Equally as instructive is Laborde's account of Barcelona.[24] After remarking that the decay in her manufactures lasted from the end of the sixteenth century till the middle of the eighteenth, he continues:--"They are at present in a very flourishing state, and are more numerous and varied than ever.... There are 524 looms of silk stuffs, and 2700 of ribbons and silk galloon. The silk works consist of taffetas, twilled and common silks, satins, and velvets of every kind and colour. These are mixed with gold and silver. Gold cloths and brocades are also made there.[25] The manufactures are not carried on by companies, but dispersed among the workmen themselves, by which perhaps the qualities may in some degree be injured. It is remarked that the stuffs would be better if they were closer, for their texture is commonly loose; they are also different in the gloss, which is seldom fine, and is never equal to that in the manufactures of France. Another fault in all these stuffs is the imperfect preparation of the silk, which leaves it nearly always shaggy: the cause of this is the silk being spun or twisted in an uneven manner. The same unpleasant effect is observed in the silk stockings. They cannot be fine, their stitches being uneven, and often large and shaggy. They do not last long, and are as dear as the French stockings after the duty on their entrance into Spain has been paid. [24] The art of weaving silk appears to have found its way into Barcelona comparatively late, for the veil-makers did not form a guild of their own till A.D. 1553, the velvet-makers till 1548, the silk-twisters till 1619, and the dyers of silk till 1624. [25] Brocade (Spanish _brocado_ or _brocato_) may be generally described as a silk-stuff woven with devices or raised figures in gold and silver thread, or either of these metals separately (Plate viii.). This costly fabric, which may be said to have superseded the earlier kinds of cloth of gold, was greatly in vogue in older Spain, especially throughout the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. It is constantly referred to by her writers ("No siendo nueva la que prohibe las telas de oro, los _brocados_, y tabies."--Fernandez Navarrete; _Conservacion de Monarquías_, p. 231), and denounced by her priests (Fray Luis de León, "Y ha de venir la tela de no sé donde, y _el brocado de mas altos_, y el ambar que bañe el guante"), or in the pragmatics of her kings (_e.g._ that of September 2nd, 1494, and of 1611: "Está prohibido todo género de colgaduras, tapicerias sillas, coches, y literas de _brocados_, telas de oro ó plata.... Asi mismo se prohiben bordaduras en el campo de los doseles y camas; pero no en las cenefas, que podrán llevar alamares, y fluecos de oro, ó plata, ó _brocado_").