Michael Clayton

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Michael Clayton

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.
clothing first used in Cilicia. "A garment of camel's hair, that is, made
of some texture of the hair, a coarse garment : a cilicious or sack-
cloth habit ; suitable to the austerity of his life ; the severity of his
doctrine, repentance ; and the place thereof, the wilderness." Brown
: Vulgar Errors. SILK. The delicate soft thread produced by certain
insects ; thread or cloth woven from it. (A.-S. seolc, L. scricum, Gr.
scrikon — scr, the seric or silkworm, from Seres, the ancient Chinese,
from whom silk was first obtained.) Fr. soie, It. seta, Sp., Port, seda,
Ger. scide, Du. zijde, Da. sdkc, Sw. silke, siden, Russ. sheolk, Pers.
ab-rashum, Hind, rasum, rjshum.
 SIL ( 301 ) SIL This, the most beautiful and strongest of all
fibres, is not only produced from the common silkworm, but also
from the cocoons of the larvae of several moths both of Europe and
India, and from spiders. The only worms commercially important
besides the Bombyx mori, the mulberry-feeding worm, are the
Tussah and Arindy, worms of India. Our supplies are derived from
China, India, Italy, and the Levant, although efforts are being made
to cultivate it in most of the colonies and in California. France
produces a great deal, but fails to supply her own wants. The annual
value of the silk goods manufactured here is computed at 10
millions, occupying 842,538 spinning spindles, 176,401 doubling
spindles, on 12,546 power looms, in 706 factories, giving
employment to 40,985 operatives. The written records of the
Chinese empire are said to carry back a knowledge of the treatment
of silk to a date 2,700 years before the Christian era, when the utility
and excellence of the material derived from the silkworm was
discovered by their empress, See-ling-shee, consort of Hoang-tee,
who with her own royal hands first unravelled the cocoons, and
wove the glossy filaments into a web " of glorious sheen." Not only
for many ages did this people have a monopoly of the manufacture,
but, so far as can be learned, they held and jealously guarded all the
stock of silkworms, so that the fabrics imported by the Romans were
a matter of curiosity and conjecture, it being supposed that silk was
made from fleeces growing upon trees, from J;he bark of trees, or
from flowers — tales evidently founded on slender facts connected
indiscriminately with cotton, flax, and silk. " The knowledge of silk
was first brought into Europe through the conquests of Alexander
the Great. Strabo quotes a passage from Nearchus in which it is
mentioned, but apparently confounded with cotton. It is well known
that Aristotle obtained a full and accurate account of all the
discoveries in natural history which were made during the conquest
of Alexander, and he gives a particular description of the silkworm —
so particular, indeed, that it is surprising how the ancients could, for
nearly six hundred years after his death, be ignorant of the nature
and origin of silk. He describes the silkworm as a horned worm,
which he calls Bombyx, which passes through several
transformations, and produces Bombytria. It does not appear,
however, that he was acquainted either with the native country of
this work, or with such a people as the Seres,* and this is the only
aeason for believing that he may allude entirely to a kind of silk
made * Silk was first described as coming from Serica or Sereinda,
that part of India which lies beyond the Ganges. Seres is the
designation given by the Greeks and Komans to the people who
inbabited these remote regions, and Sereinda is, apparently, a
compound of Seres and Indi. The latter is a general term applied by
the ancients to all distant nations, with as little precision as India is
now used by modern Europeans. " It is now so generally admitted
that the Seres of the ancients are the Chinese of the moderns that it
is unnecessary to enter into any discussion in proof of this belief. Se
is the name for silk in the Chinese language ; this, by a faulty
pronunciation, not uncommon in their frontier provinces, acquired
the final r, thus changing the word into Ser, the very name adopted
by the Greeks. We can, therefore, hardly doubt that these obtained
the name, as well as the material itself, first from China." Porter: Silk
Manufacture. (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclojxedia.)
 SIL ( 302 ) SIL at Cos, especially as he adds that some
womenin this island decomposed the bombytria and rewove and re-
spun it. (See Bombasin.) Pliny also mentions the bombyx, and
describes it as a native of Assyria; he adds that the Assyrians made
bombytria from it, and that the inhabitants of Cos learnt the
manufacture from them. The most probable supposition is that silk
was spun and wove in Assyria and Cos, but the raw material
imported into these countries from the Seres ; for the silkworm was
deemed by the Greeks and Romans so exclusively and preeminently
the attribute of the Sinse that from this very circumstance they were
denominated Seres, or silkworms, by the ancients. The next authors
who mention silk are Virgil and Dionysius the geographer. Virgil
supposes the Seres to card their silk from leaves : VelUraque ut folils
depectunt tenuia Seres. Dionysius, who was sent by Augustus to
draw up an account of the Oriental regions , says that rich and
valuable garments were manufactured by the Seres from threads
finer than those of the spider, which they combed from flowers.
