The Golden Age of Valencian Silk? Rise, Crisis and Productive Reconversion of the Valencian Silk Industry (Eighteenth–Nineteenth Centuries)

The eighteenth century was the period of greatest splendor of the Valencian silk industry, which had a clear hegemony over the sector in Spain. In the kingdom of Valencia, about two thirds of the Spanish silk thread was obtained, while the city of Valencia was also the main silk weaving center of the country. But the mercantilist policy adopted by the monarchy to stimulate manufacturing activity hindered the introduction of technical improvements to perfect the spinning and twisting of silk, successfully applied in France and northern Italy. Furthermore, the state protection granted to the silk weavers’ guild meant that this activity was concentrated in the city of Valencia and was subjected to very traditional technical regulations. This circumstance made it difficult to adapt the fabrics to the new fashion trends, so they were displaced from the domestic market by foreign competition and ended up being destined mostly to the colonial market. Hence, the serious crisis experienced by the sector since the late-eighteenth century due to the interruption of trade with America as a result of the revolutionary wars and the subsequent emancipation of those territories. But the drastic reduction of the internal demand of silk thread in the nineteenth century gave place to the change of the economic policy of the monarchy, authorizing the export of the silk thread to the international market. The greater profitability of sericulture prompted the modernization and mechanization of the sector from the 1830s onwards, with most of its production being used to supply French manufactures. However, this process of reconversion and recovery was abruptly interrupted by the pebrine epidemic that devastated the silk harvest throughout Europe from the middle of the century.