The scarcity and consequent value of silk, when it was first introduced at Rome, may be estimated by the fact, that more than two hundred years after that time, the Emperor Aurelian refused his Empress a garment of this material, on account of its immense price, twelve ounces of gold being the charge for one pound of Silk. It was not till the year 552, that the eggs of the insect, by which the silk is produced, were brought into Europe. Two monks employed as missionaries, had succeeded in penetrating into the Chinese Empire, and having obtained a thorough knowledge of the whole process of rearing the silk-worm, and manufacturing the silk, they on their return, repaired to Constantinople, and gave an account of their enterprise to the Emperor Justinian. Induced by the offer of a great reward, they once more returned to China, and succeeded, after many efforts, in eluding the vigilance of that suspicious people, and bringing to Constantinople a number of the eggs of the silk-worm, concealed in the head of a walking-cane; these were hatched by the heat of a hot-bed, and being afterwards carefully fed and attended to, the experiment, which had cost these enterprising men so much toil, was perfectly successful, and the cultivation of the silk-worm became very general over the whole of Greece. In the year 1146, we still find the management of these useful creatures, and the manufacture of their spoils, in Europe, confined to the Greek Empire.
In 947, Roger, the first King of Sicily, invaded Greece, and having sacked the cities of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, led into captivity a considerable number of silk-weavers, whom he forcibly settled at Palermo, obliging them to instruct his subjects in the art, and in twenty years, the Sicilian silks are said to have attained great excellence, from the variety of patterns in which they were wrought. The manufacture of this important article, gradually spread through the whole of Italy and Spain, but it was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century, in the reign of Francis the First, that it was introduced into France. In 1554, while its manufacture was yet but little known in England, a curious law was passed by the tyrannical Mary, for the purpose of assisting the consumption of home productions, by which it was enacted, "that whoever shall wear silk, in or upon his or her hat, bonnet, or girdle, scabbard, hose, shoes, or spur-leather, shall be imprisoned during three months, and forfeit ten pounds," making, however, a few exceptions in favour of persons of distinction. The manufacture of stockings from silk, appears about this time to have been making some progress, although, in this country at least, they were considered a peculiar rarity, for that luxurious and expensive Prince, Henry the Eighth, was obliged to wear cloth hose, except when, by great chance, he was able to obtain from Spain, a pair of silk stockings for gala days.
The Broad-Silk manufacture in England, had its origin in the following occurrence. In the year 1585, the Duke of Parma, governor of the Netherlands, then in the possession of Spain, having taken the city of Antwerp, where a large and flourishing manufactory existed, consigned it during three days, to unchecked plunder and destruction: the ruin of this noble city was a death-blow to the commerce of Flanders, and its flourishing manufactures were dispersed over different countries. A large portion of the manufacturers and merchants, employed in the silk trade, took refuge in England, where they ultimately settled, and taught the art they had imported. For many years, however, foreign goods were preferred to those of English make, but still improvements were constantly and steadily taking place, and, at the present time, the fabrics of this country are fully equal, if not superior to those of any other nation.
A curious occurrence, showing the perfection to which the English fabric has arrived, took place in 1824. A French manufacturer came over to England, and settled in London; a feeling of jealousy seems to have arisen against him, and it was broadly hinted that his manufactory was merely a cloak for the purpose of smuggling French silks. An inquiry was instituted, and his premises searched, when thirty-seven pieces of goods were seized, and condemned as foreign; and it was only after producing the individuals by whom they had actually been made, that he was able to remove the impression that they had been smuggled.
In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the persecution of the protestants in France, compelled many merchants, manufacturers and workmen to take refuge in England. Of these, a large number who had been employed in the silk manufacture resorted to Spitalfields, and at the present time, descendants of these emigrants may be found on the spot, engaged in the same employment. About the end of the sixteenth century, the Rev. William Lea, of St. John's College, Cambridge, invented a machine for the purpose of knitting stockings, by which the work was so much improved that vast quantities were exported, and their being of English manufacture was considered, in foreign countries, as a recommendation of their good qualities. About the same time, Henry the Fourth of France was making great exertions to extend the cultivation and manufacture of silk in his empire. To attain this end, he offered every facility to enterprising men, and, as an extraordinary inducement, proffered patents of nobility to such large manufacturers as should support their establishments successfully for the period of twelve years. He also extended the cultivation of the worm over the whole of France; but, probably on account of the climate, was obliged to abandon his plans in all but the more southern departments.
