ORDER IV.—MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 151 
ments in regard to it were the most contradictory and im- 
politic that can well be imagined. The importation of 
foreign manufactured silks was prohibited under the sever- 
est penalties; but the advantage that this prohibition was 
so erroneously believed to confer upon the manufacturer, 
would, under any circumstances, have been more than 
neutralized by the imposition of oppressive duties on the 
raw material. This mistaken policy was productive of 
great injury, because, owing to the exorbitant duties on the 
raw material, and the want of improvement in the manu- 
facture, the price of silks was maintained so high as to re- 
strict the demand for them within comparatively narrow 
limits. In 1825, however, a more reasonable policy was 
adopted, which was soon productive of great change in this 
department of business. The duties on the raw material 
were greatly lowered, at the same time that foreign silk 
goods were allowed as imports on the payment of a duty 
of 30 per cent. ad valorem. This new tariff was vehement- 
ly opposed at the outset, and it was confidently predicted 
that it would occasion the ruin of the manufacture; but 
the result has shown the soundness of the principle on 
which it was based. The manufacturers were now for the 
first time compelled to call in all the resources of science 
and ingenuity to their aid, and the result has been that the 
manufacture of silks has been improved more during the 
last twenty-five years than it had been during the whole 
previous century, and that it has continued progressively to 
increase. The total quantity of raw silk imported for home 
consumption in 1838 was 3,595,816 lbs. The total num- 
ber of individuals directly engaged in its manufacture has 
been estimated at upward of 207,000, and the value of the 
silks annually manufactured may be estimated at from fifty 
to sixty million dollars. For full particulars as to the his- 
tory and manufacture of silk the reader is referred to Por- 
ter’s treatise on this subject in Lardner’s Cyclopedia. 
