International Economic History Congress

Abstract

The Eighth International Economic History Congress was held in Budapest on 16-20 August 1982 and attended by some 900 historians (as well as some of their families). Sessions were divided into A, B or C according to their general importance. One C session on Monday, 16August, was devoted to 'Silk in Economic History: A comparative perspective'; the organizer was Professor Murat <;izak~aof Bogazi~i University, Istanbul. Despite a temperature of 35°C and a matching humidity, some 50 people assembled in a southwestern-facing room without air-conditioning; most of them survived until 6.30 p.m., a commendable feat of historic concentration. Nine papers or notes were delivered in a shortened version to allow for discussion. The variations in approach as well as subject and scope were interesting in themselves and nearly every paper provoked a lively discussion despite the barriers of heat and language. The organizer of the session, Professor <;izak~a,delivered a paper on 'The Decline of the Silk Industry in the Middle East: further evidence 1550-1700', in which he discussed especially the silk industry in Bursa, concluding that European pressure rather than competition from other centres in Turkey caused the decline. While raw silk increased in price there were increasing imports of European woven silks. When the demand for raw silk slackened the Turkish industry revived. Turkish raw silk for the warp was irregular and thrown by hand. It was unsuitable for machinery, unlike Italian silk. Dr Walter Endrei of Budapest followed with 'Capital and Labour: a case study of a silk throwing mill'. Dr Endrei constructed an equation for labour materialized in the product, the production time of the equipment, and the time of utilization or depreciation. He applied the equation to documents concerning two small silk mills dating from 1763 and 1768, concluding that for each day of directly applied labour there was more than one-third of a day of labour objectified in machines and equipment. Dr R. W. Ferrier, in 'The Interest of the East India Company in the Silk Trade of Persia' , discussed the difficulties of the English East India Company in its attempt to trade with Persia in the 17th century, whether through its factories at Isfahan and Bandar Abbas or overland. The Company were trying to substitute goods for monetary transactions, and the export of woollens to Persia seemed a hopeful idea. The first consignment was sent in 1616 and since the Persians saw a competitor for the Portuguese it was well received. Dr Ferrier then explained why the attempt was never really successful, owing to the opposition of Dutch and Armenian traders although there were times when silk was an important commodity and the trade profitable to the Company. Professor Carlo Poni discussed 'Silk Textile Technology and the Perception of a Price Revolution'. Had the improvements in technology of the 14th-16th century in Italy led to lower costs? Only by the 16th century was silk throwing completely mechanized, but by 1620 silk velvet was a quarter of its price 200 years earlier. He delineated the expansion of the European silk industries and the increase in