巴别塔——日间商店177
纺织品和织物在东伦敦-米德尔塞克斯街，E1。这条街过去叫“衬裙巷”，那里的市场因此而得名。斯皮塔菲尔德与丝绸工业的历史联系是由1685年南特敕令废除后定居在该地区的法国新教徒(胡格诺派)难民建立的。通过在伦敦金融城之外的地方定居，他们希望能避开城市行会的限制性立法。从18世纪30年代开始，爱尔兰织工来到这里，在爱尔兰亚麻工业衰落后，开始从事丝绸贸易。18世纪，在两个竞争对手之间的战争间歇期，由于进口了法国丝绸，丝绸行业出现了周期性危机;以及进口印花印花布。贸易的萧条，以及由此而来付给织布工人的价格，引起了抗议。1769年，斯皮塔菲尔德骚乱发生，人们试图解散纺织工人的会议，讨论丝绸市场再次低迷对工资的威胁。最后，一名爱尔兰人和一名胡格诺教派编织工被吊死在贝斯纳格林的萨尔蒙和鲍尔酒店前。 Price controls on amounts master weavers could pay journeymen for each piece were established. This removed all incentive to pay higher wages during good times. During bad times workers had no work. As the price was per piece, there was no incentive for using machinery, as master would have to pay for the machine and still pay the same price per piece to journeymen. By 1822 labour rates were so above market labour rates, that much of the employment in silk manufacture had moved to the country. Remaining manufacture tended to focus on expensive fashion items, which required proximity to court and had higher margins.
©Barnaby Barford 2014