172 THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 



English silk manufacture by the revocation of the 

 edict of Nantes, in 1685. Louis XIV. drove, by 

 that intolerant and disgraceful measure, several 

 hundred thousands of his most industrious subjects 

 to seek an asylum in foreign countries ; of whom, it 

 is supposed, about fifty thousand came to England. 

 Such of these refugees as had been engaged in the 

 silk manufacture, several branches of which were then 

 in a comparatively advanced state in France, estab- 

 lished themselves in Spitalfields, which has continue* 

 ever since the principal seat of the British manufac- 

 ture. At the period of the influx of the refugees, 

 foreign silks were freely admitted into England ; ant 

 it is stated, in the custom-house returns, that from 

 600,000 to 700,000 worth were annually imported 

 in the interval from 1685 to 1693. But the manu- 

 facture was not long permitted to continue on this 

 footing. In 1692, the refugees, who seem to have 

 been quite as conversant with the arts of monopoly 

 as with those either of spinning or weaving, obtaine< 

 a patent, giving them an exclusive right to manu- 

 facture lutestrings and a-la-modes, the silks then in 

 greatest demand. This, however, was not enough 

 to satisfy them ; for, in 1697, Parliament passed 

 net, in compliance with their urgent solicitations 

 prohibiting the importation of all French and othei 

 European silk goods ; and, in 1701, the same prohi- 

 bition was extended to silk goods imported from 

 India and China. 



The year 1 719 is an important epoch in the historj 

 of the British silk manufacture, a patent having beei 



