lands of Castile and Estremadura into profitable cultivation, and it
cannot be done without the expenditure of large sums of money at the
outset in manures, and good implements in place of the obsolete old
implements with which the ground is now scratched rather than ploughed.
Given good capital and intelligent farming, as in the irrigated
districts, and two, and even three, crops a year can be raised in
unceasing succession; lucern gives from ten to twelve cuttings in one
year, fifteen days being sufficient for the growth of a new crop.
I have pointed out what one day's sun can do in raising grass seed in
Madrid, which stands on the highest point of the elevated table-land
occupying the centre of Spain. Seeing that the principal item of the
revenue is derived from the land tax, and that it is calculated on the
value of the land, it would appear to be the first interest of an
enlightened government to foster irrigation in every possible way, and
encourage agriculture and the planting of trees.
Although the people of Spain have hated their more immediate neighbours
with an exceeding bitter hatred, - as, indeed, they had good cause to do
in the past, - her public men have had a strange fancy for importing or
imitating French customs. One that militates more than anything else
against agricultural prosperity is the law of inheritance, copied from
the French. By this the State divides an estate amongst the heirs
without any reference to the wishes of the proprietor at his death. Not
only are all large estates broken up and practically dissipated, so that
it is to no one's interest to improve his property or spend money on it,
but the small farms of the peasant proprietor are broken into smaller
fragments in the same way; and it is no uncommon thing to see a field of
a few acres divided into six or eight furrows, none of them enough to
support one man. While he has to go off seeking work where he can get
it, his strip of land clings to him like a curse, for he must lose his
work if he would try to cultivate it, and at his death it will again be
subdivided, until at last there is nothing left to share. Meanwhile, the
land, which is not enough to be of any value to anyone, has been allowed
to go almost out of cultivation; or if it bear anything at all, it is
weeds.
Until some remedy be found for this enervating system, it would seem as
if Spanish agriculture is doomed to remain in its present unsatisfactory
condition over a great part of the kingdom. The improvement of
agriculture is practically a question of private enterprise, and under
the existing law of inheritance neither enterprise nor interest can be
expected of the small proprietor; nor indeed of the large landowner, who
knows that, whatever he may do to improve his estate, it is doomed to be
cut to pieces and divided amongst his next of kin until it is eventually
extinguished. Whether, in some future time, an enlightened scheme of
co-operation could work the arid lands into cultivation again, if the
Government would give the necessary aid in the form of irrigation,
remains among the unanswered riddles of the future. Prophecy in Spain is
never possible; it is always the unexpected which happens in that
country of sharp contradictions. All one can do is to note past progress
and the drift of the present current, which, whatever government is at
the nominal head of affairs, seems to be towards widespread - in fact,
quite general - advance both in knowledge and industrial activity.
The greatest hope for the future lies in the fact that it is no longer
foreign money or foreign labour that is working for the good of the
country; the impulse is from within, and every penny of capital that is
sunk in public works, manufactures, or industrial enterprise, is so much
invested in a settled state of affairs. When the individual has
everything to lose by revolutionary changes, when the commerce of the
country is becoming too important to be allowed to be upset easily, and
it is everybody's interest to support and increase it, the main body of
the people are ranged on the side of peace and progress. They have had
enough of civil war, enough of tyranny; they have achieved freedom, and
want nothing so much as to taste of it in quietness.
To revert for a moment to the special manufactures of the country, it
appears to be the wise policy of the powers that be in Spain to-day to
encourage, by every possible means, native industries and the
development of the rich resources of the country. If it be only in the
superior education required of the workmen, and the drawing out of their
natural talents, the movement is an immense gain to the people, so long
purposely kept in a condition of slothful ignorance.