(Stevenson : Progress of Discovery.) A later author, Pausanias, states
that the Greek name for the spinning worm was seer, that the insect
lived five years, and fed on green haulm. Although it 13 not known
precisely at what time silk was worn in Rome, the date has been
assigned to the reign of Julius Caesar. The fabrics were soon worn of
such indecent transparency as to incur the censure of writers of that
period, and at the commencement of the reign of Tiberius a law was
passed forbidding any man to dishonour himself by wearing silken
garments ; but this did not prevent the wearing of the light fabrics of
Cos during the heat of summer, in spite of the scorn of the satirists
and reproof of the moralists. For two hundred years after the age of
Pliny the use of silk was confined to the female sex, till the richer
citizens, both of the capital and the provinces, followed the example
of Heliogabalus, the first man who, according to Lampridius, wore
holosericum, that is, a garment wholly composed of silk. From this
expression, however, it is evident that, previous to this period, male
inhabitants of Rome had been in the habit of wearing silk mixed with
linen or woollen. Hitherto there is no intimation in ancient authors of
the price of silk at Rome ; in the time of Aurelian, however — that is,
towards the end of the 3rd century — we learn the high price at
which it was rated in an indirect manner. For when the wife of that
emperor begged of him to permit her to have but one single
garment of purple silk, he refused it, saying that one pound of silk
sold at Rome for twelve ounces, or its weight, of gold. This agrees
with what is laid down in the Rhodian maritime laws, as they appear
in the eleventh book of the Digest, according to which unmixed silk
goods paid a salvage, if they were saved without being damaged by
the sea water, of ten per cent., as being equal in value to gold.
(Howell : History of the World.) In about a hundred years after the
reign of Aurelian the importation of silk into Rome must have
increased very greatly ; for Ammianus Marcellinus, who flourished
a.d. 3S0, expressly states that silk, which had formerly been
confined to the great and rich, was in his time within the purchase of
the common people. Constantinople was founded about forty years
before he wrote, and it naturally found its way there in greater
abundance than it had done when Rome was the capital of the
empire. From this time to the middle of the Gth
 SIL ( 303 ) SIL century we have no particular information
respecting the silk trade of the Roman empire. At this period, during
the reign of Justinian, silk had become an article of very general and
indispensable use : but the Persians had occupied by land and sea
the monopoly of this article ; so the inhabitants of Tyre and Berytus,
who had all along manufactured it for the Roman market, were no
longer able to procure a sufficient supply, even at an extravagant
price. Besides, when the manufactured goods were brought within
the Roman territories, they were subject to a duty of 10 per cent.
Justinian, under these circumstances, very impolitically ordered that
silk should be sold at the rate of eight pieces of gold for the pound,
or aoout three pounds four shillings. The consequence was such as
might have been expected : silk goods were no longer imported,
and, to add to the injustice and the evil, Theodora, the emperor's
wife, seized all the silk and fined the merchants very heavily ; so
that the trade was utterly ruined and the silk supply entirely
stopped. It was therefore necessary that Justinian should have
recourse to some other measure to obtain silk goods ; instead,
however, of restoring the trade of Egypt, which at this period had
fallen into utter decay, and sending vessels directly from the Red Sea
to the Indian markets, where the raw material might have been
procured, he had recourse to Arabia and Abyssinia. According to
Suidas, he wished the former to import the silk in a raw state,
intending to manufacture it on his own dominions ; but th^e King of
Abyssinia declined the offer, as the vicinity of the Persians to the
Indian markets for silk enabled them to purchase it at a cheaper rate
than the Persians could procure it. The same obstacles prevented
the Arabians from complying with the request of Justinian. The
wealthy and luxurious Romans, therefore, must have been deprived
of this elegant material for their dresses, had not their difficulties
been relieved and the silk trade revolutionized by an event, one of
the most romantic and important in the annals of trade. Two Persian
monks sent on a religious embassy to India had penetrated the
country of the Seres, and made themselves acquainted with the
secret of silk production. ' ' There, amidst their pious occupations,
they viewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese,
the manufactures of silk, and the myriads of silkworms, whose
education, either on trees or in houses, had once been considered
the labour of queens. They soon discovered that it was impracticable
to transplant the short-lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous
progeny might be preserved and multiplied in a distant climate."
Actuated either by greed of gain or an honest desire to make their
discovery serve their holy cause, they passed by their own
countrymen, and imparted their knowledge to Justinian, whose
promises induced them to return to procure the necessary supply of
eggs. These they safely obtained, and brought to Constantinople in a
hollow cane in the year 552, where at the proper season they were
hatched by the warmth of manure, and the young worms fed with
leaves of the wild mulberry. The worms were carefully reared,
propagated, and "a caneful of the eggs of an oriental insect thus
became the means of establishing a manufacture which fashion and
luxury had already rendered important, and of saving vast sums
annually to European nations, which in this respect had been so long
dependent on and obliged to submit to the exactions of their
Oriental neighbours." The
 SIL ( 304 ) SIX Romans quickly became proficient in silk
manufacture, so that an embassy which came there in the following
reign, hoping to open up a favourable trade between China and
Rome, finding their trade anticipated, acknowledged that the " outer
barbarians" of those days not only required no silks, but did not
need instruction in the art of making them. This result was perhaps
due to further arbitrary measures on the part of Justinian, who took
the whole trade into his own hands, had it conducted solely under
the management of his treasurer, pressed weavers into his employ,
and fixed the prices at which the fabrics should be sold. " Silks of the
imperial manufacture were sold at prices prodigiously beyond those
which he had formerly prohibited as excessive. An ounce weight of
the fabric thus manufactured could not be obtained under the price
of six pieces of gold. The article was thus rendered eightfold more
expensive than it had been before the silkworm was introduced. This
was the price demanded for common colours ; but when tinged with
the royal hue the fabric immediately assumed a quadruple value.
Under these circumstances of Imperial rapacity the introduction of
silkworms could not have much benefited the Roman people. But the
exclusive rearing of silkworms and the manufacture of their produce
did not long remain a merely royal prerogative. The discovery that
the worm could conduct its labours with as much advantage in
Europe as in the climes where it first became the object of human
attention was quickly made subservient to practical utility, and vast
numbers of these valuable insect labourers were, nourished by their
natural food, successfully reared in different parts of Greece, and
particularly in the Peloponnesus." (Porter.) Here, for over six hundred
years fixed the exclusive home of the silk manufacture in Europe,
until Roger I., King of Sicily, about the year 1130, carried off a
number of artificers in the silk trade from Athens, and setting them
in Palermo, introduced the culture of silk into his kingdom, from
which it was communicated to other parts of Italy (Gianon : History
of Naples), particularly in Calabria. This seems to have rendered silk
so common that about the middle of the 14th century a thousand
citizens of Genoa appeared in one procession clad in silk robes.
