THE DECENTRALISATION OF INDUSTRIES. 35 



quite natural that France, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, 

 Japan, the United States, and even Mexico and Brazil, 

 should begin to spin their own yarns and to weave their 

 own cotton stuffs. But the appearance of the cotton 

 industry in a country, or in fact, of any textile in- 

 dustry, unavoidably becomes the starting-point for the 

 growth of a series of other industries; chemical and 

 mechanical works, metallurgy and mining feel at once 

 the impetus given by a new want The whole of the 

 home industries, as also technical education altogether, 

 must improve in order to satisfy that want as soon as 

 it has been felt 



What has happened with regard to cottons is going 

 on also with regard to other industries. Britain and 

 Belgium have no longer the monopoly of the woollen 

 trade. Immense factories at Verviers are silent; the 

 Belgian weavers are misery-stricken, while Germany 

 yearly increases her production of woollens, and exports 

 nine times more woollens than Belgium. Austria has 

 her own woollens and exports them; Riga, Lodz, and 

 Moscow supply Russia with fine woollen cloths ; and 

 the growth of the woollen industry in each of the last- 

 named countries calls into existence hundreds of con- 

 nected trades. 



For many years France has had the monopoly of 

 the silk trade. Silkworms being reared in Southern 

 France, it was quite natural that Lyons should grow 

 into a centre for the manufacture of silks. Spinning, 

 domestic weaving, and dyeing works developed to a 

 great extent. But eventually the industry took such a 

 development that home supplies of raw silk became 

 insufficient, and raw silk was imported from Italy, Spain 

 and Southern Austria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and 

 Japan, to the amount of from 9,000,000 to i 1,000,000 

 in 1875 and 1876, while France had only 800,000 worth 

 of her own silk. Thousands of peasant boys and girls 



