SILK. 
the trade of a silk-throwster, but such as 
had served seven years apprenticeship to it, 
and should make tliemselves free of the 
company. 
In 1680 the Weavers’ Company petition- 
ed the House of Commons, against the im- 
portation of foreign silks from France, and 
the wear of East India wrought silks, which 
had then become very general ; but it does 
not appear that any thing was done in 
consequence of this application. The 
Turkey Company about the same time 
renewed a complaint they had before made 
at different times against the East India 
company for importing raw silk ; this article 
having formerly been wdiolly imported from 
Turkey, and being a valuable branch of the 
commerce of that company, which they 
were now rapidly loosing, it induced them 
soon after to make a formal complaint to 
the Privy Council ; on which occasion, 
among other assertions, they denominated 
the new silk which had been imported from 
Bengal, “ a deceitful sort of raw silk.” The 
India Company, unable wholly to deny this 
charge, contented themselves with saying, 
that, with respect to the quality of Bengal 
silk, it was like all other commodities, good, 
bad, and indilferent ; and rested their de- 
fence chiefly on the more general ground 
of the importance of the manufacture, and 
the propriety of encouraging it, asserting 
that raw silk had become so essential, that 
it might be compared with sheeps’ wool 
and cotton wool ; and that since their im- 
portation thereof, the silk manufacture had 
increased in the proportion of one to four. 
This contest between the two companies 
for the importation of raw silk, proves that 
it was a valuable branch of trade ; and it 
appeal’s that the manufacture was increas- 
ing rapidly; but nothing contributed so 
much to its Ml establishment in this country 
as the cruel persecution of the Protestant 
Christians in France, on the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Of the mul- 
titudes who fled at that period, upwards 
of fifty thousand took refuge in Englind, 
the greater part of whom settled in the 
suburbs of London; those who had been 
engaged in silk- weaving, chiefly fixed their 
residence in Spitalfields, where they added 
to the branches of this art already known, 
those of modes and lustrings, which articles 
had hitherto been imported from France ; 
they also instructed our weavers in bro- 
cades, satins, mantaus, and velvets. Soon 
after the revolution, in consequence of the 
war, an act was passed prohibiting all trade 
and commerce with France, a measure 
which must have co-operated very mate- 
rially with the arrival of the new workmen 
to the success of the silk trade in this 
country, as the annual importation of French 
silks had been very great for some years 
before. In 1692, lustrings and modes 
being much in fashion, and the fabrication 
of them but recently introduced here, the 
makers for their encouragement had a 
patent granted them, and soon brought this 
branch to the greatest perfection ; upon 
which, about five years after, foreign lu- 
strings and modes were entirely prohibited, 
and the sole privilege of making these silks 
confirmed to the company by Act of Par- 
liament, for the term of fourteen years; 
but with tlie change of fashion this com- 
pany came to nothing. In 1697 the weavers 
of London became very tumultuous, on ac- 
count of the great quantities of silks, stain- 
ed calicoes, and other Persian and Indian 
manufactures imported by the East India 
Company, and worn by all sorts of people. 
To remedy these complaints, a bill was 
brought into parliament to restrain the 
w'earing of these foreign goods, and the 
House of Lords heard council and witnesses 
for and against it : the India Company on 
this occasion engaged the celebrated Dr. 
Davenant to write in their defence, who in 
his Essay on the East India Trade, asserteil 
that since the goods imported by the com- 
pany had been in use, the price of silks 
from France, Spain, and Italy, had fallen 
at least twenty-five per cent ; and endea- 
voured to show that the intended prohibi- 
tion would be destructive to the India 
trade in general, and hazard its being utter- 
ly lost to this country. The contention 
between the old and new East India Com- 
panies greatly increased the importation 
of India wrought silks and calicoes, and 
the wear of them became universal till pro- 
hibited by an act of parliament passed in 
1700. 
In 1713, the Weavers’ Company, alarmed 
at the tendency of a treaty of commerce 
which had been concluded with France, 
under which the general introduction of 
French silks would soon have ruined the 
English manufacture, petitioned parliament 
apinst the bill for rendering effectual the 
eighth and ninth articles of the treaty, and 
in their petition they represent the state 
of the manufacture at that period in the 
following words : “ That by the encourage- 
ment of the crown, and of divers acts of 
parliament, the silk manufacture is come to 
