198 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XII 



THE HIBERNIAN SILK AND WOOLLEN 

 WAREHOUSES 



THE guild or corporation of Weavers in Dublin (in 

 conjunction with others interested in the silk trade), 

 presented a petition to Parliament, in 1753, stating 

 that, as a result of the extensive importation of 

 foreign silks, the trade was declining, and the silk 

 weavers were being ruined. With a view to the revival 

 of the trade, Parliament voted money to the Dublin 

 Society, which decided on establishing a silk warehouse 

 in which the parliamentary funds were to be expended 

 in giving premiums on silks made in Ireland, the great 

 object being to have everything of the kind that could be 

 made in Ireland manufactured there. The warehouse 

 was to be strictly a retail one, and the Society in 1766 

 passed a special resolution that no part of the sum of 

 ^3200 allotted should be given for a wholesale trade 

 in it. In 1764, Alderman Benjamin Geale, Messrs. 

 Robert Jaffray, Travers Hartley, Thomas Hickey, and 

 Edmund Reilly were appointed by the Society to act 

 with a committee of the Weavers' company, and their 

 deliberations resulted in a house being taken in Parlia- 

 ment street for the sale of silk, on the amounts of 

 which manufacturers were paid a percentage. It was 

 formally opened in February 1765, when a large 

 number of ladies attended the ceremony, and made 

 purchases. In 1767, the master, wardens, and seventy- 



