294 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



As to lace, it is made in such quantities by 

 machinery at Calais, Caudry, St. Quentin and 

 Tarare that only high-class artistic lace-making 

 continues on a small scale at Alen9on itself, 

 but it still remains a by-occupation in the 

 surrounding country. Besides, at Flers, and at 

 Ferte Mace (a small town to the south of the 

 former), hand-weaving is still carried on in 

 about 5,400 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 

 Conde (where 4,000 tons of cotton were spun hi 

 1883) were abandoned in 1893, and the workers 

 were thrown into a most miserable condition.* 



On the contrary, in an industry which supplies 

 the home market namely, in the fabrication 

 of linen handkerchiefs, 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 over no less than 200 villages of the sur- 

 rounding region. | Neither at Rouen nor in 



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



f In Maine-et-Loire, la Vendee, Loire Inferieure, and Deux- 