The success of the French king caused, at the time, many attempts to breed the worms to be made in England, but they all appear to have been unsuccessful, and the same result attended experiments made in our American colonies. In the year 1825, a company was formed, entitled 'the British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company;' about eighty acres of ground were purchased near Michelstown, in the county of Cork, and the whole were planted with white mulberry-trees. The rearing of the worms was confided to an experienced foreigner, Count Dandolo, but, from some reason or other, the undertaking was abandoned. The cause of such repeated failures is not thoroughly understood; the severity of the climate has been assigned as a reason, but silk has been successfully produced in some parts of Prussia, and the climate of Pekin, in China, is colder than that of Scotland. But whatever success might attend an experiment of the sort, it is clear that, in a mercantile point of view, the project would never succeed, on account of the number of hands that would be required, and the higher rate of wages. In several parts of the East Indies, the silk-worm has been introduced, as might have been expected, with complete success; and, in Bengal alone, the factories find employment for upwards of two hundred thousand persons.
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE WORM.
Silk is the production of a species of Moth, called the Phalæna mori or Mulberry moth, and its original locality, as we have already stated, appears to have been China or Persia. The changes that butterflies or moths undergo, having already been described at page 212 of Vol. II., it will be needless to repeat them. The substance which the animal spins to protect itself when in the Pupa state, is the silk, which, before it is dyed or bleached, is of a bright yellow colour more or less inclining to orange. The Silk-worm in not the only creature that produces substances of this description, for many other kinds of butterflies and moths do the same; a kind of silk has also been manufactured from the webs of spiders, and as they require less attention than the Silk-worms, the plan might have answered, had it not been for the ravenous appetites of the little spinners, who, when brought together in any quantity very speedily devour each other. Certain shell-fish also produce a kind of silky thread; as, for instance, the muscle, but more particularly the pinna, a large kind of shell-fish found in the Mediterranean and other seas.
The time that elapses while the silk-worm is undergoing its changes, varies according to the warmth of the weather, and the quantity of nourishment with which it is supplied; the Chinese, who are very particular on this head, take the greatest pains to supply the little creature with food, as on this they say depends the quantity of silk which the worm will produce. They calculate that the same number of insects, which would, if they had attained their full size, in from twenty-three to twenty-five days, produce twenty-five ounces of silk, would only yield twenty ounces if their growth occupied twenty-eight days, and only ten ounces if forty days. During the first twenty-four hours of the creature's existence, the patient Chinese feeds the objects of his care forty-eight times, or once every half hour, and during the second day and night thirty times, and so on, reducing the number of meals as the worms grow older; the care bestowed on their culture, and the numerous precautions taken to preserve them clean and warm, are curiously expressed in the following extract from on old Chinese work on the subject.
"The place where their habitation is built must be retired, free from noisome smells, cattle and all noises; a noisome smell, or the least fright, make great impressions upon so tender a breed; even the barking of dogs and the crowing of cocks are capable of putting them in disorder, when they are newly hatched.
"For the purpose of paying them every attention, an affectionate mother is provided for the worms, who is careful to supply their wants; she is called Isan-mon, mother of the worms. She takes possession of the chamber, but not till she has washed herself and put on clean clothes, which have not the least ill smell; she must not have eaten any thing immediately before, or have handled any wild succory, the smell of which is very prejudicial to these tender creatures; she must be clothed in a plain habit, without any lining, that she may be more sensible of the warmth of the place, and accordingly increase or lessen the fire, but she must carefully avoid making a smoke or raising a dust, which would be very offensive to these tender creatures, which must be carefully humoured before the first time of casting their slough. Every day is to them a year, and has in a manner the four seasons; the morning is the spring, the middle of the day the summer, the evening the autumn, and the night the winter."