Infante Alonso of Austria

What people wore

Price of smoke cloaks

In 1680, the price for a yard of smoke cloak, a popular thin black accessory, was set at seven and a half reales.

Daily life

Cooking in the kitchen

Cooking was done over low-burning fireplaces, using iron trivets to support pots or a "llar" chain to hang caldrons. Food was often prepared and eaten in the kitchen, which served as a primary gathering space for poorer families.

Work

Strikes and municipal control of labor

Agricultural workers once went on strike in Cordoba in 1595 demanding higher wages; the city responded by arresting strikers in taverns and sentencing them to public pillory time and jail. In other instances, municipal councils prohibited harvest workers from leaving the town until all local crops were fully reaped.

Music

Taborers Guiding Festival Dancers

Taborers were hired for festivals like Corpus Christi to guide dancers, often charging for their services by performing in town streets or during processions.

At the table

Wine as a staple drink

Wine was considered a primary necessity and healthier than water, which was often contaminated; people frequently drank it diluted with water to gain calories and mitigate thirst.

Getting around

Freight carts daily travel speed

Freight carts typically carried up to 1,000 pounds of cargo and traveled at a speed of ten to twelve miles per day.

What it cost

Annual clothing needs in Madrid

In early seventeenth-century Madrid, the estimated annual expenditure for one person included two pairs of shoes.