PRODUCTION OF SILK. 143 



It is recorded of Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV. 

 that, in his great zeal to increase the production of silk, 

 not content merely with giving away the trees from the 

 nurseries of the Royal Gardens, he even caused them 

 to be transplanted at the expense of the government. 

 But the consequence of this over degree of liberality 

 was the defeat of its own object ; and the trees thus 

 easily obtained, were either neglected or wilfully des- 

 troyed by the peasantry ; and a new plan was adopted, 

 the wisest and most effectual which had ever been de- 

 vised. Rewards were now offered of three livres to 

 the cultivator of every mulberry tree which should be 

 found in a thrifty and flourishing state three years after 

 being transplanted. Soon the salutary effects of this 

 encouragement appeared, and Provence, Languedoc, 

 Dauphine, Vivarais, Lyonnois, Gascony, and Saintonge 

 became speedily cpvered with the trees of the mulberry. 



The silk district of France lies on two sides of the 

 Rhone, and includes thirteen departments of the king- 

 dom, [Lyons being the northernmost point.] Although, 

 during the last twenty-five years, the quantity of silk 

 produced in France has exceedingly augmented, yet 

 they still annually import to the amount of 43,000,000 

 francs, for the supply of their manufactures, from for- 

 eign sources. 



The culture and manufacture of silk have stood 

 alone, with little protection ; they have flourished in 

 France by neglect, because they were suited to the 

 taste of the nation. The curious fabrics, and patterns so 

 unsurpassed, are the result of highly cultivated taste. 

 Their first and best models are the refined imitations of 

 nature. This branch of industry, though least of all 

 protected, has, from this very cause alone, withstood 

 unmoved the utter subversion of all things else. 



Lyons is not only the greatest silk manufacturing city 

 of France, but the greatest in the world, for the most 

 elegant fabrics of figured silks, the productions of taste 

 and fancy. In 1812, the city of Lyons employed 10,720 



