Historically, Spain was split into several independent states. Even after these states began sharing the same monarchy, they maintained their own separate parliaments, laws, and taxes for several centuries. In the 16th century, Spain became the first country to tax playing cards. The various regions and states kept track of the taxes they were owed by requiring producers, who were often monopolies ("estanco"), to conform to a regional pattern for cards sold locally. Known regional patterns include the Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Navarre, Valencia, and Catalonia patterns. There were also export patterns, possibly including the little known Toulouse/Girona pattern or the "Dragon cards" (see below). Spain and France exported cards to each other, which explains why the kings and jacks in French-suited face cards resemble their Spanish counterparts, notably the standing kings. There was some deliberate copying; the king of coins from the Seville and Franco-Spanish patterns is near identical to the king of hearts in the French-suited Rouen pattern, which was exported to England and through centuries of bad reproduction became known as the "suicide king".