Governor Berkeley, Letter to the King about Silk Production, 1668

Silk has been produced and sold as a consumer good for thousands of years. Silk production originated in China and the earliest known examples date to 3000 B.C.E. For centuries, the trade routes known as the Silk Road stretched between East Asia and Europe. The Chinese kept their manufacturing process a closely guarded secret, but eventually silkworm cocoons and seeds for mulberry trees (the food source for silkworms) were smuggled to other parts of Asia and to Europe, where France and Italy became leading silk manufacturers. Later, large groups of skilled Flemish and French weavers fled to England to escape persecution, where their arrival enabled the establishment of industrial complex for silk weaving in the 1620s.

Producing silk (sericulture) is complex and requires specialized skills. The silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) has been domesticated for centuries and cannot fly or move very far on its legs. Silkworms are totally reliant on humans and are very labor-intensive, as they require specific dietary and habitat conditions to thrive. Silkworm larvae begin eating mulberry leaves almost continuously as soon as they emerge. When the silkworms stop eating, sericulturalists build specially constructed frames that provide support and protection for the valuable cocoons. The silkworms spin cocoons from a single, continuous thread of silk that can be more than a mile long and takes up to two days to complete. The insects are then killed in the pupae stage, as they damage the cocoon if they emerge as adults.

King James I promoted silk production in the colony of Virginia by sending eggs from the royal garden and mulberry seeds for trees. Throughout the 17th century, the governor and legislature attempted to build this industry through a series of incentives. First, the Jamestown Colony recruited French Huguenots for both their viticulture (winemaking) and sericulture skills. Many of these immigrants were indentured, or treated as indentured. By the 1630s, these immigrants had abandoned the trade and the legislature passed a law “blaming” them for the failure of this effort. Several decades later, the legislature passed a law requiring the planting of ten mulberry trees for every hundred acres, which was repealed and reinstated multiple times. The legislature incentivized planters to produce silk by paying them with tobacco for reaching a certain level of silk production and for planting mulberry trees. The colony even brought over some Armenian silk experts to boost production in the 1650s.

However, the ease of planting tobacco, coupled with the fact that silkworms did not like the leaves of the trees grown in Virginia’s terrain, ensured that sericulture in Virginia would never take hold. Other colonies, notably Connecticut, were more successful in production. Silk production became a viable industry in small pockets of the northeast, but the advent of cheaper silk produced in China caused most of the American production factories to fail. Today, most silk is produced in China, Japan, and Korea.

Governor Sir William Berkeley was a strong advocate for diversifying Virginia's economy. In this 1668 letter, which accompanied a gift from the colony of 300 pounds of silk, he asked King Charles II to send French experts in silk production to improve Virginia's output. 

Citation: Gov. Sir William Berkeley to King Charles II, July 22 1668, Public Record Office, Colonial Office Papers 1/23, fol. 42, National Archives, Kew, England (available on Virginia Colonial Records Project microfilm, Library of Virginia).

 
Learn more about "Silk Making Efforts in Colonial Virginia" at Encyclopdia Virginia. 

Read about "Silk Production in the Seventeenth Century” at Historic Jamestowne, National Park Service. 

History: VS.1, VS.2 VS.3, VS.4, USI.1, USI.2, USI.3, USI.4, WHII.4, VUS.1, VUS.2, VUS.3

Science: 3.5, 4.3, BIO.8

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Look at It: What do you think of the language of this document?

Post Activities

Think About It: Consider the challenges in raising silkworms and producing silk. Why do you think the English persisted in their quest to raise silkworms despite the odds? 

Another Perspective: Silk was an expensive and popular material in England. Although there was a means to produce silk products in England and Europe, why would the English want to attempt to produce it in the New World? Consider the challenges of raising silkworms and the climate in England.