REVIEW OF THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 479 The great problem, proposed bj the Spanish legis- chapter lation of the sixteenth century, was the reduction — ^- of prices in the kingdom to the same level as in other European nations. Every law that was pass- ed, however, tended, by its restrictive character, to augment the evil. The golden tide, which, per- mitted a free vent, would have fertilized the region through which it poured, now buried the land under a deluge which blighted every green and living thing. Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, every branch of national industry and improvement, lan- guished and fell to decay ; and the nation, like the Phrygian monarch, who turned all that he touched to gold, cursed by the very consummation of its wishes, was poor in the midst of its treasures. From this sad picture, let us turn to that pre- General ■"• prosperity. sented by the period of our History, when, the clouds and darkness having passed away, a new morn seemed to break upon the nation. Under the firm but temperate sway of Ferdinand and Isabella, the great changes we have noticed were effected without convulsion in the state. On the contrary, the elements of the social system, which before jarred so discordantly, were brought into harmonious action. The restless spirit of the no- bles was turned from civil faction to the honorable career of public service, whether in arms or letters. The people at large, assured of the security of private rights, were occupied with the different branches of productive labor. Trade, as is abun- dantly shown by the legislation of the period, had not yet fallen into the discredit which attached to
