Source: James Harvey Robinson, Readings in European History (Boston:
Ginn & Company, 1906). Transcribed by Keri Chiodo.
“Spain is thinly populated,
so that towns and burgs are rare, and between one great town and another
scarcely a house will be found. In short, the inhabitants are few.
There are some fine cities, like Barcelona, Sargossa, Valencia, Granada,
and Seville; but they are few for such an important kingdom and for so
great an area of country. Aside from these principal centers, most
of the towns are small and have rude buildings, of which the greater part,
in many places, are built of mud and are, moreover, full of filth and dirt.
The land is fertile
and yields abundantly, since more grain is raised than is necessary for
use at home. The same may be said of the wine, which is sent by sea
to Flanders and England. Oil, too, is exported in great quantities
every year to the countries mentioned above and to Alexandria, to the value
of more than sixty thousand ducats. The fertility is greatest in
the lower parts of Andalusia and Granada, and would be much greater than
it is if all the land were brought under cultivation; but it is worked
only in the neighborhood of the towns and there badly; the rest remains
untilled. Much wool is exported annually, amounting, it is said,
to two hundred and fifty thousand ducats, as well as the finest silk, especially
from the lower regions. From Viscaya come iron and steel in considerable
quantity, and much grain, leather, alum, and many other products, so that
if only this nation were industrious and given to trade it would be rich.
The country is cold
in the region of the Pyrenees, very warm in Andalusia and Granada, and
more temperate in the central districts.
The men of this nation
are gloomy of temperament and swarthy of complexion; dark in color and
short of stature; they are proud by nature, and it seems to them as if
no nation could be compared with theirs. They are prone to boast
in their conversation of their own things, and endeavor to make the best
possible appearance. They have little love for foreigners and are
very uncivil toward them. They are devoted to arms, perhaps more
than any other Christian nation, and are very skillful with them, owing
to their agile frames and their dexterity. In military matters they
are great sticklers for honor, in such wise that rather than sully it they
prefer to die. . . .
The Spaniards are
held to be clever and acute, but nevertheless they are not skillful in
any of the arts, whether mechanical or liberal. Almost all the artisans
at the king’s court belong to the French or to some other foreign nation.
The natives do not devote themselves to trade, which they look upon as
degrading; the pride of the hidalgo goes to his head, and he would rather
turn to arms with little chance of gain, or serve a grandee in wretchedness
and poverty, or before the times of the present king, even assault wayfarers,
than engage in trade or any other business. Recently, however, some
attention is beginning to be given in a few places to trade, and already
in parts of Spain cloth and silks are manufactured; . . . for example,
in Valencia, Toledo, and Seville.
But the whole nation
is opposed to industry. Accordingly the artisans only work when they
are driven to do so by necessity, and then they take their ease until they
have spent their earnings; this is the reason why manual labor is so dear.
The meanest cultivators of the soil have the same habit. They will
not exert themselves except under dire pressure of want, so that they bring
much less land under cultivation than they might, and the little they do
till is badly cared for. . . .
Aside from a few grandees
of the kingdom who display great luxury, it must be remembered that the
rest of the people live at home in the utmost straits; and if they have
a little to spend they put it all on their backs or in purchasing a mule,
thus making a great show before the world when they have scarce anything
at home, where their surroundings are mean in the extreme and where they
exercise an economy truly astonishing.
Although they know
how to live on little, they are by no means free from cupidity. On
the contrary, they are very avaricious, and not having any of the arts
to rely upon, they are driven to robbery, so that in earlier times when
the kingdom was less orderly it was full of assassins, who were favored
by the nature of the country, with its many mountainous regions and its
sparse population. . . .
The Spaniards have
not turned their attention to books, and neither the nobility nor others
have any idea of Latin, except a very few, who know a little of the language.
They are outwardly very religious, but not inwardly. They have infinite
ceremonies, which they perform with great exactness, and show much humility
in speech, the use of titles, and the kissing of hands. Every one
is their lord, every one may command them; but this means little, and you
can place no faith in them. . . .
This nation down to
our own time has been more oppressed and has enjoyed less glory and dominion
than any other nation of Europe, for in the most ancient times the peninsula
was occupied in great part by the Gauls. . . .Then the Carthaginians took
possession of much of it; then the Romans conquered it all several times.
Later the Vandals subjugated the region, and from them Andalusia took its
name. Lastly the Moors the ? Africa conquered not only the southern
regions, but extended their dominion into Aragon and Castile and even in
some instances as far as the Pyrenees. Down to our own time they
held Granada. Hence it may be said that Spain has been in a prolonged
servitude and has enjoyed no dominion over others, the which cannot be
said of Italy, or France, or of any other country of Christendom.
Certainly this is a singular fact if we consider how devoted the country
is to arms and how warlike it has always been, even from of old, as the
ancient writers testify. . . .
The reason for this
may have been that Spain has always had better soldiers than leaders, and
that her people have always been more skilled to fight than to govern or
command. Happening upon this matter one day with King Ferdinand,
he said to me that the nation was devoted to arms but unorganized, and
that great results would be obtained should any one arise who could hold
it well in hand. The ancient writers praise the nation more for a
wild anxiety to rush to arms and keep up war than for any other virtue.
Accordingly Livy speaks of the people as born to fight, and in another
place he says they carry on war with more rashness than perseverance.
Yet I do not know whether this is the true reason or not.”