Much of this scheme of protection was well-considered and beneficial. Since merchant ships were liable to be impressed in time of war, the navy, once almost negligible, throve rapidly on the royal preference shown to large vessels, and also owing to a law commanding that no goods should be shipped in a foreign craft while there was a Spanish boat in the harbour. The small merchantmen suffered of course; but the squadron that the sovereigns dispatched to Flanders with the Infanta Joanna in 1496 presented the proud array of one hundred and thirty vessels containing some two thousand souls. Legislation usually has its dark side; and the sovereigns’ efforts to establish the commercial progress of their land on a sound basis were vitiated by the theory which they shared with their age that precious metals are not merely a convenient medium of exchange but an object of value in themselves. The lust of gold had been the curse that Columbus carried with him to the New World to corrupt his earthly paradise, blinding the settlers to the true wealth of its soil. It was to be the curse also of Spain, where the glitter of bars and ingots was to draw men away from the humbler yet necessary occupation of a life in the fields to adventure their fortunes across the ocean, or to overcrowd the streets of Seville, the home market of the Western Continent. “Gold” and “ever more gold” was the popular cry; and Ferdinand and Isabel, in their eagerness that their new discovery should not enrich other nations, passed stringent laws forbidding the export of precious metals. The Spanish merchant, at the home frontier or harbour, must state from what locality he came, where he was going, and for how long, and how much coin he had with him;—his answers being written down and signed in the presence of three witnesses, that any subterfuge might afterwards be confuted. The foreign merchant had not even this indulgence. In exchange for what he imported from his own country he must take back neither coin nor bullion, however small the quantity, but exports in the form of goods manufactured in Spain; and these by a proclamation of 1494 might not include brocades nor embroideries woven or worked with gold thread. Thus by excessive care what might have been a lucrative industry was ruined; the more that sumptuary laws prohibited the wearing of rich stuffs in Spain itself save by a limited part of the population. A desire for splendid clothing, like the love of beauty, is imprinted deep in human hearts, and “fine feathers” are the usual accompaniment of commercial prosperity; but Ferdinand and Isabel regarded with horror what they considered as the growing extravagance of the lower classes. The latter were intended to work, not to flaunt fine stuffs in the faces of the aristocracy; and the silk-trade, its growth watered by protection, was stunted by restrictions on its sales.