Previously to this it had been so scarce and expensive as to form
presents to kings, history recording that Charlemagne, in 790, sent
Offa, King of Mercia, two silken vests ; and Afred is recorded by his
biographer, Asser, to have presented Sighelm, a missionary, with a
robe of silk and as much incense as a strong man could carry. The
success of the Sicilians in silk culture and weaving so greatly excited
the envy of the Venetians, who had formerly enjoyed a monopoly of
the trade through their Eastern commerce, that solely on this
account war between the two countries broke out in 1148. But
Palermo silk-working still throve, running Greek goods out of the
market. With other Italian states, it received great benefit and
accession of wealth through the Crusades. "They not only imported
the Indian commodities from the East, but established manufactures
of curious fabrics in their own country. Several of these are
enumerated by Muratori in his Dissertations concerning tlie Arts and
the Weaving of the Middle Aye*. They made great progress,
particularly in the manufacture of silk, which had long been peculiar
to the eastern provinces of Asia. Silk stuffs were of such high price in
ancient Rome that only a few
 SIL ( 305 ) SIL persons of the first rank were able to
purchase them." (Muratori : Antiq. Ital.) From Italy the trade soon
spread to southern France and Spain, where it was introduced at a
very early period by the Moors, particularly in Murcia, Cordova, and
Granada. At this time it is mentioned as purchased for Henry II., Pro
tribus pannus sericis, eight pounds six shillings, and " for silken
cloths for the King," twenty-eight pounds. Later, John bought "
sundry silken cloths of Spain." The supremacy in silk manufacture
was early in the 13th century acquired by the Venetians — again by
conquest, Constantinople falling 'before their army, assisted by the
leaders of the fourth Crusade. "In the partition of the Greek Empire,
which followed this success, the Venetians obtained part of the
Peloponnesus, where, at this period, silk was manufactured to a
great extent. By this accession, to which was added several of the
largest islands in the Archipelago, their seacoast extended from
Venice to Constantinople ; they likewise purchased the island of
Crete. The whole trade of the eastern Roman Empire was thus at
once transferred to the Venetians, two branches of ■which
particularly attracted their attention — the silk trade and that with
India. The richest and most rare kinds of silk were manufactured at
Constantinople, and to carry on this trade many Venetians settled
themselves in the city, and they soon extended it very considerably,
and introduced the manufacture itself into Venice with so much
success that the silks of Venice equalled those of Greece and Sicily."
To aid in its establishment, the silk manufacture, with two other
trades — glassblowing and drug-compounding — were held not to
be derogatory to gentle blood, and the nobility were allowed to
engage in it without degradation. The wear of silk had by this time
become more general in England, for at the marriage of the
daughter of Henry III. to Alexander, King of Scotland, in 1251,
Matthew Paris states that a thousand knights appeared ' ' in
vestments of silk commonly called cointises," a kind of voluminous
scarf worn about the helmet. These were changed on the following
day for similar garments of different colours, and at the coronation
of Henry and his queen even citizens were present wearing cyclades
worked with gold over vestments of silk. In this reign richer silks —
baudekin, samite, velvet, and ciclatoun — are mentioned, denoting
not only greater display in dress, but greater excellence in
manufacture. In the year 1261 the Greek emperor, aided by the
Genoese, regained Constantinople ; afterwards fearing his friends,
he engaged with the Venetians against them, but the Genoese
proved victorious, and thus acquired a lucrative commerce and the
supremacy in silk. Venice, however, and later Florence also,
continued to prosecute the manufacture vigorously, finding through
Egypt a new outlet of trade. In the beginning of the 14th century
Modena was reputed the principal seat of the silk manufacture,
although in 1300 "many thousand" persons are said to have been
employed in it at Florence. Bologna, Lucca, and Milan also shared in
the trade. In this century is found the earliest historical notice of the
silk manufacture in England, in an Act of Parliament of the 37th year
of Edward III., which restricted different artificers, merchants, and
shopkeepers to the manufacture of or trading in one particular kind
of goods, according to their own choice, which they were required to
make or declare by a certain day named4in the
 SIL ( 306 ) SIL Act, and in which extraordinary restriction
especial exemption is made in favour of female brewers, bakers,
weavers, spinsters, and other women employed upon works in wool,
linen, or silk, in embroidery, &c. ; but the occupation was of so very
little importance, and remained so entirely stationary, that in 1455
the "mystery of silkwomen " was again protected by an Act of
Parliament, forbidding the importation of all wrought silk belonging
to their trade during five years to come ; " which prohibition
proceeded from England, being at that time overstocked by
foreigners, as appears by the following original statute. * Upon the
heavy complaint of the women of the mystery and trade of silk and
thread workers in London, it appeared, or was shown, that divers
Lombards, and other foreigners, enriched themselves by ruining the
said mystery, and all such kinds of industrious occupations of the
women of our Kingdom. These must have probably been only
needleworks of silk and thread, since only women are said to be
concerned in them ; for the broad silk manufacture did not
commence in England till long after this time. " Anderson. The
articles then prohibited, described as similar to the articles made by
the silkwomen, are small wares, such as "twined ribands, chains, or
girdles." This Act was supplemented by another passed eight years
later by Edward IV., which set forth that — " It was shewed in the
said Parliament (to our Sovereign Lord the King, and to the Lords of
the Parliament) by the Silk women and spinsters (Throwesters) of
Silk within the City of London, that divers Lomberds and other
Aliens, Strangers, imagining to destroy their Crafts and all such
virtuous Occupations for Women within this Land, to the Intent to
enrich themselves, and to put such Occupations into other lands,
daily bringing (being nowe daily) into this Realm (of England)
wrought Silk, wrought (throwen) Ribbands, and Laces, falsely and
deceitfully wrought, corses of silk and all manner of other things
touching the same Mysteries and Occupations ready wrought, and
will not bring in any unwrought Silk as these were wont to do, to the
final Destruction of the said Mysteries and Occupations." Therefore it
was ordained and established that all such goods, if imported,
should be forfeited, and that every seller of them should forfeit for
every default ten pounds ; the Mayor of London being empowered to
appoint persons to make diligent search for the same. The
prohibited articles include fringes of silk, silk twined, silk in anywise
embroidered, purses, gloves, and girdles, and tires of silk or gold.
