There are a lot of Spanish artifacts of the period in museums in New Mexico. Importantly, the Spanish of the time were good record keepers, and much of what we know of world trade during those times comes from these records.
One exhibit gave me a chuckle. There was a lot of decorative vanity objects with elaborately engraved doodads. One of these was blades that descended from their stirrups.
http://i.imgur.com/Kf6DPu8.jpg
“Heavy, hand-wrought iron “estribos de cruz,” or “Conquistador stirrups” used by Spanish cavalry troops during the 1700s, kept getting longer and longer, so eventually were banned as “unsuitable and dangerous” in the Royal Regulations of 1772.”
In one of these Museums, they have the actual letter (with translation) sent by the equivalent of the Spanish Inspector General’s office. In dry military bureaucratese, it describes how these are a safety hazard and are therefore banned.
It looked just like something that could be generated by some pipsqueak general in the Pentagon today.
Thanks to wildbill, there’s a subthread that would probably work even better here, in a thread from earlier in the week.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3135597/posts?page=20#20
