ON SILK MANUFACTURE IN THE EXHIBITION. 235 



United Kingdom, it is the less necessary that he shoidd now do more 

 than refer to it for details of the remarkable vicissitudes to which 

 it has been exposed since its introduction in the 14th century, 

 and which are mainly attributable to unsound legislation. All pro- 

 hibitory and protective duties on silks being now, however, repealed 

 both in England and France, the canon of free trade is fairly on its 

 trial ; but it would be premature to theorise on the subject, for before 

 and since the recent commercial treaty came into full operation, a series 

 of disturbances to the natural current of trade seem to have postponed 

 the mutual advantages which cannot ultimately fail to result from the 

 adoption of the policy therein inaugurated. Commerce generally, so far 

 at least as profitable results are concerned, was then suffering from a 

 serious collapse arising out of production being unduly stimulated, colo- 

 nial and other external markets being glutted with our goods, and politi- ' 

 eal apprehensions leading to exorbitant expenditure and increased tax- 

 ation, with all their paralyzing and mischievous results. The manufac- 

 turers also of Lyons and St. Etienne having lost their great customer on 

 the other side of the Atlantic, and desirous of keeping their establish- 

 ments in working order, made more goods than were required elsewhere, 

 principally plain black silks, and sold them in this market at prices 

 which apparently afforded no profit, so that our warehouses and shops 

 were filled to repletion. Our domestic recpiirements being thus unnatu- 

 rally over-supplied, and the ordinary vent for excessive production, the 

 United States, being almost hermetically sealed to us by the fratricidal war 

 which then and since has devastated and impoverished that country, the 

 silk industry of Great Britain has suffered longer and to a greater extent 

 than ever before known. The cessation also of the cotton supply has 

 had its effect on this and other branches of internal trade, by 

 curtailing the means of purchase, while the melancholy loss the country 

 has sustained by the death of the Prince Consort partially closed those 

 avenues of consumption which the splendours of court entertainments 

 and the gaieties of the ball-room ordinarily open up. Under these accu- 

 mulated misfortunes, the statistics of the Board of Trade afford no re- 

 liable criterion of the future condition of the silk trade since the repeal 

 of the duties on imports ; for both exports and imports, when excessive, 

 may rather be taken as indications of a desire to lessen stocks on hand, 

 by ruinous sacrifices on the part of the sellers, than the results of healthy 

 demand. Some improvement, however, may now be discerned, and de- 

 mand having recently borne a more legitimate relation to supply, better 

 prices are being obtained, It may also be assumed that the great influx 

 of foreign visitors to the International Exhibition has led to increased 

 consumption ; but until the disturbing influences arising out of the civil 

 war in America subside, it would be vain to expect that the trade of 

 this and other countries having commercial relations with them can 

 return to their normal remunerative condition. 