This was again followed in 1482 by two statutes forbidding the
importation or wearing of "ribbands, laces, corses, girdles, callisilk
(Calais silk), or colleinsilk (Cologne silk), twined," under forfeiture
thereof or their value ; and yet again in 1504 was passed another
prohibitory Act "For Silkewomen," providing " That none brynge into
this realme to be solde any sylke wrought out of thys realme by
itself or wyth other stuf in rybandys, luces, gyrdyls, corses, calles,
corses of tyssue or poyntes upon forfeytor thereof, or the valew of
the game in whose handys eoeuer they be found And that al
persons as well straungcrs as other may brynge in all other manor
sylke as well wrought as raw or unwrought to sell at theyr plesur."
Bacon, in his History of Henry VII., says that all these small articles "
the people of England could then well skill to make," but that all *
This statute is not included among the printed Acts of Parliament.
 SIL ( 307 ) SIL other silken fabrics were permitted
unrestricted importation, " for that the realm had of them no
manufacture in use at that time. " About this time the silk industry
became firmly established in France. Attempts made at Lyons in
1450 and at Tours in 1470 had proved futile, but now in 1521
workmen were brought from the newlyacquired Duchy of Milan, and
settled at Lyons ; " but it was not till 1564 that they began
successfully to produce the silk itself, when Traucat, a working
gardener at Nismes, formed the first nursery of white mulberry
trees, and with such success that in a few years he wa3 .enabled to
propagate them over many of the southern provinces of France.
Prior to this time some French noblemen, on their return from the
conquest of Naples, had introduced a few silkworms with the
mulberry into Dauphigny, but the business had not prospered in their
hands. The mulberry plantations were greatly encouraged by Henry
IV., and since then they have been the source of most beneficial
employment to the French people." (Ure.) Silk appears to have about
the middle of the 16th century come into common wear in England,
for a sumptuary law of 1554 threatened pains and penalties to all
those below the position of magistrates of corporations who should
"wear silk in or upon his or her hat, bonnet, girdle, scabbard, hose,
shoes, or spur leather," and we find it used, not only for the
stockings of Elizabeth and her Court, but also for linings. Thynne in
his poem, A Debate between Pride and Ifowliness, speaks of a
doublet " of sat tin very fine, And it was cut and stitched very thiek ;
Of silk I had a costly enterlyne." The manufacture of woven fabrics
commenced in this country, and was " first practis'd in London by
Foreigners." There are traces of their being associated in a
fellowship in the year 1562, although they were not incorporated
until 1629, the Company of Silkmen also being granted a Charter
three years later by Charles I. For a long period prior to this date the
principal trade in silk had been carried on by the Netherlanders, but
Bologna, Venice, Milan, Florence, and Genoa are shown by
Guicciardini as the places where the principal supplies of wrought
silks were derived, and the raw material from Naples and Sicily. But
early in the 17th century the English appear as having a share in this
traffic. The Merchant's Map oj Commerce, 1638, showing the East
India Company importing both raw and wrought silks from India and
Persia, the Turkey Company bringing in th raw silks of Damasco,
Persia, Tripoly, &c, and a number of private traders return from the
Mediterranean ports satins, tabins, taffetas, plushes, and velvets.
The manufacture of broad silk fabrics began "in earnest" in the latter
part of King James I.'s reign; " For which end, one Mr. Burlamach, a
merchant much employed n those times by that prince, by his
direction brought from abroad silk throwsters, silk dyers, and broad
weavers ; which manufacture has, in process of time, proved so
extremely advantageous to the nation, and is so very considerable in
our days, as to be thought to employ no fewer than at least 50,000
people in all its branches, and some think half as many more." Mr.
