About the beginning of the nineteenth century Laborde wrote: "The Alcaicería is in the Bivarambla: it is merely an immense edifice, without ornament, covering a considerable extent of ground. The Moors used it as a bazaar, and a good many tradesmen still carry on their business there. It contains about two hundred shops." It remained, in fact, in much the same condition as when the Moors possessed it, until the year 1843, when a fire, which broke out on the night of July 20th of that year, reduced it almost totally to ashes. To-day the historic silk trade is no more; but the Alcaicería, consisting of a chapel and a street which call to mind the graceful and effective decoration of its predecessor, has been rebuilt with taste and accuracy from the model of the old. The _Ordenanzas_ of Granada city, the first edition of which was published in 1552, and the second in 1678, inform us very closely of the silk trade of that region in the times immediately succeeding the reconquest. Having regard to the fact that the silk was now spun in skeins in an imperfect manner, "with much deceit and trickery," and that its quality was of the worst (Ordinance of A.D. 1535), nobody was allowed henceforth to spin silk in or about Granada without being qualified through examination by the _veedores_ or inspectors appointed for this purpose by the corporation. The inspector might charge for this examination a fee of twenty-five _maravedis_, and if the candidate were successful he was permitted to set up his loom forthwith, and engage two lads or girls, not less than twelve years old, to fetch and carry at his wheel, "so that the work may be continued all day long." Minute instructions follow as to the method of spinning the silk, wages, the treatment of apprentices, and other detail. Many of these narrow points of city law were troublesome and senseless, and must have tended to destroy the trade. For instance, the earnings of a master-spinner, after paying the lads or girls who worked for him, were limited to a maximum of two _reales_ and a half per day. Women were allowed to spin upon the following conditions: "Also, seeing that there be some honest women here who have no access to a public wheel, but work within their dwellings only, we (_i.e._ the city councillors) command that these may spin per thousand of cocoons, or at a daily wage, not to exceed two _reales_ and a half." The silk was not to be spun with an _escobilla_ or brush, but with the hand, obedient to the rhyming Spanish proverb which says, or used to say, _con escobilla el paño, y la seda con la mano_ ("brush cloth with a brush, and silk with the hand").