146 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



hand-weaving is still carried on in about 5400 hand- 

 looms, although the whole trade, in factories and villages 

 alike, is in a piteous state since the Spanish markets 

 have been lost. Spain has now plenty of her own cotton 

 mills. Twelve big spinning mills at Coud (where 4000 

 tons of cotton were spun in 1883) were abandoned in 

 1893, and the workers were thrown into a most miserable 

 condition.* 



On tin contrary, in an industry which supplies the 

 home market, namely in the fabrication of linen hand- 

 kerchiefs, which itself is of a quite recent growth, we 

 see that cottage-weaving is, even now, in full prosperity. 

 Cholet (in Maine-et-Loire, south-west of Angers) is the 

 centre of that trade. It has one spinning mill and one 

 weaving mill, but both employ considerably fewer hands 

 than domestic weaving, which is spread in no less than 

 200 villages of the surrounding region.t Neither at 

 Rouen nor in the industrial cities of Northern France 

 are so many linen handkerchiefs fabricated as in this 

 region in hand-looms, we are told by Ardouin Dumazet. 



Within the curve made by the Loire as it flows past 

 Orleans we find another prosperous centre of domestic 

 industries connected with cottons. " From Romorantin 

 [in Loire-et-Cher, south of Orleans] to Argenton and 

 Le Blanc," the same writer says, " we have one immense 

 workshop where handkerchiefs are embroidered, and 

 shirts, cuffs, collars and all sorts of ladies' linen are sewn 

 or embroidered. There is not one house, even in the 

 tiniest hamlets, where the women would not be occupied 

 in that trade . . . and if this work is a mere passe- 

 temps in vine-growing regions, here it has become the 

 chief resource of the population." + Even at Romo- 

 rantin itself, where 400 women and girls are employed in 

 one factory, there are more than 1000 women who sew 



* Ardouin Dumazet, vol. ii., p. 167. 



f In Maine-et-Loire, la Vendee, Loire Infe'rieure, and Deux-Sevres. 



% Ardouin Dumazet, vol. i., p. 117 ft seq. 