Besides the woollen manufactures of Palencia, Lorca, Jerez, Barcelona,
Valencia, and other places, are many cloth factories in Cataluña, as
well as others for the production of silk fabrics, lace, and very
high-class embroideries, for which last Spain has long been famous, but
which have hitherto been little known beyond her own frontiers. In
artistic crafts may be named the pottery works of Pickman, Mesaque,
Gomez, and others in Seville, where magnificent reproductions of Moorish
and Hespaño-Moresque tiles and pottery are being turned out; there are
also factories for this class of goods in Valencia, Barcelona, Segovia,
Talevera, and many other places. Ornamental iron and damascene work
holds the high reputation which Spain has never lost, but the output is
very largely increased. Gold and silver inlaid on iron, iron inlaid on
copper and silver, are some of the forms of this beautiful work. That
executed in Madrid differs from that of Toledo, Eibar, and other centres
of the craft. The iron gate-work executed in Madrid and Barcelona is
very hard to beat, and the casting of bronzes is carried out with every
modern improvement. The wood-carvers of Spain have always been famous,
and the craft appears to be in no danger of falling behind its old
reputation, much beautiful decorative work of this description being
produced for modern needs. The _Circulo de Artes_ holds an exhibition in
Madrid every other year, and in the intervening years the Government has
one, in the large permanent buildings erected for the purpose at the end
of the Fuente Castellana. The manufacture of artistic furniture and
other connected industries are encouraged also by a bi-yearly exhibition
in Madrid, where prizes and commendations are given. The chief centres
of artistic furniture-making are Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, and
Zaragoza. Exhibitions of arts and crafts and of all kinds of industries
and manufactures are also held, at intervals, in the principal towns all
over the country. An interesting exhibition of Spanish and South
American productions was held in 1901 in Bilbao with great success.
Nor ought we to forget the industry for which Seville is famed. The
manufacture of tobacco is almost wholly in the hands of women, and is a
very important industry, thousands being employed in the large factories
making up cigars, cigarettes, and preparing and packing the finer kinds
of tobacco. The cigar-girl of Seville is a well-known type, almost as
much dreaded by the authorities as admired by her own class. The women
are mostly young, and often attractive, extremely pronounced both in
dress and manners, and are quite a power to be reckoned with when they
choose to assert themselves. On more than one occasion they have taken
up some cause _en masse_, and have gathered in thousands, determined to
have their way.
When this happens, the powers that be are reduced to great straits.
Neither the _Guardia Civile_ nor the military can be relied on to use
force, and unless the army of irate women can be persuaded to retire
from the contest it is probable that, relying with perfect confidence on
the privileges of their sex, they will gain what they consider their
rights - at all events their will.
No country in the world is more suited for manufactures and exports than
Spain. She has an unexampled seaboard, and many magnificent natural
harbours, and now an easy approach through Portugal to the sea, even if
her own ports should be insufficient. Common commercial interests are
likely to bring that Iberian kingdom or commonwealth to pass which has
been the dream of some of her politicians, and is still cherished in
parts of both countries. The northern ports in the Atlantic are,
perhaps, the most important; that of Bilbao, a most unpromising one by
nature, has grown out of all recognition since the close of the Carlist
war. The railway to the iron mines was already in course of construction
when the war broke out; everything was stopped, the workmen carried off
willy-nilly to join the marauding bands of the Pretender, the
town - which boasts that it has never been taken, although twice almost
demolished during the two insane civil wars - was wrecked and well-nigh
ruined, its industries destroyed, its commerce at an end. With peace and
quietness came one of the most extraordinary revivals of modern times:
the population increased at a marvellous rate, the new town sprang into
existence on the left bank of the Nerrion, the river was deepened, the
bar, which used to block almost all entrance, practically removed,
extensive dock-works carried out; so that in ten years the shipment of
ore from the port sprang up from four hundred and twenty-five thousand
tons to 3,737,176, and is increasing daily. Bilbao, with its five
railway stations, its electric tramways, and its population of
sixty-six thousand, has become the first and most important shipping
outlet of Spain. Nor have the southern ports of Huelva and Seville been
much behind it in their rapid progress; while on the Mediterranean coast
are Malaga, AlmerÃa, Aguilas, Cartagena, Valencia, and Tarragona - all
vying with the older, and once singular, centre of commercial and
industrial activity, Barcelona. The northwest seaboard has been hitherto
somewhat behind the movement, owing to a less complete railway
communication with the rest of the country; now that this is no more a
reproach, the fine natural harbours of Rivadeo, Vivero, Carril,
Pontevedra, Vigo, and Coruña, are gradually following suit, some with
more vigour than others. The little land-locked harbour of Pasages has
for some years been rapidly rising to the rank of a first-class shipping
port.
