feudal ties to the Empire: The rest of Italy was also bound to pay the Emperor, but at a much higher magnitude than Cosimo, who merely paid on his few undisputed Imperial fiefs. Cosimo, not having much else to do, instituted more moral laws. Young men were not allowed to "enter into houses to make love to girls, and let them dally at doors and windows, is a great incentive to rapes, abortions, and infanticides..." If a man did not comply, he was liable to receive enormous fines. This coincided with a new wave of taxes that stagnated Tuscany's already declining economy. Harold Acton recounts that a bale of wool "sent from Leghorn and Cortona had to pass through ten intermediate customs." The Grand Duke oversaw the establishment of the Office of Public Decency, whose goal was to regulate prostitution, also. Prostitutes were oft thrown into the Stinche, a jail for women of that profession, for years, with scant food, if they could not afford the fines levied on them by the Office of Public Decency. Evening permits and exemptions were available for those willing to pay six crowns per month. Cosimo resurrected a law from the regency of his father which banned Students from attending college outside Tuscany, thus strengthening the Jesuits' hold on education. A contemporary wrote that not a single man in Florence could read or write Greek, a stark contrast to those of the old republic. In a letter dated 10 October 1691, Cosimo's personal secretary wrote, "By the Serene Master's express command I must inform Your Excellencies that His Highness will allow no professor in his university at Pisa to read or teach, in public or in private, by writing or voice, the philosophy of Democritus, or of atoms, or any save that of Aristotle." Ferdinando and Violante, despite being married for over five years, had not produced any offspring as of 1694. The Grand Duke responded by declaring special days of devotion, and erecting a "fertility column" in the Cavour district of Florence, an act which attracted popular ridicule. Ferdinando would not attend to Violante, instead lavishing his attentions on his favourite, a castrated Venetian, Cecchino de Castris. The same year, Dowager Grand Duchess Vittoria, who had once exercised a great deal of influence over Cosimo, died. Her allodial possessions, the Duchies of Montefeltro and Rovere, inherited from her grandfather, the last Duke of