Against the general good

A scribe, possibly an ecclesiastical figure, with bat-like wings, ears, hands and feet with long nails that could symbolise greed, sits writing. His feet are resting on the top of a sphere, and in the background of the engraving a group of people can be seen with gestures that speak of their despair.

This is one of the most complex and hermetic of the emphatic Caprices, perhaps because of the harshness of its critical content. Various interpretations have been proposed for it, although for the most part specialists seem to agree that it is a scribe who applies himself to the drafting of laws that are "against the general good". 

Nigel Glendinning emphasises the presence in this engraving of vampire wings on the scribe instead of ears, and believes that this figure may have been taken from the work Gli animali parlanti (1801) by Giambattista Casti (Viterbo or Acquapendente, 1724-Paris, 1803). In this text the vampire chief heads a group of greedy notaries, criminals and economists who, in time, will become the crown's advisor.

For her part, Jesusa Vega believes that this print represents the moment of crisis prior to Ferdinand VII's return to the throne, when the struggle between the servile and liberal factions took place. 

It is possible that this print is related to the next one, no. 72, The Results. It repeats the allusion to the vampire who is sucking the chest of a lying figure, perhaps a corpse. It is probable, therefore, that the circumstance described in engraving no. 72 is the result of the measures taken in no. 71.