History Of Silk In Lyon

The factory is a term used to refer to all industry players of silk , especially in Lyon (but also at Tours , and St-Etienne ).

^Fifteenth Century : The Birth of the Factory

In the ^fifteenth century , Lyon is an important trading place (site at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone , three Roman roads depart from Lugdunum ) to whom Charles VII gives the right to hold two fairs where they sell silk in many coming from Italy.

To avoid a 'brain drain' currency ' .

Fabrique Lyon was born.

^Sixteenth century

At the end of the ^sixteenth century , King Henri IV of France who wants to produce its own thread of silk, encourages the breeding of silkworms. Helped by the work of Olivier de Serres , he planted 400,000 mulberry trees, especially in the Cevennes and the Ardeche. In southern France, where the climate is propitious, are emerging silkworm (where buildings are raised silkworms) and mills for throwing.

XVII ^Century : The Golden Age

The mechanization of the dump is perfected from cocoons in the region of Condrieu , at the request of the municipal council of Lyon. And the development of the great art derives from Claude Dangon between 1605 and 1620 will help to produce fabrics broader, more sophisticated (and not shaped Emirates), and thus compete with Italian silks .

Under Louis XIV , the rise of France allows the Lyon silk to overcome the Italian influence. She became the undisputed center of the silk.

In 1667, Colbert gave the "Great Silk Factory" Lyon regulations. These orders and regulations strictly govern the manufacture, detailing the expected quality for the royal commands, and specifying what should be the width of the fabric or the number of son used. They also make it mandatory bookkeeping manufacturing.

Sumptuous fabrics are produced in Lyon for the princes of the court or the development of various royal residences (including Versailles ).

The factory has nearly 1700 master workmen in 1621. In 1660, they are more than 3000 master workmen who employ 10 000 jobs. The activity is multiplied by 3 between 1665 and 1690 .

However, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), numerous silky Protestant exile and sought refuge mainly in Switzerland (Zurich) and London (Spitalfields). The number of trades drops to less than 2000 (it was not until 1753 to find 10,000 jobs).

XVIII ^century

French silk brocade - Lyon 1760-1770

In the eighteenth ^century , the reputation of Lyon silk wins European courts, including that of Catherine II in Russia and that of Charles IV in Spain. The rulers rely on the Lyon silk dress for the court and furnish the palace.

The growth experienced in the ^seventeenth century and extends the activity doubled between 1720 and 1760. In 1786, there were 14 000 in Lyons looms, employing more than 30,000 people. With more than half the population lives then Lyon silk. Lyon became the first industrial city in France.

In 1786, the Revolt of the two sub (insurrection of silk workers) foreshadows the major workers' revolts of the nineteenth ^century.

During the Revolution, the Factory logically loses much of its clientele. Is the crisis and the number of trades increased from 14,000 to 3500. The rich woven textiles are replaced by more simple fabrics, plain, decorated with embroidery.

XIX ^century : Revolts and Decline

Jacquard loom

In the early ^nineteenth century , the silk is reborn from its ashes, notably under the leadership of Napoleon Recognizing the economic potential of the silk, he placed large orders for the Imperial Palace as that of Fontainebleau (upholstery drapery and to cover the furniture).

The Napoleonic power will cause the construction of the Chamber of Commerce, Condition of Silks , and the establishment of the first Labour Court , then devoted solely to the Lyon silk.

The disruption of social structures saw the rise of the bourgeoisie who, like the nobility, wants to dress with silk. And restoration of 1814 will also enable the Lyon silk industry to diversify through the vestment.

In France, the textile is then the main industrial activity . Since the ^eighteenth century , Lyon is the first industrial city in France and weaving there is live half the population.

The Red Cross, the center of the silk

In the early nineteenth ^century, the arrival looms large will profoundly change the silk work, but also the lifestyle of the workers. These looms are so high that they can be used in homes too small and too dark neighborhoods Nizier St., St. George and St. John.

The old convent of the Red Cross , whose ceilings are very high, are ideal to host the first lifts. But very quickly, it requires new buildings to house weavers (eg, the Clos Dumenge ). They are then built based on these massive businesses (on average 4 meters high).

The joint Red Cross, which is then not yet connected to the city of Lyon, offers other advantages: it is a zone exempt from tax (the award ), protected from flooding, and rents are lower than in Lyon .

Then we witness the birth of a manufacturing district and especially to a specific professional category: the "silk weavers.

Birth of the Jacquard loom

In 1801 , the Lyons Joseph Marie Jacquard develops a loom , the Jacquard loom , which allows a single worker to manipulate the loom, rather than many before.