Munn, in his Treatise (A Discourse of Trade, 1621), says, that even
then many hundreds of people were continually x 2
 SIL ( 308 ) SIL employed in winding, twisting, and weaving
of silk in London. The anonymous author of an ingenious pamphlet,*
in quarto, published in 16S1 (said to have been Sir Josiah Child),
gives it as his opinion, "that throughout Christendom, generally
speaking, there are more men and women employed in silk
manufactures than in woollen." In which we must beg leave to differ
from him ; as also in another assertion in that piece, viz., "that, the
number of families already (1681) employed therein in England
amounted to above 40,000." ( Axdersox. )+ It is, however, certain
that, whatever the exact number of persons employed may have
been, that the manufacture at this period assumed large dimensions,
as may be gathered from a proclamation issued by Charles I., in
1630, setting forth "that the trade in silk within this realm, by the
importation thereof raw from foreign parts, and throwing, dyeing,
and working the same into manufactures here at home, is much
increased within a few years past. But a fraud in the dyeing thereof
being lately discovered by adding to the weight of silk in the dye
beyond a just proportion, by a false and deceitful mixture in the
ingredients used in dyeing, whereby also the silk is weakened and
corrupted, and the colour made worse ; wherefore we strictly
command, that no silk dyer do hereafter use any slip, alder, bark,
filings of iron, or other deceitful matter, in dyeing silk, either black or
coloured ; that no silk shall be dyed of any other black than Spanish
black, and not of the dye called London black, or light-weight ;
neither shall they dye any silk before the gum be fair boiled off from
the silk, being raw." The same monarch, in the year 1638, issued
directions removing, in part the prohibitions imposed by his former
proclamation, and ' ' permitting such silk to be dyed upon the gum,
commonly called hard silk, as was proper for making tufted taffetas,
figured satins, fine slight ribands, and ferret ribands, both black and
coloured ; " and as his reason for this departure from his former
directions stated, with a degree of candour not always admitted into
the edicts of princes, that he had now become better informed upon
the subject. This order further directed that no stuffs made of or
mixed with silk should be imported if of a less breadth than a full
half yard, nail and half-nail, on pain of forfeiture. In another
proclamation issued by him for the reforming of abuses which it was
alleged had crept into practice in the manufacture and breadth of
silks, the Weavers' Company were empowered to admit into their
commonalty a competent number of such persons, whether
strangers or natives, as had exercised the trade of weaving for one
year at least before the date of a new charter then recently granted
to that company, provided the parties so a< ' ritted should be
conformable to the laws of the realm, and to the constitution of the
Church of England. (Porter.) The Book of Rates shows imports of
Naples and Granada raw silk, of China silk, Bruges silk, Ferret or
Floret silk, Fillozell or Paris silk, Pole and Spanish silk, Organzine,
Morea silk, sattin silk, sleeve silk, * A Treatise wherein is
demonstrated that the East India Trade is the most national of all
Trades. f The preamble to an Act passed in 1661, for regulating the
trade of silk throwing, observes that, " the said Company of silk
throwsters employ above forty thousand men, women, and children
therein."
 SIL ( 309 ) SIL thrown silk, and nubs, and of wrought
Italian and Indian silk. These latter were charged with differential
duties upon their being brought over in English-built ships. " English
throne silk " was also exported, as well as " other silk manufactures
made of silk onely, or of silk and worsted, or of silk and thred, or
hair." The demand for silk at this time seems to have been very
large, so much so that the East India Company sent out throwsters,
weavers, and dyers " to teach the Indians to please the European
fancies."* (Discourse on Trade, 1696.) A complaint is made by a
writer of that time that : " The English formerly wore or used little
Silk in City or Countrey, only Persons of Quality pretended to it ; but
as our National Gaudery hath increased, it grew more and more into
mode, and is now become the Common Wear, nay, the" ordinary
material for Bedding, Hanging of Rooms, Carpets, Lining of Coaches,
and other things ; and our Women, who generally govern in this
Case, must have Foreign Silks ; for these have got the Name, and in
truth are most curious, and perhaps better wrougbt, as being most
Encouraged. Of tbe same humour are tbeir Gallants, and such as
they can influence, and most others." (Britannia Languens ; or, a
Discourse of Trade, 1680.) A considerable impulse was given to the
English silk manufacture by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in
1685, when large numbers of the Protestant artisans sought refuge
here, and among them a large company of silk weavers. " An entire
suburb of London was peopled with French manufacturers of silk,"
says Voltaire^ alluding to Spitalfields, although there were besides
some thousands who settled in St. Giles's and Soho, with others who
were dispersed about the country. One section established
themselves at Canterbury, bringing there the manufacture to that
perfection that, according to Camden, "the silks wove at Canterbury
equal, if not exceed, any foreign silk whatsoever, great quantities
being sent to London, where it is very much esteemed by the
merchants." (Brittania.) Others formed colonies at Norwich and
Coventry. The refugees lost no opportunity of furthering their
interests, and acquired in 1692 a monopoly of alamodes (see
Alamode), procured in 1697 by their clamour the prohibition of
French fabrics, and in 1701 a further prohibition of Chinese, Persian,
and Indian goods. This latter Act, "for the more effectual employing
the poor," commanded even the re-exportation of those stuffs,
together with all coloured foreign calicoes, "so as none of the said
goods should be worn or used, in either apparel or furniture, in
England on forfeiture thereof, and also of two hundred pounds
penalty on the persons having or selling any of them." The weavers,
in 1713, presented a petition to Parliament against a commercial
treaty with France, in which they stated, "that by the
encouragement of the Crown, and of divers Acts of Parliament, the
silk manufacture is come to be above twenty times as great as it was
in the year 1664 ; and that all sorts of as good black and coloured
silks, gold and silver stuffs and ribands, are now made here as in
France. The black silk for hoods and scarfs, not made here above
twenty-five years ago, hath amounted annually to above £300,000
for several years past, which before were imported from France.
Which increase of the silk manufacture hath caused an increase of
our exportation of woollen goods to Turkey, * This was afterwards
denied by the Company before the Privy Council, 4< Excepting only
as to one or two Dyers usually sent to Bengal."
