The Spaniards and Portuguese
Whilst the English were busied for centuries in raising thestructure of their national prosperity upon the most solidfoundations, the Spaniards and the Portuguese made a fortunerapidly by means of their discoveries and attained to great wealthin a very short space of time.But it was only the wealth of aspendthrift who had won the first prize in a lottery, whereas thewealth of the English may be likened to the fortune accumulated bythe diligent and saving head of a family.The former may for a timeappear more to be envied than the latter on account of his lavishexpenditure and luxury; but wealth in his case is only a means forprodigality and momentary enjoyment, whereas the latter will regardwealth chiefly as a means of laying a foundation for the moral andmaterial well-being of his latest posterity.
The Spaniards possessed flocks of well-bred sheep at so earlya period that Henry I of England was moved to prohibit theimportation of Spanish wool in 1172, and that as far back as thetenth and eleventh centuries Italian woollen manufacturers used toimport the greater portion of their wool supplies from Spain.Twohundred years before that time the dwellers on the shores of theBay of Biscay had already distinguished themselves in themanufacture of iron, in navigation, and in fisheries.They were thefirst to carry on the whale fishery, and even in the year 1619 theystill so far excelled the English in that business that they wereasked to send fishermen to England to instruct the English in thisparticular branch of the fishing trade.(1*)Already in the tenth century, under Abdulrahman III (912 to950), the Moors had established in the fertile plains aroundValencia extensive plantations of cotton, sugar, and rice, andcarried on silk cultivation.Cordova, Seville, and Granadacontained at the time of the Moors important cotton and silkmanufactories.(2*) Valencia, Segovia, Toledo, and several othercities in Castile were celebrated for their woollen manufactures.
Seville alone at an early period of history contained as many as16,000 looms, while the woollen manufactories of Segovia in theyear 1552 were employing 13,000 operatives.Other branches ofindustry, notably the manufacture of arms and of paper, had becomedeveloped on a similar scale.In Colbert's day the French werestill in the habit of procuring supplies of cloth from Spain.(3*)The Spanish seaport towns were the seat of an extensive trade andof important fisheries, and up to the time of Philip II Spainpossessed a most powerful navy.In a word, Spain possessed all theelements of greatness and prosperity, when bigotry, in alliancewith despotism, set to work to stifle the high spirit of thenation.The first commencement of this work of darkness was theexpulsion of the Jews, and its crowning act the expulsion of theMoors, whereby two millions of the most industrious and well-to-doinhabitants were driven out of Spain with their capital.
While the Inquisition was thus occupied in driving nativeindustry into exile, it at the same time effectually preventedforeign manufacturers from settling down in the country.Thediscovery of America and of the route round the Cape only increasedthe wealth of both kingdoms after a specious and ephemeral fashion-- indeed, by these events a death-blow was first given to theirnational industry and to their power.For then, instead ofexchanging the produce of the East and West Indies against homemanufactures, as the Dutch and the English subsequently did, theSpaniards and Portuguese purchased manufactured goods from foreignnations with the gold and the silver which they had wrung fromtheir colonies.(4*) They transformed their useful and industriouscitizens into slave-dealers and colonial tyrants: thus theypromoted the industry; the trade, and the maritime power of theDutch and English, in whom they raised up rivals who soon grewstrong enough to destroy their fleets and rob them of the sourcesof their wealth.In vain the kings of Spain enacted laws againstthe exportation of specie and the importation of manufacturedgoods.The spirit of enterprise, industry, and commerce can onlystrike root in the soil of religious and political liberty; goldand silver will only abide where industry knows how to attract andemploy them.
Portugal, however, under the auspices of an enlightened andpowerful minister, did make an attempt to develop her manufacturingindustry, the first results of which strike us with astonishment.
