SI1 K. 



siiine committee reported, that though the French 

 were decidedly superior to us in some branches of 

 the trade, we were quite equal and even superior to 

 them in others; but instead of proposing, consis- 

 tently with their report, to admit French silks on 

 a reasonable duty, a measure which would have 

 proved very advantageous to those branches of the 

 manufacture in which we were superior, or nearly 

 equal to the French, without doing any material 

 injury to the others, which were already in the most 

 depressed condition, they recommended the conti- 

 nuance of the old system ; substituting absolute pro- 

 hibitions in the place of the prohibitory duties that 

 formerly existed ! Whatever immediate advantages 

 the manufacturers might have reaped from this 

 measure, the ultimate tendency of which could 

 not fail of being most injurious, were effectually 

 countervailed by the turbulent proceedings of the 

 workmen, who succeeded, in 1773, in obtaining 

 from the legislature an act which, by itself, was 

 quite sufficient to have destroyed even a prosperous 

 trade. This, which has been commonly called the 

 Spitalfields Act, entitled the weavers of Middlesex 

 to demand a fixed price for their labour.which should 

 be settled by the magistrates : and while both mas- 

 ters and men were restricted from giving or receiving 

 more or less than the fixed price, the manufacturers j 

 were liable in heavy penalties if they employed wea- i 

 vers out of the district 1 The monopoly which the 

 manufacturers had hitherto enjoyed, though incom- 

 plete, had had sufficient influence to render inven- 

 tions and discoveries of comparatively rare occur- 

 rence in the silk trade ; but the Spitalfields Act 

 extinguished every germ of improvement. Parlia- 

 ment, in its wisdom, having seen fit to enact that a 

 manufacturer should be obliged to pay as much for 

 work done by the best machinery as if it were done | 

 by hand, it would have been folly to have thought of ' 

 attempting any thing new ! It is not, however, to j 

 be denied that Macclesfield, Manchester, Norwich, 

 Paisley, &c., are under obligations to this act. Had ' 

 it extended to the whole kingdom it would havo ; 

 totally extirpated the manufacture ; but being con- 

 fined to Middlesex, it gradually drove the most va- 

 luable branches from Spitalfields to places where 

 the rate of wages was determined by the competition 

 of the parties, on the principle of mutual interest 

 and compromised advantage. After having done 

 incalculable mischief, the act was repealed in 1824. 

 Had it continued down to the present day, it would 

 not have left employment in the metropolis for a 

 single silk weaver. The monopoly enjoyed by the 

 manufacturers, and the Spitalfields Act, effectually 

 put a stop to all improvement ; so that the manu- 

 facture continued stationary in England, while on 

 the Continent it was rapidly advancing. The prin- 

 cipal manufacturers in and about London sub- 

 scribed, in 1824, a petition to the House of Com- 

 mons, in which they stated that "this important 

 manufacture, though recently considerably ex- 

 tended, is still depressed below its natural level, by 

 laws which prevent it from attaining that degree of 

 prosperity which, under more favourable circum- 

 stances, it would acquire." Fortified by this au- 

 thority, by the experience of 130 years, during 

 which the prohibitive system had been allowed to 

 paralyse the energies of the manufacturers, and by 

 the sanction of parliamentary committees, Mr Hus- 

 kisson moved, on the 8th of March, 1824, that the 

 prohibition of foreign silks should cease on the 5th 

 of July, 1 826, and that they should then be admit- 

 ted for importation on payment of a duty of 30 per 



cent, ad valorem. The effect of the opening of the 

 trade has been such as to justify all the anticipa- 

 tions which the advocates of the measure had 

 formed of its success. The silk manufacture has 

 made a more rapid progress during the last twelve 

 years, or since the abolition of the prohibitive sys- 

 tem in 1826, than it did during the preceding cen- 

 tury. So unprecedented has been its advance, that 

 " the once existing disparity in quality between goods 

 of French and English make has, with some very 

 unimportant exceptions, not merely disappeared, 

 but actually ranged itself on the side of the British 

 artisan. Some of our readers will, probably, be not 

 a little surprised to learn, that the real or declared 

 value of the silk goods of British manufacture ex- 

 ported to France, in 1832, amounted to 75,187. 



Most of the machines and processes known on 

 the continent have been introduced amongst us, 

 and many of them have been materially improved. 

 Nor after what has taken place, can the least doubt 

 remain in the mind of any one, that had the same 

 freedom been given to the silk manufacture sixty 

 years ago, that was given to it in 1826, it, would 

 now have ranked among the most important and 

 valuable businesses in the kingdom, and would have 

 had nothing whatever to fear from the admission of 

 foreign silks, free of duty. It is the opinion of the 

 most intelligent persons in the trade, that the 

 existing duty of 30 per cent, on foreign silks ought 

 to be i educed to twenty per cent.; and that it 

 should be further reduced one per cent, per annum 

 till it be brought to twelve or fifteen per cent., at 

 which it might be allowed to continue stationary, 

 not as a protecting duty, but as a duty imposed for 

 the sake of revenue. A measure of this sort, by 

 increasing fair competition, would continue the 

 impulse already given to the manufacture, and ex- 

 cite to new efforts of invention. Under such a 

 system, we are well assured that, in a very few 

 years, perhaps not more than five or six, our supe- 

 riority over France in some important departments 

 of the silk manufacture would be little less decided 

 than in that of cotton. 



Account, illustrative of the progress of the Silk Manufacture, 

 showing- the quantities of Raw, Waste, and Thrown Silk im- 

 ported at different periods. (Report of 1832 on Silk Trade, 

 p. 10, and Parl Paper, No. 9, Sess. 1834,) 



Manufacture The first operation in the silk 

 manufacture is the unwinding of the cocoons, the 

 thread being coiled upon a reel. Before the 

 cocoons are reeled, the outward covering or floss, 

 spoken of in our description of the silk worm, has 

 to be disengaged, by opening the floss at one end, 

 and causing the cocoon to protrude. Though the 

 vender of cocoons is bound by law to perform this, 

 yet it is seldom done perfectly, and the consequent 

 loss to the purchaser is, on an average, about ten 

 per cent. Before reeling, the cocoons have like 

 wise to be assorted, as different classes require dif 

 ferent treatment. 



The reeling of silk, as practised in Piedmont, 

 R 2 



