SILK-WORMS. 
345 
often happened that, to gain two francs, the speedy 
means of welling the silk at 28 or 30 francs a pound 
were foregone, and thus consumption and compe- 
tition were considerably diminished. 
It may be easily conceived that many foreign 
purchasers often prefer working the raw silk after 
their own fashion, when we have seen them buy- 
ing raw silk in our markets dearer than silk that 
had been spun. 
It may be useful to lay high duties on exporta- 
tion of primitive articles used for manufactures, 
when, having been worked in the country which 
produced them, they may be preferred in foreign 
markets ; but these duties are most pernicious to 
the national interest, when they diminish exterior 
consumption and lessen the demand. Unfortu- 
nately it is always easier in political economy to 
adopt errors than to correct them. And we have 
often seen these usurping the place of the liberal 
and beneficial truths of rural, mechanical, and 
commercial industry. 
We must hope that time will overcome them. 
In the present state of things, the value of ex- 
portation cf raw and manufactured silk would 
surprise the reader. 
If the kingdom of Italy exported, in average 
years, silk to the amount of 83 millions of francs, 
and if, during some years, as I shall shew, the value 
of exportation was beyond 110 millions, it is in- 
Q 5 