 SIL ( 310 ) SIL Italy, &c. " There is the more reason to give
credence to this ex parte statement in that a work published in
1721, entitled The British Merchant, substantiates the assertions
made as to the advancement of the silk trade during the period
indicated. Up to this time the silk machinery here was so ineffective
that our main supply of organzine was derived from Italy. An
attempt made at Derby early in the 18th century, by a person named
Crochet, to introduce silk machinery had failed ; but more success
attended the efforts of John Lombe. The story of his perseverance
and reward is pretty well known : how he visited Italy, assuming the
disguise of a common workman, and by bribing two workmen of the
mill at which he obtained employment, procured a view of the
machinery in private and when it was not at work, so making himself
thoroughly conversant with all its parts ; how, being found out just
at the time when his researches were complete, he had to flee for
his life, accompanied by his accomplices. The little party landed in
1717, and two years later a large mill had been erected on the river
Derwent at Derby, and a patent was granted to him by an Act^ of
Parliament (5 George I.) for the sole and exclusive property in the
same for fourteen years. This mill was regarded with much
wonderment and admiration. A contemporary account says of the
machinery, that by it — " One Hand will Wist as much Silk as before
could be done by 50, and that in a truer and better Manner : This
Engine contains 26,586 Wheels, and 97,746 Movements, which work
73,726 Yards of Silk-Thread, every Time the WaterWheel goes round,
which is three Times in one Minute, and 318,504,960 Yards in one
Day and Night. One Water-Wheel gives Motion to all the rest of the
Wheels and Movements, of which any one may be stopped
separately. One Fire-Engine likewise conveys warm Air to every
individual Part of the Machine, and the whole Work is governed by
one Regulator. The House which contains this Engine is of a vast
Bulk, and five or six Stories high." This account further states that —
" The requisite Buildings and Engines, and the instructing proper
Persons to work them, took up so much Time, and when all was
completed, the King of Sardinia prohibiting the Importation of Raw
Silk made by the said Engines, into his Dominions, all which
rendered the Undertaking expensive and difficult, and the Term of
14 Years being near elapsed, without any great Benefit accruing
from the useful Invention, Sir Thomas apply' d for a Consideration
from the Publick ; and the Parliament accordingly, to preserve so
useful an Undertaking for the Benefit of the Kingdom in general,
allotted 14,O0OZ. to be paid to Sir Tlwmas, on Condition that he
should allow a perfect Model to be taken of his new-invented
Engines, in order to secure and perpetuate the Art of making the
same. The Preamble to this Act sets forth, that Sir Tlwmas Lombe
did with the utmost Difficulty and Hazard, and at a very great
Expence, discover the Art of making and working the three Capital
Engines made Use of by the Italians to make their Organzine Silk,
and did introduce those Arts and Inventions into this Kingdom." For
the encouragement of this manufacture there was passed, in 1721,
an Act granting bounties on the exportation of home-made silken
stuffs and ribands, and mixed stuffs of silk and grogram, silk and
inkle or cotton, and silk and worsted, counteracting in favour of the
home manufacturer heavy duties, which had two years previous
been imposed on foreign organzine. In the former year also the
importation of printed Indian calicoes was again prohibited, " To
preserve and encourage the
 SIL ( 311 ) SIL Woollen and Silk Manufactures, " and
another Act of the same year, " For encouraging the consumption of
Raw Silk and Mohair Yarn." Buttons or button-holes of cloth or other
stuff were forbidden. In 1749 the duties paid on raw silk brought in
by the East India Company from China were reduced to the same
rates as were paid on Italian silk, and an Act passed encouraging the
growth of silk in Georgia and South Carolina, by admitting it into
London duty free. The promise afforded at one time by the
introduction of silk culture into these colonies was checked almost as
soon as formed by the greater growth of cotton planting. The worst
evil to which the industry was exposed was the extensive practice of
smuggling — a practice so lucrative, in consequence of the high
duties, that the "Owiers," as they were called, defied all official
vigilance and* disregarded all threats of punishment. " The French
writers estimate the average exportation of silks from France to
England, during the period from 1688 to 1741, at about 12,500,000
francs, or 500,000Z. a year. In 1763 attempts were made to check
the prevalence of smuggling ; and the silk mercers of the metropolis,
to show their anxiety to forward the scheme, are said to have
recalled their orders for foreign goods. It would seem, however,
either that their patriotic ardour had very soon cooled, or that they
had been supplanted by others not quite so scrupulous, for it
appears from a report of a committee of the Privy Council, appointed
in 1766 to inquire into the subject, that smuggling was then carried
on to a greater extent than ever, and that 7,072 looms were out of
employment. The same committee reported, that though the French
were decidedly superior to us in some branches of the trade, we
were quite equal, and even superior to them in others ; but instead
of proposing, consistently with their report, to admit French silks on
a reasonable duty — a measure which would have proved very
advantageous to those branches of the manufacture in which we
were superior, or nearly equal, to the French, without doing any
material injury to the others, which were already in the most
depressed condition — they recommended the continuance of the
old system ; substituting absolute prohibitions in the place of the
prohibitory duties that formerly existed. Whatever immediate
advantages the manufacturers might have reaped from this
measure, the ultimate tendency of which could not fail of being most
injurious, were effectually countervailed by the turbulent
proceedings of the workmen, who succeeded, in 1773, in obtaining
from the Legislature an Act which, by itself, was quite sufficient to
have destroyed even a prosperous trade. This, which has been
commonly called the Spitalfields Act, entitled the weavers of
Middlesex to demand a fixed price for their labour, which should be
settled by the magistrates,* and while both masters and men were
restricted from giving or receiving" more or less than the fixed price,
the manufacturers were liable in heavy penalties if they employed
weavers out of the district. The monopoly which the manufacturers
had hitherto enjoyed, though incomplete, had had sufficient
influence to render inventions and discoveries of comparatively rare
occurrence in the silk trade ; but the Spitalfields Act extinguished
every germ of improvement. Parliament, in its wisdom, having seen
fit to enact that a manufacturer should be obliged to pay as much
for work done by the best machinery as if it were done by hand, it
would have been folly to have thought of attempting anything new.