Unreliable , the Jacquard machine is perfected between 1806 and 1817 by Jean-Antoine Breton. The trade, however keeps the name of Jacquard

The organization within the Fabric

In 1831 , production of Lyon silk remains organized as a Model for Pre-industrial:

• Atop the pyramid is the "great mill", composed of some 1400 merchant-bankers called "manufacturers" or "silky", which control and finance the manufacture of parts and provide sales to customers .
• Manufacturers are working around 8000 craftsmen weavers, " silk weavers , who work to order and piece. They own their own looms (colloquially called " bistanclaques "), two to six depending on the size of the workshop .
• The silk workers employ about 30 000 companions , who are employees in the day, but generally live in the weaver, who housed and fed them and they share the condition .
• It is also working women earn less, and apprentice or errand boys, called to Lyons' Pugs-brews, all that make up a very wide range of businesses: shunter, satinaires, launchers, Battandier, Producers card reader, drawings, Magnanarelles, editors, bookbinders, folders, landers, warping machines, oval , deliver, twisters, winders, passementires, guimpires, taffetaquires, dyers, finishers ...

The manufacturing unit residing in private homes, the factory is a case of " domestic system ".

The Revolt of Canuts

"Live working or die fighting"

In 1831 then in 1834 , the silk workers revolt. Both insurgencies are considered the first battles workers.

L'Echo de la Fabrique

October 23, 1831 (a few weeks before the great uprising of November 1831 ) appears the announcement of the creation of the first workers' newspaper at the initiative of Canute the Echo de la Fabrique.

L'Echo de la Fabrique publish its weekly eight pages in two columns until May 1834 without interruption (a few successors will continue until the repressive laws of 1835 ).

Via The Echo of the factory, the silk workers and will learn, discuss, and attempt to adapt the system to the Lyon Manufactures industrial developments underway in order to preserve their autonomy and freedom .

Decline

In the second half of the ^nineteenth century , industrialization, foreign competition, and finally the arrival of the synthetic silk will encourage the decline of industry in Lyon.

Inside a weaver at the time of the crisis of 1877

Yet the factory is trying to organize themselves, relying on its know-how.

The emergence of high fashion initiated by English Charles Frederick Worth allows Lyon to find new opportunities.

In 1886 , the City Council of Lyon created a mark with the arms of the city that allows buyers to recognize a fabric woven in Lyon.

XX ^century

In the early ^twentieth century , the Lyon silk industry experienced a new golden age, which will be quickly broken by the crisis of the 1930s.

A few years later, the advent of nylon and changing clothing habits precipitated the decline of Manufactures.

Diversification

The factory will play a large role, however, in new development areas in the Lyon region. The capital will serve the development of the economy ( Credit Lyonnais , Banque Veuve Morin-Pons , Saint Olive Bank , Lyonnaise de Banque become CIC ). The know-how, for example, after dyeing, allow the development of chemical industry ( Rhone-Poulenc , Arkema ) and the pharmacy ( Boiron or Merieux come from families of silky) .

Another branch derivative mechanics. The manufacturer of looms Marius Berliet will diversify by building cars, which later gave birth to the giant Renault Trucks.

XXI ^century

It remains today in Lyon that very few manufacturers of silk, mainly positioned in the narrow market of highly luxurious furnishings (eg, reprints of old fabrics for castles).

La Fabrique de Saint-Etienne

The term is also used to Fabrique Saint-Etienne to refer to " narrow woven fabrics "or" trimmings , "a flagship of the city since the late ^eighteenth century and the generalization of the "Zurich-trades" can then weave 12 tapes at once.

It overcomes the Fabrique Lyon at the end of the eighteenth ^century until "general warehouse and forced all foreign and native silks." Saint-tienne obtained in 1808 the creation of a Condition of Silks under municipal administration.

While Fabrique Lyonnaise therefore tends to outsource its production in rural areas (see the post revolt Canuts ) Fabrique Stphanoise will become entrenched in the urban space and urban form the base. Manufacturers / traders will gradually subdivide the space still empty until the annexation of suburban communes ( Montaud , Beaubrun Valbenoite and Furan Overseas ) in 1855.

The event offers the city the economic framework (1 / 2 of turnover industries Saint-Etienne in 1846 ), political (the manufacturers of tapes sitting on the council) and population (up to 40 000 people live trimmings) while allowing him to dispossess Lyon , the eternal rival, the title of first class town in France.

In 1834 when the factory primer Lyonnaise ruralization of its activity, Etienne passementiers already represent over 80% of the ribbon makers from the region "Lyon" .

Before the crisis of the 1880s, there were nearly 7000 workers and 250 passementiers-merchant-manufacturers.

Around 1880 , the activity will be partly relocated in the countryside and contribute to the development of some mountain villages of Pilat and Haute-Loire ( Saint-Genest-Malifaux , Saint-Just-Malmont , St. Sigolne ), urban workshops Etienne still receiving preferential first new mechanical and technical innovations.

See also

• History of silk
• Canute
• The Status of setae

Bibliography

• E. Pariset: History of the factory in Lyon: a study on the social and economic development of silk industry in Lyon since the sixteenth century
• Bernard Tassinari's Silk in Lyon: Great manufactures textiles twenty-first century
• Ludovic Frobert: The Political Economy of Manufactures, 1831-1834 Lyon
• Andr Vant, Imaging and Research on urbanization example Etienne, Centre Forzienne, Saint-Etienne, 1981

References

• Portal of Greater Lyon
• Portal History
• Portal of France in the nineteenth ^century

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