[83] Colmeiro has published _memoriales_ presented by the hatters of Zaragoza, in which they pray to be allowed to line, by their own hands, or by those of their wives, the hats which they had manufactured, instead of being required to give up this finishing and accessorial process to the makers of silk cord.--_Historia de la Economía Política en España_, and _Biblioteca de los economistas españoles de los siglos XVI., XVII., y XVIII_. "But neither are these abuses the only evils which call for reformation. Many corporations have been impertinently meddling, and have absurdly bound the hands of the manufacturer by regulations with respect to the conduct of his business and the productions of his art, such as, being too rigidly observed, would preclude all improvements, and would be destructive to his trade, by giving to foreigners a manifest advantage in favour of their merchandise.[84] [84] This meddlesomeness almost exceeds belief. It was at its worst, perhaps, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, who decreed that the wicks of candles were to be made of the same kind of tow, and horse-shoes and nails to be of the same weight in every part of their dominions. It was required that machines, which might have been to great advantage moved by mules or horses, should only be worked by the hand of man, however lengthy and exhausting this might prove. The Count of Torreánaz, who quotes these ridiculous dispositions from the _Libro de bulas y pragmáticas_ of Juan Ramírez, further recalls that, as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, costly woven stuffs of Seville and Valencia used to be confiscated because, although the ground of the fabric was of a colour which the law allowed, the flowers or other devices which formed the decoration were of a forbidden shade. On one occasion the chief lady-in-waiting of the queen was prohibited from wearing a dress which she had ordered from a weaver of Valencia, because the flowered pattern was contrary to the _ordenanzas_. "The incorporated fraternities in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon are 25,581, and their corporate expenses amount to 11,687,861 reals. Their revenue is not altogether consumed in feasting, nor in salaries to officers, nor in pensions to their widows, nor yet in lawsuits, which are said to be both numerous and expensive; but considerable sums are expended for religious purposes, in procuring masses to be said, either for departed spirits and the souls in Purgatory, or for the benefit of the fraternity in which each individual has a proportionable interest. For this reason, these communities enjoy the protection of the ecclesiastical courts, to which, in cases of necessity, they frequently appeal.