It is satisfactory to note, from the latest statistics, that in 1899
Spain possessed a total of one thousand and thirty-five merchant ships,
that in the same year she bought from England alone sixty-seven, and
that 17,419 ships, carrying 11,857,674 tons of exports, left Spanish
ports for foreign markets. Although no official information has been
published since that year, the increase since the close of the war has
been in very much greater ratio. From the same records we find that
during the year 1899 no fewer than sixty-nine large companies were
formed, of which twenty-three were for shipping, eight were new sugar
factories, seven banks, seven mining, six electric, and ten others
related either to manufacture or commerce, the total capital of these
new enterprises representing one hundred and twenty-eight millions of
pesetas.
In contrast to Portugal, the _caminos reales_, or high-roads, of Spain
have long been very good. It is true that where these State roads do not
exist, the unadulterated _arroyo_ serves as a country road, or a mere
track across the fields made by carts and foot-passengers, and when an
obstruction occurs in the form of too deep a hole to be got through, the
track takes a turn outside it, and returns to the direct line as soon as
circumstances permit. An _arroyo_ is given in the dictionary as "a
rivulet"; it is, in fact, generally a rushing torrent during the rains,
eating its way through the land, and laying down a smooth, deep layer of
sand, or even soil, between high banks. Immediately after the rainy
season this affords a firm, good road for a time, but eventually it
becomes ploughed into impassable ruts by the wheels of the carts, unless
trampled hard by the feet of passing flocks.
Government undertakes the cost and the super-intendence of the _caminos
reales_, and does it well. The corps of engineers is modelled on French
lines, and is a department of the Ministry of Public Works. The course
of study is extremely severe, and the examinations are strict and
searching. When a candidate passes, he is appointed assistant-engineer
by the Ministry, and he rises in his profession solely by seniority.
Every province has its engineer-in-chief, with his staff of assistants;
the superintendents of harbours, railways, and other public works are
specially appointed from qualified engineers. In addition to the care of
the construction and repair of all highways and Government works in his
district, the engineer-in-chief has the overlooking of all works which,
although they may be the result of private enterprise and private
capital, are authorised or carried out under Government concession.
These concessions are only granted after the project has been submitted
to, and approved by, the Ministry of Public Works, and it passes under
the supervision of the engineer of the provinces. In old days, if not
now, there was a good deal of "the itching palm" about the officials,
not excluding the Minister himself, through whose hands the granting of
concessions passed, even the wives coming in for handsome presents and
"considerations," without which events had a knack of not moving; and
when the army of _Empleados_ became _Cesantes_, this work, of course,
began all over again. The railway engineers form a separate body, the
country being mapped out into arbitrary divisions, each under the charge
of one engineer-in-chief, with a large body of assistants.
The telegraph system of Spain has now for many years been in a good
condition. The construction of the lines dates from about 1862, when
only five miles were in operation. There is now probably not a village
in the whole country that does not possess its telegraph office, and in
all the important towns this is kept open all night. A peseta for twenty
words, including the address, is the uniform charge, every additional
word being ten centimos. The telegraphs were established by the
Government, and are under its control. All railway lines of public
service, and those which receive a subvention, must provide two wires
for Government use. Telephones are now in use in all large centres, and
electric lighting and traction are far more widely used than in England.
CHAPTER XI
THE ARMY AND NAVY
It is not necessary to say to anyone who has the smallest acquaintance
with history that Spaniards are naturally brave and patriotic. The early
history of the Peninsula is one of valour in battle, whether by land or
sea. The standard of Castile has been borne by her sons triumphantly
over the surface of the globe. Few of us now remember that Johnson wrote
of the Spain of his day:
Has Heaven reserved, in pity to the poor,
No pathless waste, no undiscovered shore,
No secret island on the trackless main,
No peaceful desert, yet unclaimed by Spain?
