SPAIN. 553 



of no great value ; but the duty on the foreign merchandise sent 

 thitner would yield a great revenue (ana consequently the profits of 

 met chants and tneir agents would sink) were it not for the many 

 fraudulent practices for eluding those duties." 



At St. Uciefonso the glass manufacture is carried on to a degree of 

 perfection unknown in England. The largest mirrors are made in a 

 brass frame, 162 inches long, 93 wide, and six deep, weighing near 

 nine tons. These are designed wholly for the royal palaces, and for 

 presents from the king. Yet even for such purposes it is ill placed, 

 and proves a devouring monster in a country where provisions are 

 dear, fuel scarce, and carriage exceedingly expensive. Here is also 

 a royal manufacture of linen, employing about fifteen looms ; by which 

 it is said the king is a considerable loser. 



In the city of Valencia there is a very respectable silk manufacture 

 in which five thousand looms, and three hundred stocking frames, 

 give employment to upwards of 20,000 of the inhabitants, without 

 enumerating those who exercise professions relative to the manufac- 

 ture, such as persons who prepare the wood and iron work of so great 

 a number ot machines, or spin, wind, or dye the silk. At Alcora, in 

 the neighbourhood of Valencia, a manufacture of porcelain has been 

 successfully established ; and they very much excel in painted tiles. 

 In Valencia, their best apartments are floored with these, and are 

 remarkable for neatness, for coolness, and for elegance. They are 

 stronger and much more beautiful than those of Holland. 



At Carthagena they make great quantities of the esparta ropes and 

 cables, some of them spun like hemp, and others plaited. Both ope- 

 rations are performed with singular rapidity. These cables are excel- 

 lent, because they float on the surface of the water, and are not there- 

 fore liable to be cut by the rocks on a foul coast. The esparto rush 

 makes good mats for houses, alpargates, or short trousers, and bus- 

 kins for peasants, and latterly it has been spun into fine thread for the 

 purpose of making cloth. If properly encouraged, there is no doubt 

 that the manufacture may be brought to such perfection as to make 

 this once useless rush a source of abundant wealth to the southern 

 provinces of Spain, for it is the peculiar and natural production of all 

 the high and uncultivated mountains of the south. 



As to the hempen cordage which is made in Spain for the use of 

 the royal navy, M. de Bourgoanne observes, that it is better and more 

 durable than that of the principal dock-yards and magazines in Eu- 

 rope : because in combing the hemp, all the towy part we leave in it 

 is taken out, and made use of in calking; whence results the dou- 

 ble advantage of more solid cordage, and the better calking of 

 vessels. Another custom in our rope-yards which the Spaniards have 

 avoided adopting, is the tarring the cordage, and keeping it a long 

 time piled up. In this state the tar ferments, and eats the hemp, and 

 the cordage is extremely apt to break after being used but a short 

 space of time. 



The Spaniards formerly obtained their hemp from the north ; at 

 present they are able to do without the assistance, in this article, of 

 any other nation. The kingdom of Granada already furnishes them 

 with the greatest part of the hemp they use ; and in case of need, 

 they may have recourse to Arragon and Navarre. All the sail-cloth 

 and cordage in the magazines at Cadiz are made with Spanish hemp, 

 the texture of which is even, close, and solid. 



The most important production of this country, and the most valu 



