Townsend wrote, precisely at the same time as Bourgoing: "Segovia was once famous for its cloth, made on the King's account; but other nations have since become rivals in this branch, and the manufacture in this city has been gradually declining. When the King gave it up to a private company, he left about three thousand pounds in trade; but now he is no longer a partner in the business.[34] In the year 1612 were made here twenty-five thousand five hundred pieces of cloth, which consumed forty-four thousand six hundred and twenty-five quintals of wool, and employed thirty-four thousand one hundred and eighty-nine persons; but at present they make only about four thousand pieces. The principal imperfections of this cloth are, that the thread is not even, and that much grease remains in it when it is delivered to the dyer; in consequence of which the colour is apt to fail. Yet, independently of imperfections, so many are the disadvantages under which the manufacture labours, that foreigners can afford to pay three pounds for the _arroba_ of fine wool, for which the Spaniard gives no more than twenty shillings, and after all his charges can command the market even in the ports of Spain. "In the year 1525, the city contained five thousand families, but now they do not surpass two thousand--a scanty population this for twenty-five parishes; yet, besides the twenty-five churches, together with the cathedral, they have one and twenty convents. When the canal is finished, and the communication opened to the Bay of Biscay at Santander, the trade and manufactures of Segovia may revive; but, previous to that event, there can be nothing to inspire them with hope." [34] A report presented by the Council of Commerce to the Marquis of la Ensenada, put forward, in 1744, the absurd pretence that the king of Spain maintained his factories "not for any State convenience or _ad lucrum captandum_, but in order to augment our own products, and diminish those which are imported from abroad."--Larruga's _Memorias_, Vol. XV., pp. 70 and 247. Also see the conference delivered by the Count of Torreánaz in 1886, in the Royal Spanish Academy of Moral and Political Science; p. 27, note.