richest manner, with robes and mantles all covered with silver, and some of them with bonnets that were all of silver plate with jewels and silver foliage, while others wore silver chains about their necks." [72] It is not often, for instance, that we meet with notices of Spanish craftsmen such as Miguel Jerónimo Monegro, a silversmith of Seville, who at his death, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, was in a position to bequeath the following money and effects: 15,000 _maravedis_ to his servant, Catalina Mexia, 6000 _maravedis_ to Juan Ortiz, "a boy that was in my house, that he may learn a trade," 6000 _maravedis_ yearly to his slavewomen, Juana and Luisa, and a black mule to his executor, Hernando de Morales.--Gestoso, _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanas_, Vol. II., p. 256. [73] This did not happen only at Valencia. The Cortes assembled at Valladolid in 1537 complained that it was "tolerable that costly stuffs should be worn by lords, gentlemen, and wealthy persons; but such is become our nation, that there is not an hidalgo, squire, merchant, or _oficial_ of any trade, but wears rich clothing; wherefore many grow impoverished and lack the money to pay the _alcabalas_ and the other taxes owing to His Majesty." Fernandez de Navarrete stated, in 1626, that "the wives of common _mecánicos_ (_i.e._ craftsmen) furnish their dwellings more luxuriously than titled personages of the realm were wont to furnish theirs some few years ago," and that hangings of taffeta or Spanish _guadamecíes_ were now regarded with contempt, being replaced, even in the homes of the moderately well-to-do, by sumptuous fabrics of Florence and Milan, and by the costliest Brussels tapestry.--(_Conservación de Monarquías_, p. 246). [74] Larruga, in Vol. XVIII. of his _Memorias_, inserts an account of the heavy debts incurred by the _gremios_ of Valladolid, upon the celebration of various of their festivals.