PART II. most exceptionable laws sanctioned by their names, are to be charged on their predecessors, who had ingrafted their principles into the system long before; 90 and many others are to be vindicated by the general practice of other nations, which authorized retaliation on the score of self-defence.91 Nothing is easier than to parade abstract theorems, true in the abstract,-in political economy; nothing harder than to reduce them to practice. That an individual will understand his own interests better than the government can, or, what is the same thing, that trade, if let alone, will find its way into the channels on the whole most advantageous to the community, few will deny. But what is true of all together is not true of any one singly; and no one nation can safely act on these principles, 12; on woollen manufactures, lib. and admitting the importation of the raw material. By this saga. cious provision, both the culture of silk, and the manufacture were speedily crushed in Castile. 90 See examples of these, in the reigns of Henry III., and John II. (Recop. de las Leyes, tom. ii. fol. 180, 181.) Such also were the numerous tariffs fixing the prices of grain, the vexatious class of sumptuary laws, those for the regulation of the various crafts, and, above all, on the exportation of the precious metals. 91 The English Statute Book alone will furnish abundant proof of this, in the exclusive regulations of trade and navigation existing at the close of the fifteenth century, Mr. Sharon Turner has enumerated many, under Henry VIII., of similar import with, and, indeed, more partial in their operation than, those of Ferdinand and Isabella. History of England, vol. iv. pp. 170 et seq. XXVI. if others do not. In point of fact, no nation has CHAPTER acted on them since the formation of the present political communities of Europe. All that a new state, or a new government in an old one, can now propose to itself is, not to sacrifice its interests to a speculative abstraction, but to accommodate its institutions to the great political system, of which it is a member. On these principles, and on the higher obligation of providing the means of national independence in its most extended sense, much that was bad in the economical policy of Spain, at the period under review, may be vindicated. provements. It would be unfair to direct our view to the re- Internal imstrictive measures of Ferdinand and Isabella, without noticing also the liberal tenor of their legislation in regard to a great variety of objects. Such, for example, are the laws encouraging foreigners to settle in the country; 92 those for facilitating communication by internal improvements, roads, bridges, canals, on a scale of unprecedented magnitude; 93 for a similar attention to the wants of navigation, by constructing moles, quays, lighthouses along the coast, and deepening and extending the harbours, "to accommodate," as the acts set forth, "the great increase of trade"; for embellishing and adding in various ways to the accommodations of the cities; for relieving the subject from onerous tolls 92 Ordenanças Reales, lib. 6, tit. 4, ley 6. 93 Archivo de Simancas; in which most of these ordinances appear to be registered. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11. VOL. III. 59 94 Ennoblescense los cibdades é villas en tener casas grandes é bien fechas en que fagan sus ayuntamientos é concejos," &c. (Ordenanças Reales, lib. 7, tit. 1, ley 1.) Señor Clemencin has specified PART II. Increase of empire. 96 and oppressive monopolies ;95 for establishing a uniform currency and standard of weights and measures throughout the kingdom, objects of unwearied solicitude through this whole reign; for maintaining a police, which, from the most disorderly and dangerous, raised Spain, in the language of Martyr, to be the safest country in Christendom; 97 for such equal justice, as secured to every man the fruits of his own industry, inducing him to embark his capital in useful enterprises; and, finally, for enforcing fidelity to contracts,98 of which the sovereigns gave such a glorious example in their own administration, as effectually restored that public credit, which is the true basis of public prosperity. While these important reforms were going on in the interior of the monarchy, it experienced a greater change in its external condition by the immense augmentation of its territory. The most important of its foreign acquisitions were those nearest home, Granada and Navarre; at least, they noy, in her "Voyage d'Espagne," as still existing, to the great prejudice of travellers, in the seventeenth century. Dunlop, Memoirs of Philip IV. and Charles II., vol. ii. chap. 11. 96 Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 93-112.- Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 5, tit. 21, 22. 97 Ut nulla unquam per se tuta regio, tutiorem se fuisse jactare possit." Opus Epist., epist. 31. 98 For various laws tending to secure this, and prevent frauds in trade, see Ordenanças Reales, lib. 3, tit. 8, ley 5. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 45, 66, 67, et alibi. - Col. de Cédulas, tom. i. no. 63. - XXVI. were the ones most capable, from their position, of CHAPTER being brought under control, and thoroughly and permanently identified with the Spanish monarchy. Granada, as we have seen, was placed under the sceptre of Castile, governed by the same laws, and represented in its cortes, being, in the strictest sense, part and parcel of the kingdom. Navarre was also united to the same crown. But its constitution, which bore considerable analogy to that of Aragon, remained substantially the same as before. The government, indeed, was administered by a viceroy; but Ferdinand made as few changes as possible, permitting it to retain its own legislature, its ancient courts of law, and its laws themselves. So the forms, if not the spirit of independence, continued to survive its union with the victorious state.99 The other possessions of Spain were scattered over the various quarters of Europe, Africa, and America. Naples was the conquest of Aragon; or, at least, made on behalf of that crown. The queen appears to have taken no part in the conduct of that war, whether distrusting its equity, or its expediency, in the belief that a distant possession in the heart of Europe would probably cost more to maintain than it was worth. In fact, Spain is the only nation, in modern times, which has been able to keep its hold on such possessions for any very considerable 99 The fullest, though a sufficiently meagre, account of the Navarrese constitution, is to be found in Capmany's collection, "Práctica y Estilo," (pp. 250-258,) and in the "Diccionario Geográfico-Hist. PART 11. Government of Naples. period; a circumstance implying more wisdom in her policy than is commonly conceded to her. The fate of the acquisitions alluded to forms no exception to the remark; and Naples, like Sicily, continued permanently ingrafted on the kingdom of Aragon. A fundamental change in the institutions of Naples became requisite to accommodate them to its new relations. Its great offices of state and its legal tribunals were reorganized. Its jurisprudence, which, under the Angevin race, and even the first Aragonese, had been adapted to French usages, was now modelled on the Spanish. The various innovations were conducted by the Catholic king with his usual prudence; and the reform in the legislation is commended by a learned and impartial Italian civilian, as breathing a spirit of moderation and wisdom.100 He conceded many privileges to the people, and to the capital especially, whose venerable university he resuscitated from the decayed state into which it had fallen, making liberal appropriations from the treasury for its endowment. The support of a mercenary army, and the burdens incident to the war, pressed heavily on the people during the first years of his reign. But the Neapolitans, who, as already noticed, had been transferred too often from one victor to another to be keenly sensible to the loss of political indepen 100 Queste furono," says Giannone, "le prime leggi che ci diedero gli Spagnuoli: leggi tutte provvide e savie, nello stabilir delle quali furono veramente gli Spa gnuoli più d' ogni altra nazione avveduti, e più esatti imitatori de' Romani." Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, cap. 5. |