INDUSTRIES 



12,500,000 francs or ^500,000 a year in 

 value. 



In the rebellion of 1745 the silk manu- 

 facturers of Spitalfields were especially promi- 

 nent in loyally supporting the throne ; they 

 waited personally upon the king and assured 

 him of their unswerving loyalty and readiness 

 to take up arms in his cause if need required. 

 Each firm had endeavoured to induce their 

 workpeople to give a like promise, and the 

 total number of men which Spitalfields thus 

 offered to furnish was 2,919. The address to 

 King George 17 presented by Mr. Alderman 

 Baker is followed by a list of the manufacturers' 

 names, against each of which is placed the 

 number of workmen ' who have been engaged 

 by their masters to take up arms when called 

 thereto by His Majesty in defence of his per- 

 son and government,' amounting to 2,919 as 

 above. The list includes eighty-four masters, 

 the greater proportion of whom bear French 

 names. 



In 1763 attempts were made to check the 

 prevalence of smuggling, and the silk mer- 

 cers of the metropolis are said to have recalled 

 their orders for foreign goods. It appears, 

 however, from an inquiry made by a Committee 

 of the Privy Council appointed in 1766 that 

 smuggling was then carried on to a greater 

 extent than ever, and that 7,072 looms were 

 out of employment. Riots broke out in the 

 beginning of October 1763, when several 

 thousand journeymen assembled in Spitalfields 

 and broke open the house of one of the masters. 

 They destroyed his looms, cut to pieces much 

 valuable silk, carried his effigy in a cart through 

 the neighbourhood and afterwards burnt it, 

 hung in chains from a gibbet. 18 



Although the English silks were now con- 

 sidered to be superior to those of foreign make, 

 the latter found a ready market in England, 

 and their importation caused great excitement 

 among the weavers, who petitioned Parliament 

 to impose double duties upon all foreign wrought 

 silks. Their petition not being granted, the 

 London weavers went to the House of Com- 

 mons on 10 January 1764 'with drums beat- 

 ing and banners flying,' to demand the total 

 prohibition of foreign silks. 19 This was the day 

 of the opening of Parliament, and its members 

 were besieged by the weavers with tales of the 

 great distress which had fallen upon them and 

 their families. Some relief was afforded by 

 Parliament 20 by lowering the import duty on 

 raw silk and prohibiting the importation of 



" Proc. Huguenot Sac. ii, 453-6. 



18 Gent. Mag. xxxiii, 514-15. 



" Knight, Land, ii, 394 ; Porter, op. cit. 66-7. 



'" Stat. 5 Geo. Ill, cap. 29, 48. 



silk ribbons, stockings, and gloves. The dealers 

 in foreign silks also undertook to countermand 

 all their orders for foreign silks, and a contri- 

 bution was made for the immediate relief of 

 the sufferers. By these means the weavers 

 were for the time appeased, and the only 

 violence committed was that of breaking the 

 windows of some mercers who dealt in 

 French silks. 



The agitation was increased rather than 

 suppressed by these concessions, and an Act 

 was passed in 1765 21 declaring it to be felony 

 and punishable with death to break into any 

 house or shop with intent maliciously to 

 damage or destroy any silk goods in the process 

 of manufacture. This was occasioned by an 

 outbreak on 6 May when a mob of 5,000 

 weavers from Spitalfields 22 armed with blud- 

 geons and pickaxes marched to the residence 

 of one of the Cabinet Ministers in Bloomsbury 

 Square, and having paraded their grievances 

 marched away threatening to return if they 

 did not receive speedy redress. Next day 

 serious rioting began, and to the end of the 

 month kept London in such a state of general 

 alarm that the citizens were compelled to en- 

 rol themselves for military duty. ' Monday 

 night,' says a contemporary newspaper, 23 ' the 

 guards were doubled at Bedford House, and 

 in each street leading thereto were placed six 

 or seven of the Horse Guards, who continued 

 till yesterday at ten with their swords drawn. 

 A strong party of Albemarle's Dragoons took 

 post in Tottenham Court Road, and patrols of 

 them were sent off towards Islington and 

 Marylebone, and the other environs on that 

 side of the town ; the Duke of Bedford's new 

 road by Baltimore House was opened, when 

 every hour a patrol came that way to and round 

 Bloomsbury to see that all was well.' In 



1767 24 the ' culters,' as they were called, again 

 became rioters, breaking into workshops, cut- 

 ting the work off the looms, and dangerously 

 wounding several who endeavoured to arrest 

 their progress ; similar outbreaks occurred in 



1768 and 1769. 



These outbreaks and those which soon after- 

 wards followed were caused by the bitter dis- 

 putes between the journeymen and master 

 weavers on the subject of wages. Their 

 differences gave rise to the famous ' Spitalfields 

 Acts' of 1773, 1792, and 181 1. 25 The first 

 Act empowered the aldermen of London and 

 the magistrates of Middlesex to settle in 



" Porter, op. cit. 68. 



"Sydney, Engl. and the English, ii, 197. 



"Lloyd's Evening Post, 22 May 1765. 



14 Sydney, loc. cit. 



"Knight, LonJ. ii, 394-5. 



135 



