded by all three; and when occasion rises, the master-zapatero will hardly condescend to fit upon your feet the shoes which his own hands had put together.”
It seems that the shoemakers of Madrid were distinguished for their insolence and vanity above the rest of her tradespeople. In 1659 Bertaut de Rouen wrote of the two corrales or theatres of this town, that they were “toujours pleines de tous les marchands, et de tous les artisans, qui quittant leur boutique s'en vont là avec la cappe, l'épée, et le poignard, qui s'appellent tous cavalleros jusques au çapateros; et ce sont ceux qui décident si la comedie est bonne ou non, et à cause qu'ils la sifflent ou qu'ils l'applaudissent, et qu'ils sont d'un costé et d'autre en rang, outre que c'est comme une espèce de salve, on les appelle Mosqueteros, en sorte que la bonne fortune des autheurs dépend d'eux.”
The foregoing narratives sound absurd, and are particularly prone to be considered so from being of foreign authorship. Their tenor, notwithstanding, is supported by the following declarations, gravely set down in writing by a Spaniard, within some half a dozen years of the visit to Madrid of the Countess d'Aulnoy. The name of this author is Alonso Nuñez de Castro, and the title of his work (published towards the close of the reign of Philip the Fourth), El Cortesano en Madrid. “What man,” demands this madrileño of a bygone century, “eminent in any of the arts, has belonged to other nations, but has sought in Madrid the applause and gain which his native country would not, or could not, bestow upon him? Thus, either he in person, or else his master-works, visit with frequency this court of ours, wherein they meet a better fate than in their birthplace, since only at Madrid is properly esteemed the value of illustrious effort. Let London manufacture as she may her famous cloths, Holland her cambrics, Florence her satins, India her castors and vicunas, Milan her brocades, Italy and the Netherlands the statues and oil-paintings which seem to breathe the very life of the original: our Court enjoys these products one and all, proving hereby that other nations generate artists for Madrid, who is, in sooth, the supreme Court of Courts, seeing that she is served by all, yet in her turn serves none.
“Yet not at slight expense does she enjoy this sovereignty, showering upon other hands her gold and silver, that they may recreate her mouth with choicest drinks and viands, her nostrils with delicious essences, her eyes with wondrous works of painting and of statuary, her hearing with the skill of world-renowned musicians, her luxury with expensive fabrics and with precious stones; albeit these disbursements mark her, not as prodigal, but as prudent in discovering the proper use of gold, together with the fitting aim and purpose of all riches. Who was possessor of more gold than Midas?—seeing that not he alone, but all he laid his hand upon, was gold; or who so wretched?—seeing that he was powerless to keep himself alive on gold, though all he touched was golden. Truly that man is rich that maketh gold to minister to his wants, and he a miserable pauper that to gold himself is slave, not knowing how to turn its uses to his good. Therefore let other peoples accumulate wealth at ease, heaping up the gold wherewith Madrid repays their ministration to her needs. Whereas her courtiers prove possession of their gold, in that they amassed it formerly, those foreigners show the evil and the mischief of their own by jealously confining it with lock and key: nay, who shall even tell if it be theirs, seeing that they enjoy it not, although they seem to be the lords thereof?
“You will declare that other courts enjoy the same conveniences with less expense, because their magistrates are stricter to restrain the tradesman from establishing his prices at caprice. Truly, it may happen that elsewhere the price of foods and luxuries be less than in Madrid; yet it is certain that Madrid makes fair comparison in cheapness with the other cities of Castile. Nay, more, without there seeming to be cause, her courtiers daily find that by a marvel articles are cheaper here than in the soil which generated them, or in the town where they were wrought. The fact that in comparison with other kingdoms Madrid is in some ways the dearer, proves that she hath the money for rewarding labour; and that in other capitals the sweat of the artificer is worthless, because money is worth more. Always have I remarked that the province or the realm that is awarded the name of happy, because all things are purchasable there at next to no expense, is wrongly titled so, since here is evidence, either that money lacks, or that there is no purchaser.”[79]
In the eighteenth century, when better sense prevailed among the statesmen and economists of Spain, the greedy and corrupt administration of her guilds began to be awarded greater notice. Among the enlightened and progressive Spaniards who outspoke their minds upon this theme, were Florez Estrada and the Count of Campomanes. These, among others of less mark, saw and proclaimed that the harm inflicted by the gremios in some directions was incalculable, while the good they were supposed to bring about in others was rather nominal than real.[80] Apart, however, from the judgment uttered by these two authorities, men of acknowledged probity and consequence who held the public ear, as well as by the patriotic Jovellanos in his spirited appeal in favour of the libre ejercicio de las artes, a number of causes, such as the propagation of the principles of individual liberty by the French Revolution, contributed to give the gremios an archaic air, and finally to bring about their downfall. The views concerning them which gradually filled the popular mind, prior to their extinction as an act of government in the year 1834,[81] are well expressed by Townsend. “In all the trading companies or gremios,” wrote this traveller, “religious fraternities are formed, some incorporated by royal authority and letters patent, others by connivance of the crown, but both in violation of the laws.
“Every fraternity is governed by a mayor and court of aldermen, who make laws, sit in judgment on offenders, and claim in many cases exemption from the common tribunals of the country. None but the members of these communities may exercise mechanic arts, or be concerned in trade; and to be admitted as a member is both attended with a heavy fine, and entails upon each individual a constant annual expense.
“This, however, is not the greatest evil, for the mayor and officers, during their year of service, not only neglect their own affairs, but from vanity and ostentation run into expenses, such as either ruin their families, or at least straiten them exceedingly in trade.
“These corporations, being established in the cities, banish, by their oppressive laws, all the mechanic arts from towns and villages. In the cities likewise they tend only to monopoly, by limiting the numbers in every branch of business, and fixing within unreasonable bounds the residence of those who are concerned in trade. This they do either by assigning the distance between shop and shop, under pretence that two shops vending the same commodities must not be so near together as to interfere, or by assembling all the mechanics of the same profession, such as silversmiths, and confining them to one street or quarter of the city, under the plausible pretext that thus the proper magistrate may with ease pay attention to their work, and see that the due standard be observed.[82]