In the old days when Drake undertook to "singe the King of Spain's
beard," and carried out his threat, our sailors and those of Philip II.,
some time "King of England," as the Spaniards still insist on calling
him, met often in mortal combat, and learned to recognise and honour in
each other the same dogged fighting-power, the same discipline and quiet
courage. The picture of the Spaniards standing bareheaded in token of
reverence and admiration of a worthy foe, as some small English ships
went down with all their crew rather than surrender, in those old days
of strife, touches a chord which still vibrates in memory of battles
fought and won together by Englishmen and Spaniards under the Iron Duke.
True, some battered and torn English flags hang as trophies in the
armoury of Madrid, but one likes to remember that in the only battle
where our colours were lost, the Spanish troops were commanded by an
Englishman, James Stuart, Duke of Berwick, the direct ancestor of the
present Duque de Berwick y Alva, and the English by one of French birth.
In every case where foreign foes have invaded Spain, sooner or later
they have been driven out. _Santiago! y Cierra España!_ was the war-cry
which roused every child of Spain to close his beloved country to alien
domination.
Unfortunately, the yoke of the foreigner came in more invidious guise.
From the death of Ferdinand and Isabella to the year 1800, the sons of
Spain were immolated to serve causes which were of no account to her, to
protect the interests of sovereigns who had nothing in common with her
provinces, to add to the power of the Austrian Hapsburgs and the French
Bourbons. We have seen how the people whom Napoleon had believed to be
sunk in fanaticism, dead to all national aspiration, the mere slaves of
a despicable King, and the sport of his debauched Queen and her lover,
sprang to arms and drove the invader from their land. So would it be
to-day if the country were even threatened by foreign invasion. "The
dogs of Spain," as Granville called them, know well how to protect their
soil.
Within comparatively recent years the campaign in Morocco, and the
expeditionary force sent to Cochin-China, showed that the Spanish army
was not to be despised. It has been the misfortune of Spain that her
soldiers have too often had the melancholy task of fighting against
their own people, or those of their colonies, both of whom have been
excited and aided in insurrection for years by foreign contributions of
arms and money. In these unhappy fratricidal struggles the fighting has
never been more than half-hearted, and during the numerous military
_pronunciamientos_ it has often been necessary to keep the troops from
meeting, as they could never be trusted not to fraternise; and after the
first abortive attempt by Prim to effect the revolution which later
freed the country, the curious spectacle was afforded of Prim and his
soldiers marching quietly out of one end of a village, while the troops
of the Queen, sent in pursuit, were being purposely kept back from
marching too quickly in at the other.
The army of Spain would seem to suffer from a plethora of officers,
especially those of the highest rank. In the time of Alfonso XII., there
were ten marshals, fifty-five generals, sixty-six _mariscales de
campo_, and one hundred and ninety-seven brigadiers; adding those on the
retired list liable for service, there were in all five hundred and
twenty generals, four hundred and seventy-two colonels, eight hundred
and ninety-four lieutenant-colonels, 2113 commandants, 5041 captains,
5880 lieutenants, and 4833 sous-lieutenants. With such an array of
officers, it is scarcely to be wondered at that promotion in the
ordinary way was looked on as impossible, and the juggle of military
_pronunciamientos_ was regarded as almost the only means of rising in
the army. It was no uncommon thing to promise a rise of one grade
throughout a whole corps to compass one of these miniature revolutions.
However, all that is happily past. General Weyler, - whose name indicates
alien blood at some period of his family history, - the present Minister
of War, has taken the thorough reform of the army in hand, though it is
too soon to say if he will be as successful as is generally expected
from his known energy and common sense, since the work is only now in
progress.
