SILKWORM. 



685 



the demand for silk prodigiously augmented. Thence 

 it passed to Rome, probably about the time of Pompey 

 or Julius Caesar, the Emperor Heliogabalus, about 220, 

 being the first emperor who wore a robe entirely of 

 silk. Until about the beginning of the sixth century, 

 silk in the raw state had alone been seen out of 

 China, the exportation of the insects from China 

 being prohibited under pain of death, and up to this 

 period the real nature of the material was unknown. 

 By some it was supposed to be a kind of fleece 

 which grew upon the branches of trees, by others the 

 bark of the tree itself ; by some as the production of 

 a flower ; by others as the production of a shell-fish 

 similar to a mussel ; by others as the entrails of a 

 sort of spider, which was fed for four years with 

 paste, and then with the leaves of the green willow, 

 till it burst with fat ; and by others that it was the 

 produce of a worm which built nests of clay and 

 collected wax. But at that period two monks, under 

 the persuasions of (he Emperor Justinian, contrived 

 to bring some eggs from China, hidden in the handles 

 of their pilgrim's staves, having also obtained a 

 thorough knowledge of the art of rearing the worms 

 and manufacturing the silk. The eggs thus obtained 

 were hatched in a hotbed, and being afterwards 

 carefully fed, the experiment was fully successful, and 

 the silk-worm became generally cultivated through 

 Greece. In 1130, the growth of the white mulberry, 

 and the removal of many of the silk growers from the 

 Peloponnesus to Sicily, was effected by King Roger, 

 which island became the great mart of nearly all the 

 silk employed in Europe. In 1440, the white mul- 

 berry was first introduced into Upper Italy ; and 

 under Charles VII. the first tree of this kind was 

 planted in France, where silk manufactures were 

 established in 1480 at Tours. The great Henri 

 Quatre greatly exerted himself to promote the culture 

 of the silk-worm through his dominions ; and a 

 plantation of white mulberry trees was made in the 

 garden of the Tuilleries, where a large building for 

 the silk-worms was erected. By degrees the growth 

 of the mulberry, and the rearing of the silk-worm, 

 was tried with various success in different parts of 

 Europe. At present the silk manufactures of France 

 constitute a very important part of her commerce ; 

 and some idea may be formed of the silk goods 

 annually sent to England from that country, by the 

 fact, that the quantity on which duty was paid, from 

 1688 to 1741, averaged 500,000/. a-year. Notwith- 

 standing, however, the great quantity of silk now 

 raised in France, the manufacturers of that country 

 still import to the annual value of 30,000 francs of 

 raw silk from Piedmont and Italy. 



In our own country, silk, up to the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, was scarcely known. At that 

 period, however, it appears to have found its way to 

 England more plentifully from France ; for, although 

 the silk manufacture had been introduced into this 

 country in the fifteenth century, we find that Henry 

 VIII. had the first pair of silk stockings ever seen in 

 England, sent to him from Spain ; and a similar 

 present was made to Edward VI. by Sir James 

 Gresham. In the reign of Queen Mary, however, 

 an act was passed with the view of entirely discoun- 

 tenancing the importation of this article of luxury, 

 and of assisting the consumption of our own produc- 

 tions, which enacted, that " whoever shall weare silk 

 in or upon his or her hat, bonnet, or girdle, scabbard, 

 hose, shoes, or spur-leather, shall be imprisoned during 



three months and forfeit ten pounds." The long and 

 quiet reign of Queen Elizabeth which succeeded, toge- 

 ther with the influx of the Flemings, occasioned by the 

 disturbances in the Low Countries, gave a powerful 

 stimulus to the silk manufactures of England. But 

 it was in the next reign that a still greater impulse was 

 given to them by James the First, who not only issued 

 an edict recommending the cultivation of the silk- 

 worm, and offered packets of mulberry seed to all 

 who would sow them, but also planted these trees to 

 a great extent himself, and established silk-worm 

 houses as we learn from the two following entries in 

 the issues of the exchequer during his reign. In the 

 first, dated Dec. 5, 1608, payment was directed to 

 be made of the " sum of 9'3i>l. for the charge of four 

 acres of land taken in for His Majesty's use, near to 

 his palace at Westminster, for the planting of mul- 

 berry-trees, together with the charge of walling, 

 levelling, and planting thereof with mulberry-trees;" 

 and the second, dated January 23, 1618, nine years 

 subsequently, directing payment to be made of 50/. 

 " for timber-board, glass, and other materials, toge- 

 ther with workmanship for making a place for His 

 Majesty's silk-worms, and for making provision of 

 mulberry-leaves for them." Letters were also issued 

 by this prince to the lord lieutenants, recommending 

 the planting of mulberry-trees, and offering them at 

 two farthings each. Although this attempt to intro- 

 duce the growing of silk-worms into England proved 

 unsuccessful (the reason whereof appears clearly to 

 have been that the black mulberry was distributed 

 instead of the white) ; the manufacture of silk had 

 become so extensive, that in 1666 (tern. Carol. II.), 

 not fewer than 40,000 individuals were engaged 

 therein. In 1685, the prosecution of the Protestants 

 in France drove above 50,000 French artisans to this 

 country, by which the trade was still further greatly 

 increased. These refugees chiefly settled in Spital- 

 lields, which part of London has since been the head- 

 quarters of the silk weavers in this metropolis. Not- 

 withstanding this increase, the importation of silk in 

 the manufactured state was very great, as from 1 685 

 to 1692, from 600,000/. to 700,000/. worth was an- 

 nually imported. In the latter year the refugees 

 obtained an exclusive patent for certain articles; 

 in 1697, parliament prohibited the importation of 

 French and other European silk goods; and in 1701, 

 the prohibition was extended to Chinese and Indian 

 manufactures. From this period the silk manufacture 

 has become a very important branch of commerce of 

 which it would be here out of place to pursue the 

 history. It will suffice in order to show the present 

 state of the English manufacture, to state that in the 

 year 1833, the quantity of silk imported for home con- 

 sumption was more than four millions and a half 

 pounds weight ; whereas in 1814 it was only 1,580,000 

 Ibs. ; and in 1823, 3,650,000 ; and at the present time 

 probably 700,000 persons are engaged in it. (Hope in 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. 1, p. 124). 



It remains, however, to notice, as connected with 

 the natural history of the insect in connexion with 

 its commerce, that in 1825, a company was established 

 under the name of" The British, Irish, and Colonial 

 Silk Company" with a large capital and under the 

 direction of the celebrated Count Dandolo, whose 

 Treatise on the Management of the Silk Worm is 

 considered the best work on the subject in Italy. 

 Extensive plantations were formed near Slough, in 

 Devonshire, and near Cork in Ireland ; but after 



