Commentary
The author of the text is LUIS ORTIZ, who was the serving accountant of Castile treasury during the reign of Philippe II in Spain. Notably, he had drafted proposals to the king of Spain to cushion the Kingdom from financial constraints within the Kingdom. Moreover, according to the text, it is evident that Spain over-relied on natural resource exports, consequently exploiting the Kingdom. He further points out that this is detrimental to them more than the barbarians. Notably, to reverse these cultures, Ortiz proposed manufacturing within instead of exporting raw materials to be produced in other countries. Similarly, he introduced the development of the local labor force for maximum use of the land. That way, other kingdoms only come to buy what they lack at the advantage of Spain’s increasing capital.
The main ideas are, first, to uplift the status quo of mechanical officers who were being despised and humiliated. Similarly, farmers and other field workers were given the same recognition as officers. Moreover, mechanical officers and the farmers or field workers were motivated to revitalize manufacturing industries by running the commerce and production of raw materials in the farms, respectively. Secondly, the memory calls for nobilities and women to purchase locally made clothes or not imports more than one silk sticks to cover their heads from the sun. Subsequently, such a policy came in place by comparing what was happening in Portugal, where no one is allowed to wear silk. In contrast, in Ghent, only cloths produced in local textile industries are worn by members of such a society. Consequently, Ortiz proposed this policy not only to promote the development of local textile industries in the Kingdom of Spain but also to improve the employment rate in Spain.
The text in the submission was an advisory from the treasury to the kingdom leadership in 1558 during the financial crisis to address trade imbalance in Spain between the imports of manufactured goods and exports of raw materials that were leading to the financial crisis. Additionally, he proposed the creation of employment opportunities to suppress idleness and support agriculture within the Kingdom. Moreover, it is evident in the text that during this time, Spain relied heavily on importing manufactured products from France and Flanders of Belgium. Similarly, workers within the Kingdom, mainly the mechanics, seem to have been humiliated and not honored at work demoralizing. Ortiz further argues that respecting members of the labor society is fruitful to the Kingdom. Accordingly, it is essential to note that in the modern industry in Spain, there is a lack of workforce to provide labor in those industries. Therefore the text was attempted in 1558 to revitalize the labor market by motivating more people to start working on farms. Subsequently, activities proposed included working with their hands, digging rearing castles, doing other work-related in the fiends, and ploughing the lands to keep the industries running.
The Ortiz memorial did not have much impact despite its analysis of the Kingdom’s economic situation in Spain by examining the typical characteristics of industries in Spain. Notably, there are many trades without specialization and division of labor, with industries undermined by lack of enough workforce. High taxation leads to extremely high prices, which increases the market price, reducing purchasing influence. Likewise, Spain records a lack of capitalization and underutilized utilized energy sources.