258 



SILK. 



silk soon spread through Italy, and ultimately 

 Beached Spain, from whence it was, in the reign of 

 Francis I., introduced to France. Yet while the 

 silk manufacture was thus gradually moving to the . 

 west, China, which had been its birth place, did , 

 not remain inactive. The celebrated traveller, ! 

 Marco Polo, informs us that towards the close of 

 the thiiteenth century there were not fewer than 

 1000 carriages and pack-horses, laden with silk, 

 that came in daily to Cambalu, the royal city of 

 the Chinese empire. 



Bologna was the only Italian city, before the 

 commencement of the sixteenth century, in which 

 the throwing or twining of silk was performed by 

 machinery. Antwerp was for a long period cele- ' 

 brat i-d for its trade in silken goods, but, having been 

 taken by the duke of Parma in 1585. a check was 

 for a time put upon its commerce, and also that of ' 

 the Low Countries. Those engaged in the silk and j 

 other manufactures in Flanders and Brabant, 

 sought and obtained refuge in England, where they 

 found a home, and laid the foundation of many of 

 those branches of industry that have contributed 

 to make this kingdom the first in the world. 



Partly from superiority, and partly from fashion, 

 foreign silks were for a long time preferred to those 

 of home manufacture ; and for a considerable period, 

 the silk trade made slow progress in England. Still 

 the manufacture did progress, and received no small 

 impetus from the invention of the stocking frame, 

 insomuch that the silk stockings of English manu- 

 facture were preferred above all others, and it was 

 customary for the manufacturers of Naples to say, 

 by way of recommending their silk stockings, that 

 they were "right English." It is worthy of remark 

 that we are indebted to clergymen for the invention I 

 both of the stocking frame and the power loom ; 

 but, it is matter of regret that the Rev. William 

 Lea, of St John's college, Cambridge, the inventor 

 of the stocking frame, not finding sufficient patron- | 

 age at home, was obliged to apply to Henry IV. of 

 France, who established him at Rouen. The 

 monarch was soon after murdered, the ingenious 

 clergyman was deprived of his patron, and died, j 

 neglected and destitute, in the capital of France, i 

 Henry, with a view to extend the manufacture, en- 

 listed by title in the ranks of the nobility every | 

 person in his dominions who should successfully 

 pursue it for twelve years, and by every means in his 

 power endeavoured to extend the rearing of the silk 

 worm throughout the whole of hi^kingdom; but ex- 

 perience showed that the silk worm could not be 

 bred with advantage beyond the line of the Loire. 

 James I. of England seeing, as he himself says, that 

 the French king " had gained to himself honour" by 

 his encouragement of the silk trade, tried by sundry 

 means to establish the culture of the mulberry tree 

 in this country; but these, and all other attempts to 

 rear the silk worm in England, have been rendered 

 abortive by the coldness of the climate. Attempts ; 

 were made by the same monarch to introduce the j 

 culture of the silk worm into America, but these, j 

 and subsequent endeavours, seem not to have been j 

 crowned with much success. In the East Indian co- 

 lonies, the rearing of the silk worm has been for a long 

 time carried on extensively and with great advan- 

 tage ; and in the Company's possessions in Bengal, 

 there are not fewer than 300,000 persons engaged 

 in the silk manufacture. The culture of the mul- 

 berry tree was first introduced into Russia by Peter 

 the Great, and the manufacture of silk afterwards 

 encouraged by Catherine. Silk continues to be a 



branch of Russian industry. The culture of the 

 silk worm has been introduced into some parts of 

 Germany, Sweden, Malta, the Mauritius, St Hele- 

 na, &c., with various success. From the high price 

 of labour in Great Britain, silk cannot be reared 

 here so as to be brought to market without loss, 

 and the immense consumpt of this kingdom is sup- 

 plied by importation. The average annual con- 

 sumpt of raw silk in England alone is four millions 

 of pounds, and for the production of this quantity 

 fourteen thousand millions of animated insects 

 yearly live and die. 



A considerable stimulus was given to the English 

 silk manufacture by the revocation of the edict of 

 Nantes, in 1685. Louis XIV. drove, by that dis- 

 graceful measure, thousands of his most industrious 

 subjects to seek an asylum in foreign countries ; of 

 whom it is supposed about 50,000 came to Eng- 

 land. Such of these refugees as had been engaged 

 in the silk manufacture, established themselves in 

 Spitalfields. Foreign silks were at this time freely 

 admitted ; and it appears that from 600,000 to 

 700,000 worth were annually imported in the 

 period from 1685 to 1692, being the very period 

 during which the British silk manufacture made the 

 most rapid advances. In 1692, the refugees, who 

 seem to have been quite as conversant with the arts 

 of monopoly as with those either of spinning or 

 weaving, obtained a patent, giving them an exclu- 

 sive right to manufacture lustrings and a-la-mot/as. 

 the silks then in greatest demand, and in 1697 

 an act was passed prohibiting the importation of all 

 French and other European silk goods ; and, in 

 1701, the prohibition was extended to the silk 

 goods of India and China. 



In 1719, a patent was granted to Sir Thomas 

 Lombe and his brother for the exclusive property 

 of the famous silk mill erected by them at Derby, 

 for throwing silk,from models they had clandestinely 

 obtained in Italy. At the expiration of the patent, 

 parliament refused the prayer of a petition of Sir 

 Thomas Lombe for its renewal, but granted him 

 14,000 in consideration of the services he had 

 rendered the country, in erecting a machine which, 

 it was supposed, would very soon enable us to dis- 

 pense wholly with the supplies of thrown silk we 

 had previously been in the habit of 'importing 

 from Italy : but instead of being of any ad- 

 vantage, it is most certainly true, that the estab- 

 lishment of throwing mills in England has proved 

 one of the most formidable obstacles to the exten- 

 sion of the manufacture among us. Such mills 

 could not have been constructed unless oppressive 

 duties had been laid on thrown or organzine silk ; 

 and the circumstance of their having been erected, 

 and the large amount of capital vested in them, was 

 successfully urged, for more than a century, as a 

 conclusive reason for continuing the high duties 5 

 Of the multitude of acts that have been passed in 

 reference to this manufacture, from 1697 to 1824, 

 it would be exceedingly difficult to point out one 

 that is bottomed en any thing like a sound princi- 

 ple, or that was productive of any but mischievous 

 consequences. In 1763, attempts were made to 

 check the prevalence of smuggling and the silk 

 mercers of the metropolis, to show their anxiety to 

 forward the scheme, are said to have recalled their 

 orders for foreign goods; but it appears, from a re- 

 port of a committee of the privy council, appointed 

 in 1766, to inquire into the subject, that smuggling 

 was then carried on to a greater extent than ever, 

 and that 7072 looms were out of employment. Th 



