From Constantinople sericulture spread over the Balkans and the looms of Constantinople, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, etc., were kept busy with the product. The Byzantine silk fabrics became famous and was much used for ec clesiastical purposes, vestments, etc. The By zantine looms declined in the 8th and 9th cen turies, but those of Thebes and other Grecian cities, as also of Syria increased their produc tion and improved their methods of manufac ture. The Greeks maintained their supremacy until the fall of the Eastern Empire in the 12th century; but the Arabs and Saracen princes carried their knowledge of the manufacture into northern Africa, Spain and Portugal and to Sicily. The production of Spain and Sicily was very considerable as early as the 1 1 th century, and when the Normans conquered Sicily a century later they encouraged the silk industry. King Roger, first Norman king of Sicily, in 1146 invaded Greece and took captive a large number of silk-weavers whom he con strained to settle in Palermo and Calabria and to teach his people the Greek methods of silk culture. Venice and Genoa followed Roger's example in the 13th century. Other cities took up the new manufacture and Italy acquired a prominence in the industry which she has never wholly relinquished. About the 13th century silk began to be manufactured in France at Tours and later at Lyons. Not until 1494, how ever, did France engage successfully as a pro ducer of cocoons. Successive rulers of France encouraged the industry hut the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a severe blow as it exiled .1iout 400,000 Huguenots, most of whom were silk-workers. It was long before France recovered her lost prestige and then it was again wrecked at the Revolution. Under Na poleon I and the Bourbons a stringent tariff did much for the industry in France. The exiled Huguenots tried sericulture in England but without success until 1718 when a new method of throwing was introduced. The manu facture then received a new impulse and Eng lish silks replaced the French in the European markets. The English industry was ruined by the commercial treaty of 1860 which admitted French silks duty free. Switzerland and Ger many also became competitors of France and are largely engaged in the manufacture of silk. Belgium and Holland have for several centuries engaged in silk production and the velvets and satins of Flanders are quite as old and of as good quality as those of the Italian cities. The manufactured silks of China, Japan and India have a character of their own and for some purposes are in demand. For raw silk production 1913-19 see table on page 6.
2. History of the Industry in the United According to Chinese records the fila ment produced by the silkworm was first suc cessfully woven by Si-ling-Chi, empress of China, in 2700 but it was not until the 6th century that the art of making silk was intro duced in Europe. In 1609 James I brought the silkworm and the mulberry tree into England and shortly after this the company of Virginia was formed by a group of Englishmen to pro mote the silk industry in the colonies of America.
The first expedition sent to America met with disaster. Four years later a more success ful beginning was made. Influenced by the Crown the Colonial legislatures passed an act requiring 10 mulberry trees to be planted on every hundred acres. There was a fine for neglect of this duty and a premium for every pound of silk produced. But the most strenuous effort amounted to little. With the ascension of a new king to the British throne in 1666 all acts giving bounties for silk or requiring mul berry trees to he planted in Virginia were re pealed, and an interlude occurred in sericulture until the last years of the century when several French Huguenots settled in South Carolina.
These were skilled silk workmen and they were in earnest in their endeavor to cultivate it in profitable quantities. At about the same time another colony was formed in the same province which was known for more, than a century by the name of Silk Hope.
During the first 35 years of the 18th cen tury the silk industry was also introduced into Louisiana and Georgia. Silk culture by the colonists, however, had a fitful and uncertain existence. From 1750 to 1772 the period of its greatest activity before the Revolution, the export of raw silk averaged only 500 pounds per annum, and rarely exceeded 1,000 pounds in a single year.
For many years after the Revolutionary War premiums and bounties for planting mul berry trees and for producing raw silk were authorized by a number of the States. In December 1825 the subject of silk culture re ceived national attention, a resolution being introduced and referred to the committee on agriculture. This committee reported favorably and directed the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare a manual on the growth and manufac tore of silk. Inquiries for information on the subject were sent out by the Secretary, Mr. Richard Rush, in 1826, and from the replies and other material received a manual was com piled, entitled lLetter from the Secretary of the Treasury." Six thousand copies were printed by order of Congress. This document contained 220 pages besides illustrations of machinery.
Such favorable action and the publication by Congress at many subsequent sessions of other documents relating to silk culture, together with the serious consideration of the subject by the congressional committee on manufac ture and the committee on agriculture, en listed general attention. Sericulture gained the public ear. Legislatures of several States passed bills for its encouragement and a most deter mined effort was made to place silk-growing on a paying basis. Silk conventions were held in Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Con necticut. All efforts failed, however, to make sericulture popular in this country. The Amer manufacture was conducted in the vicinity of Paterson, N. J., a mill town within easy access of the New 'York markets, which has grown to be the leading_ silk-producing city of the United States. Other advantageous centres were found in the coal fields of Pennsylvania where fuel was cheap, and this State now pro duces more manufactured silk than any other State in the Union. The sewing-silk and floss industry has always been confined chiefly to the New England States. In 1860 without the protection of a high tariff the total production of the industry amounted to $6,600,000. At that time importations of manufactured silk were valued at $3,300,000. These have remained nearly constant. The production figures have, however, grown in tremendouspro..rtions and in 1914 reached a total of $2.U,111,000, while the number of employees rose from 5,000 to 108,000. The following tables of the imports of raw silk, waste silk and cocoons for the years 1914-18 will serve to show the amount of raw material now being consumed by the industry: ican producer could not compete with the cheap labor of the Orient and Europe, and other lines of industry afforded greater remuneration. The manufacture of silk fabrics, however, has gained great success. In 1810 Rodney and Horatio Hanks erected the first mill on this continent. The manufacture of silk trimmings of various kinds was begun in 1815 at Philadelphia and ribbons in 1829 at Baltimore. Here, too, the American manufacturer was handicapped by foreign competition and it was not until a protective tariff was enforced that the industry prospered.