Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/136

INTRODUCTION. INTROD. Iniellectual culture. protection. A register of the various customs paid in the ports of Catalonia, compiled in 1413, under the abovementioned Ferdinand, exhibits a discrim- inating legislation, extraordinary in an age when the true principles of financial policy were so little understood. ^^ Under James the First, in 1227, a navigation act, limited in its application, was pub- lished, and another under Alfonso the Fifth, in 1454, embracing all the dominions of Aragon ; thus preceding by some centuries the celebrated ordinance, to which England owes so much of her commercial grandeur. ^^ The brisk concussion given to the minds of the Catalans in the busy career in which they were engaged, seems to have been favorable to the de- velopement of poetical talent, in the same manner as it was in Italy. Catalonia may divide with Provence, the glory of being the region, where the voice of song was first awakened in modern Eu- rope. Whatever may be the relative claims of the two countries to precedence in this respect, ^^ it is certain that under the family of Barcelona, the 84 See the items specified by Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. pp. 231, 232. 85 Idem, tom. i. pp. 221, 234.— Capmany stales, that the statute of Alfonso V. prohibited " all foreign ships from taking cargoes in the ports of his dominions." (See also Colec. Dipl., tom.ii. no. 187.) The object of this law, liice that of the British Navigation Act, was the encouragement of the national ma- rine. It deviated, far, however, from the sagacious policy of tiio latter, which imposed no restriction on the exportation of domestic pro- duce to foreign countries, except, indeed, its own colonies. 86 Andres, Dell' Origine, de' Progressi, e dello Slato Attua- le d' Ogni Letteratura, (Venezia, 1783,) part. 1, cap. 11. — Lam- pillas, Saggio Storico-Apologetico della Letteratura Spagnuola, (Ge- nova, 1778,) part. 1 , dis. 6, sec. 7.— Andres conjectures, and Lampillas decides, in favor of Catalonia. Ar- cades ainho ; and the latter critic, the worst possible authority on all questions of national preference.