In 1661 the silk throwsters petitioned parliament, in order to obtain the legisla tive sanction to some regulations that were thought necessary for the security of their trade, which they asserted em ployed above forty thousand men, women, and children ; and, in consequence of this application, the privileges of the compa ny were extended to twenty miles round London ; and it was enacted, that none should set up the trade of a silk-throw ster, but such as had served seven years' apprenticeship to it, and should make themselves free of the company.
In 1680 the Weavers' Company peti tioned the House of Commons against the importation 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 thin* was done in consequence of this application. The Turkey Company about the same time renewed a complaint they bad before made at different times against the East India Company, for im porting raw silk ; this article having for merly been wholly imported from Tur key, and being a valuable branch of the commerce of that company, which they were now rapidly losing, it induced them soon after to make a formal com plaint to the Privy Council ; on which occasion, among other assertions, they denominated the new silk which had been imported from Bengal, "a deceit ful sort of raw silk." The India Company, unable wholly to deny this charge, con tented themselves with saying, that, with respect to the quality of Bengal silk, it was, like all other commodities, good, bad, and indifferent ; and rested their defence 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 sheep's 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 com panies for the importation of raw silk proves that it was a valuable branch of trade ; and it appears that the manufac ture was increasing rapidly ; but nothing contributed so much to its full establish ment in this country, as the cruel per. secution of the Protestant Christians in France, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Of the multitudes who fled at that period, upwards of fifty thousand took refuge in England, 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 lus trings, which articles had hitherto been imported from France; they also instruct ed our weavers in brocades, satins, man tuas, and velvets. Soon after the revo
lution, in consequence of the war, an act was passed prohibiting all trade and com merce with France, a measure which must have co-operated very materially 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 grant ed them, and soon brought this branch to the greatest perfection ; upon which, about five years after, foreign lustrings 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 the change of fashion this com pany came to nothing. In 1697, the weav ers of London became very tumultuous, on account of the great quantities of silks, stained 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 wearing of these foreign goods, and the House of Lords heard counsel and wit nesses for and against it : the India Com pany on this occasion engaged the cele brated Dr. Davenant to write in their de fence, who, in his essay on the East India Trade, asserted, that since the goods im ported by the Company had been in use, the price of silks from France, Spain, and Italy, had fallen at least twenty-five per cent ; and endeavoured to show, that the intended prohibition would be destructive to the India trade in general, and hazard its being utterly lost to this country The contention between the old and new East India Companies greatly increased the importation of India wrought silks and calicoes, and the wear of them became universal, till prohibited by an act of par liament passed in 1700.