One of the most fertile sources of disturbance in the old days of Isabel
II. was the presence of the _primo sargentos_. These petty officers,
having risen from the ranks, and invested with an authority for which
they were often quite unsuited, were always ready, for a consideration,
to aid the cause of some aspiring politician, now on one side, now on
another. They are now, fortunately, abolished.
The Spanish artillery is a splendid body, and is officered from the
best families in the country. In the only military insurrection in which
the common soldiers shot some of the officers obnoxious to them - that of
the Montaño Barracks, in 1866 - the leader of the mutinists was a certain
_hidalgo_. It was the promotion of this man that led indirectly to the
abdication of Don Amadeo, who opposed the action. Indignant at the
disgrace to the service, all of the artillery officers in Spain sent in
their resignations. They were accepted, and the _primo sargentos_ raised
to the rank of officers to fill their places. The result was unlimited
mutiny among the rank and file and danger to the State. Some of the
young officers who had retained their uniforms, though no longer
attached to the corps, finding the troops in utter disorder and revolt,
quietly donned their uniforms, went down to the barracks, and gave their
orders. The men instantly fell into the ranks, and the situation was
saved. The _primo sargentos_ were abolished, the officers reinstated.
But Amadeo had had enough; he ceased to attempt to reign
constitutionally in a country where the constitution meant only one more
form of personal greed and excess. He was _demasiado honesto_ for the
crew he had been called to command, and he left the country to tumble
about in its so-called "republican" anarchy until another military
_pronunciamiento_ set Alfonso XII. on the throne. And that has been,
fortunately, the last performance of a kind once so common in Spain.
All military men admire the effective corps of light mountain artillery.
The small guns are carried on the backs of the splendid mules for which
the Spanish army is famous, and can be taken up any mountain path which
these singular animals can climb. Mules are also used to drag the
heavier guns, and must be invaluable in a mountainous country. The
animals are quite as large as ordinary horses, are lithe, active, and
literally unhurtable. I have myself seen a mule, harnessed to a cart
which was discharging stones over the edge of a deep pit, when levelling
the ground at the end of the Fuente Castellana in Madrid, over-balanced
by the weight behind him, fall over, turn a somersault in mid-air, cart
and all, and, alighting thirty feet below, shake himself, ponder for a
few seconds on the unexpected event in his day's labour, and then
proceed to draw the cart, by this time satisfactorily emptied, out of
the pit by the sloping track at the farther side, and continue his task
absolutely unhurt and undisturbed.
Until the final overthrow of the Carlists by Alfonso XII., the Basque
Provinces, amongst their most cherished _fueros_, were exempted from the
hated conscription; but the victorious King made short work of that and
of all other special rights and privileges - which, in truth, had been
abused - and now all the country is subject to conscription. Every man
from nineteen to twenty years of age is liable to serve in the ranks,
except those who are studying as officers. A payment of £60 frees them
from service during peace; but if the country is at war there is no
exemption. The conscripts are bound for twelve years - three with the
colours, three in the first reserve, three in the second, and three in
the third.
Navy? Alas! Spain has none. Two battle-ships alone remain - _El Pelayo_
and _Carlos V._ (the former about nine thousand five hundred tons, the
latter not more than seven thousand) - and some destroyers and torpedoes.
How a nation that once ruled the sea, and whose sailors traversed and
conquered the New World, has allowed her navy to become practically
extinct at the moment when nations which have almost no seaboard are
trying to bring theirs up within measurable distance of England's, it is
impossible to say. Even before the outbreak of the war with America
there were but a few battle-ships, and these were wanting in guns and in
almost all that could make them effective - save and except the men, who
behaved like heroes. It seems to be a consolation to Spaniards to
remember that it was in the pages of an English journal that an
Englishman, who had seen the whole of the disastrous war, wrote: "If
Spain were served by her statesmen as she has been served by her navy,
she would be one of the greatest nations of the world to-day."
The history of the part borne by the Spanish navy in the late war with
America, as written by one of Admiral Cervera's captains,[1] with the
publication of the actual telegrams which passed between the Government
and the fleet, and the military commanders in the colonies, is one of
the most heartrending examples of the sacrifice, not only of brave men,