36 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



were attracted by high wages to Lyons and the neigh- 

 bouring district; the industry was prosperous. How- 

 ever, by-and-by new centres of silk trade grew up at 

 Basel and in the peasant houses around Zurich. French 

 emigrants imported the trade, and it developed, especi- 

 ally after the civil war of 1871. The Caucasus 

 Administration invited French workmen and women 

 from Lyons and Marseilles to teach the Georgians and 

 the Russians the best means of rearing the silkworm, 

 as well as the whole of the silk trade, and Stavropol 

 became a new centre for silk weaving. Austria and the 

 United States did the same ; and what are now the 

 results? During the years 1872 to 1881 Switzerland 

 more than doubled the produce of her silk industry; 

 Italy and Germany increased it by one-third; and the 

 Lyons region, which formerly manufactured to the value 

 of 454,000,000 francs a year, showed in 1887 a return 

 of only 378,000,000. The exports of Lyons silks, which 

 reached an average of 425,000,000 francs in 1855-59, 

 and 460,000,000 in 1870-74, fell down to 233,000,000 

 in 1887. And it is reckoned by French specialists that 

 at present no less than one-third of the silk stuffs used 

 in France are imported from Zurich, Crefeld, and Bar- 

 men. Nay, even Italy, which had 2,000,000 spindles and 

 30,000 looms in 1880 (as against 14,000 in 1870), sends 

 her silks to France and competes with Lyons. The 

 French manufacturers may cry as loudly as they like 

 for protection, or resort to the production of cheaper 

 goods of lower quality; they may sell 3,250,000 kilo- 

 grammes of silk stuffs at the same price as they sold 

 2,500,000 in 1855-59 they w iU never again regain the 

 position they occupied before. Italy, Switzerland, 

 Germany, the United States and Russia have their own 

 silk factories and will import from Lyons only the 

 highest qualities of stuffs. As to the lower sorts, a 

 foulard has become a common attire with the St 

 Petersburg housemaids, because the North Caucasian 