It is not, however, to be denied that Macclesfield, Manchester,
Norwich, Paisley, &c, are under obligations to this Act. Had it
extended to the whole kingdom it would have totally extirpated the
manufacture, but being confined to Middlesex, it gradually drove the
most valuable branches from Spitalfields to places where the rate of
wages was * Extended by 32 Geo. III. to include manufactures of
silk mixed with other materials, and by 52 Geo. III. to include female
weavers.
 SIL ( 312 ) S1L determined by the competition of the
parties, on the principle of mutual interest and compromised
advantage. After having done incalculable mischief, the Act was
repealed in 1824. Had it continued down to the present day, it would
not have left employment in the metropolis for a single silk weaver. "
But, as the effects of this Act did not immediately manifest
themselves, it was at first exceedingly popular. About 1785, however,
the substitution of cottons in the place of silk gave a severe check to
the manufacture, and the weavers then began to discover the real
nature of the Spitalfields Act. Being interdicted from working at
reduced wages, they were totally thrown out of employment ; so
that, in 1793, upwards of 4,000 Spitalfields looms were quite idle. In
1798 the trade began to revive ; and continued to extend slowly till
1815 and 1816, when the Spitalfields weavers were again involved in
sufferings far more extensive and severe than at any former period."
(McCulloch.) The duties at the time of their repeal, in 1826, upon silk
were on raw silk 5s. 6d. per lb., or 4s. per lb. if brought from British
territories in the East Indies; thrown silk not dyed 14s. 8d., or dyed
£2 5s. 6d. per lb. ; knubs, or waste silk, £22 8s. per cwt., or £21 if
the produce of British territories in the East Indies. All manufactured
goods were absolutely prohibited. These rates were reduced to 5s.
on organzine and 3d. per lb. on other raw silk, while fabrics of silk
were admitted on a scale ranging from 25 to 40 per cent, ad
valorem, rates afterwards altered to waste silk, Is. per lb. ; raw, Id.
per lb. ; thrown silk, undyed, from Is. 6d. to 3s. 6d per lb. ; and
thrown silk, dyed, 3s. and 5s. 2d. per lb. In 1845 the duties on raw
and thrown silk were totally abolished, and the duty on fabrics
reduced to 15 per cent, ad valorem. The primary change was
announced in 1824, but did not take effect until 1826. During the
interval provided to allow our manufacturers to make preparations
for the change the French had been accumulating a large stock of
goods to pour into our markets. To quiet the alarm occasioned by
this circumstance, a singular device was fallen upon. The French had
long been accustomed to manufacture their goods of a certain
length ; and in the view of rendering their accumulated stock unfit
for our markets, a law was passed in 1826, prohibiting the
importation of any silks except such as were of entirely different
lengths from those commonly manufactured by the French ! No one
can regret that this wretched trick, for it deserves no better name,
entirely failed in its object. The French manufacturers immediately
commenced, with redoubled zeal, the preparation of goods of the
legitimate length ; and the others, having become unsaleable at
anything like fair prices, were bought up by the smugglers, and
imported, almost entirely, into this country. Elaborate statistics have
from time to time been marshalled to illustrate the manufacture of
silk, particularly for the comparison of the state of the industry in
this with other countries. Similar tables fully portraying the present
commerce in silk, giving the price of silk, the sources whence it is
derived, the countries in which it is worked up, with values in each
case, will be found in a paper furnished by the Secretary of the Silk
Supply Association to the series of essays on British Manufacturimj
Industries, and may be advantageously studied. Numerous efforts
have at various times been made to establish silk culture in England,
but they have uniformly ended in failure. Theoretically silkworms
ought to flourish in this country ; practically they will not.
 SIL ( 313 ) SIZ SILK COTTON TREE {Bombax Ceiba). The
largest of a species of trees found in South America and the West
Indies, the seed capsules of which contain a kind of soft glossy
down, which has proved too short and springy to be used in
weaving. It is employed to a limited degree in upholstery, and has
been used for stuffing chairs and pillows, but is believed to be
unwholesome to lie upon. From the bark of another tree of the same
species ropes are made. SINDON. A fabric in use so early as the
Babylonian era. Some writers have interpreted the term to then
denote dyed cotton cloths, -but it more probably was applied to a
fine linen. The same difficulty and doubt occurred in translating the
works of Roman writers (see Byssus). A passage in the CJiarta
Mercatoria allows foreign merchants, upon paying a subsidy of
threepence for every pound of value dealt in, to bring in and sell "
Cloth of Tarsen, of Silk, of Cindatis, of Hair, and divers others
Merchandizes," where Cindatis is said to be Sindonibus — Lawn,
Cambrick, or other Fine Linen {vide a reprint of this Act, 1671).
