Excerpt from The Silk Industry of the United Kingdom: Its Origin and Development It was originally intended that this work should be entitled "The History of the Silk Industry of the United Kingdom," and it was believed that quite a small volume would suffice to contain all the information procurable, but enquiries begun in the early months of the year 1911 have resulted in establishing the fact that the Silk Industry was at one time and in one form or another carried on in a very wide area and at places hitherto unsuspected of having had any connection with it. Seeking, as was natural, in the early days of its development localities which provide water power and a supply of cheap labour, the industry became scattered, and it has remained so ever since. How far this disintegration and consequent lack of cohesion and unity of effort, political, economical, technical and educational, has led to the decline of the industry in this country it is impossible to estimate, but it is undoubtedly a source of weakness, whether judged relatively to the prosperity of silk workers in other countries or to those engaged in the other branches of the textile industry in Great Britain and Ireland. It is not the object of this work to attempt to prove that our past or present fiscal policy has been either the salvation or the ruin of the silk industry in this country. The facts must be left to speak for themselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.