Sindon, or Syndone, was also one of the transitional names of
cendal, a silk stuff (see Cendal), so that the use of the term is in
many instances confusing. Among the goods exported duty free in
1382 for the use of the Pope were "one entire robe lined with
syndone," "one tabardum with supertunic and hood lined with blue
syndone ; " and in these instances we may take it for granted that
syndone was a thin silken fabric, akin to sarcenet. SIZING. A process
in the manufacture of cotton, which began in necessity, but has
ended in something very like dishonesty. The early cotton weavers in
this country soon found that the threads became injured and frayed
by contact with the machinery, and, frail even at the first, became so
fragile by rubbing against reeds and shuttles that breakages became
so frequent as to cause serious loss of time, through stopping the
loom to pick up and join anew the severed ends. This evil was in
some measure remedied by rubbing the yarn with a mixture of paste
and grease, the weaver leaving off now and again to dress a fresh
length of yarn. After the establishment of the power-loom the
inconvenience and loss were still felt, even in a greater degree, and
several attempts were made to meet the difficulty, but without
effect, until a dressing machine for preparing the whole of the warp
before weaving was produced at Stockport by a weaver named
Johnson, in the employ of Messrs. Radcliffe and Ross, cotton
manufacturers. Johnson invented the machine, but it was perfected
and established by the senior partner of the firm. This machine only
gave the threads such consistency as made them stable in weaving,
and did not in any way load the material with unnecessary
ingredients : the present sizing of warps frequently adds 100 per
cent, to the weight of the original cotton. There can be as little
question as to the immorality of the practice as to the injurious
effects which must undoubtedly ensue to our trade, through the
manufacture of these heavily-sized fabrics. Yet there are some who
pan defend the practice, and maintain, as does Dr. Thompson, of
Manchester, that " it has been so long practised, and is so universally
known, that all purchasers must be aware of it, and of course not in
any danger of being deceived. ... It certainly
 SIZ ( 314 ) SIZ serves the purpose of making the goods
appear much more beautiful, and of a stouter fabric to the eye ; and
as long as they continue unwashed they are really stronger than
they would be without this artificial dressing. So far it is beneficial,
and, as it does not enhance the price, the purchasers have no
reason to complain of imposition." A most elaborate defence of the
practice was offered by the same gentleman in a paper read before
the Society of Arts, and afterwards embodied in a work upon the
subject. The paper gives as full an account as can be desired of the
materials and processes employed, as the following extract will
prove. The materials used for sizing purposes are divided by Mr.
Thompson into five groups : " 1. For giving adhesive properties to
size. Wheaten flour of various kinds. Sago. Farina. Indian corn
starch. Rice. Dextrine or British gum. 1. Materials used to give
iveiglit and body to the yarn. China clay. Sulphate of magnesia.
Sulphate of baryta. Silicate of magnesia „ lime (Soapstone). „
magnesia. Silicate of soda. 3. Oily or greasy matter used for '
softening ' the size and yarn. Tallow of various kinds. Castor oil.
Bleached palm oil. Olive and other oils. Cocoa-nut oil. Paraffin wax.
Beeswax composition. 4. Oilier substances used for softening and
giving weight and body to the size and yarn. Chloride of magnesium.
Glycerine. „ calcium. Soap. Grape sugar. 5. For preserving the size
from mildew and decomposition. Chloride of zinc. Carbolic acid. Salts
of arsenic, &c." "In the first-mentioned class of materials the most
commonly-used substance is Egyptian flour, because, as a rule, that
is the cheapest flour which can be purchased ; but in selecting a
substance from the first, or ' adhesive,' class the manufacturer ought
to take into consideration the purpose for which it is required. If he
intends to manufacture cloths for what they call the home trade,
most of which are sold direct to the bleacher or calico printer, then
size is required which will give strength to the warp without giving it
much weight, because a bleacher always finds how much size cloth
contains, and therefore his balance and weight are sure to keep an
accurate account with the manufacturer ; because, if he buys a lot
of pieces of cloth, each weighing eight and a quarter pounds, which
is a common standard of weight, and finds after he has washed and
bleached them that each weighs only five or six pounds, he knows
there is something wrong, not only in having bought two or three
pounds of size instead of cotton in each piece, but that the extra
work and materials required to separate that stulVfrom the cotton
have made the small amount of cotton he has left additionally
expensive. If it be desired to put as little size on the threads of the
warp as possible, a composition should be made by using farina as
an adhesive,
 SIZ ( 315 ) SIZ because a much smaller proportion of this
ingredient will produce a size having the required ' consistency ' or *
body,' and the threads can therefore only absorb a small proportion
of it. If, again, it be desired to put a large amount of size on the
yarn, then wheaten flour is best adapted for this purpose, because
an equal weight of it will boil to a much thinner liquid, and therefore
the warp or yarn will be able to absorb into it much larger
proportions. For the same reason, if it be desired to introduce a
material giving greater weight, such as China clay, then wheaten
flour is best adapted for fixing it to the thread ; and where a
specially large proportion of clay is required to be fixed in the fabric
English wheaten flour is better adapted for the purpose than
Egyptian flour, because it contains a much larger proportion of
gluten, and that ingredient has strong adhesive properties. The
starchy matter which has perhaps least adhesive properties is rice,
and this ingredient is often used to adulterate wheaten starch ; and
so this is one of many causes of annoyance to which the sizer or
manufacturer is subjected. Having bought flour, with which he mixes
China clay and other ingredients in certain proportions, he finds that
he is able to produce a size which gives him all he requires, viz., the
desired weight of size, which sticks well on the yarn, and appears to
the uninitiated as if the cloth made from it were quite free from any
sophistications ; but, unfortunately for the manufacturer, his supply
of flour becomes exhausted, and he is forced to purchase more,
andkpossibly he buys not pure flour, but flour adulterated with finely-
ground rice ; he uses this mixture for his size, and the result is, to
express it in his own words, he ' gets wrong. ' When the warp is
undergoing the process of weaving, the China clay, not being fixed
firmly by the adulterated flour, flies off, forming a cloud of dust in
the weaving shed, and when the cloth is produced it is found not to
be sufficiently heavy ; and not only so, but the uninitiated would be
very apt to say that the fabric had been much sophisticated, because
when shaken the sophistication would reveal its presence by coming
out in a cloud of dust. It is important, then, that the manufacturer
should test each sample of flour which he buys, that he may be