MEXICO.

that both linen and woollen stuffs were worn; the latter as early as in the Bronze Age,1 and probably long before. A mere glance at the New World must suffice. When the Spaniards discovered and conquered Mexico they found established there a civilisation far older than their own, and manufactures already arrived at a higher degree of perfection than anything that had been known in Europe for a thousand years. In Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico the amazing story is told, with characteristic eloquence and fulness of detail, and a single quotation from that easily accessible book is all we can afford. It is a list of the products of the country which seem most to have struck the historian's fancy, and which assuredly imply not only an immense technical knowledge and skill, but an industrial past of vast antiquity. "There were cotton dresses and mantles of feather work,” he says, "exquisitely made; ornamented armour; vases and plates of gold; gold dust, bands, and bracelets; crystal, gilt, and varnished jars and goblets; bells, arms, and utensils of copper; reams of paper; grain, fruits, copal, amber, cochineal, cocoa; wild animals and birds; timber, lime, and mats." Add to this list that they were acquainted with and in possession of silk; that they manufactured both linen and woollen as well as cotton goods, and had apparently done so from time immemorial, and were well acquainted with metals, and some notion of the industrial eminence of the ancient Mexicans may be formed. Their system of possession and production was something like that of India. The Peruvians had arrived at about an equal degree of perfection in manufacture about the same time; and apparently without any inter

PERU.

1 Scandinavian Arts, by Hans Hildebrand, in South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks.

2 History of the Conquest of Mexico, by William H. Prescott, vol. i. p. 36 (Bentley, 1843).

course between these two countries. How long they had been at that high point of elevation, and through what prodigiously long rounds of centuries they had been attaining to it, who can say ? but the probability is that both nations were already in their decadence when they became known. to the modern world. They were more a pastoral people than the Aztecs, and the nature of their fabrics followed this national bent. They chiefly manufactured robes, shawls, carpets, and hangings for their palaces and temples (like the Persians), made of the fine wool of the llama, and of the huanacos and vicunas-species of sheep native to their country. Their cloth, we are specially told, was finished on both sides alike." Their system of industry was almost certainly wholly domestic, but under strict government supervision. "The fleeces were deposited in public magazines after shearing time, whence they were served out to separate families in such quantity as they required. . . The stuffs were fabricated by the women, who understood perfectly well the art of spinning and weaving. With these stuffs the families used first to clothe themselves, and the over abundant matter was put into the stores of the Inca. Men were employed to watch over the distribution of the goods, and also over the execution of the work." In this case there is a factory system and a manufacture, but not manufactories; the system is a communal not a competitive one, and no power other than manual is employed.

1 Sociology, p. 411.

...

CHAPTER IV.

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN ANCIENT TIMES

(MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES)

Dyeing and Printing-Colours known to the Ancients-Tyrian Purple— Ancient Dyers and Dye-houses-Bleaching-Fulling — Metallurgy — Tubal Cain-Metals known to the Ancients-Gold-Silver-Brass-Iron -Copper--Tin-Lead-Mercury-Metal Manufacture-Founding, Cast

ing, and Refining-Earthenware-Bricks-Pottery-Porcelain-Glass— Paper-Leather.

DYEING AND

PRINTING.

VERY closely connected with the early history of the textile arts, is the early history of the art of dyeing, so closely connected with it, indeed, as to have given rise to quite a little controversy among biblical scholars as to which art preceded the other. The focus round which this rather trivial argument has raged, is that so celebrated garment which Jacob gave to his youngest son Joseph, the "coat of many colours," to which reference has already been made.1 Was this vestment a textile fabric at all? and if so, was it of the nature of a plaid, or check, or formed of pieces of variously coloured cloth stitched together? Or was it the dyed skin or fleece of an animal, or made of coloured grasses, or what?

It is unnecessary to enter deeply into this controversy. If it were not woven and dyed in the usual way by Jacob, or the members of his household, it may very easily have been procured from somewhere else; and, indeed, the great

1 Ante, chap. iii. p. 85.

value set upon it would seem to imply that such had been the case. The gift of a coloured garment has ever been esteemed one of the greatest marks of favour in the East, and the favour would be obviously increased were the garment one of rare and foreign workmanship. But it may have been of native manufacture as well. It is true that textile clothing is not mentioned as being known in Canaan before the time of Joseph, and that "skins of beasts" are; but what of that? Dyeing is not mentioned either. Those who would argue from such slender facts to the exclusion of a knowledge of woven clothing at that epoch forget the great lapse of time, the many centuries, that intervened between these two casual notices, nor even with all those expunged would be any nearer to proving their case.

It will be desirable to turn from these barren surmises to such facts as may be rapidly grouped together in connection with ancient dyeing. Our sources of direct information are as usual all but non-existent; but by continuing the course of historical and deductive investigation hitherto pursued, it is possible to arrive at some interesting results. We know, for instance, that the art of staining skins was one practised from very remote times in ancient Egypt, and that the Hebrews carried away a knowledge of it with them from thence, and greatly valued it, for "rams skins dyed red" were among the various offerings made to the tabernacle when Moses had led the children of Israel into the wilderness (Exod. xxv. 5). We know, further, that other fabrics were about the same time subjected to a like process, for the words "blue, and purple, and scarlet," so often found in Scripture, are universally understood now as implying the material dyed, as well as the colour, and that material as being cloth, or yarn, or both. We further find this art by no means confined to Egypt, and after

wards to Palestine, but early carried to great perfection in other very ancient countries, particularly Assyria, Phoenicia, and Persia. In India, also, coloured garments are amongst the earliest mentioned.1 Later, we notice the extraordinary value set on some of these dyed stuffs. One pound of wool dyed of the Tyrian purple colour cost in the time of Augustus £32 of our money, and under some of the later emperors the wearing of purple by any one not a member of the royal family was a crime punishable with death. But for any details of the processes, or of the agents employed, we look through ancient authors in vain. Pliny, indeed, to whom one would naturally turn for information on the subject, especially repudiates any concern with it; "I should have described the art of dyeing," he says, "C had it been included among the number of the liberal arts;" as a mere industrial process he obviously considered it quite beneath his notice. Nevertheless, the same author does in a well-known passage afford a glimpse into the system pursued in Egypt at his time, which is worth noting for more reasons than one. "There exists in Egypt," he writes, " a wondrous method of dyeing. The white cloth is stained in various places, not with dye-stuffs, but with substances which have naturally the property of absorbing (i.e. fixing) colours. These applications are not visible on the cloth, but when the pieces are dipped into a hot caldron containing the dye, they are in an instant after drawn out dyed. The remarkable circumstance is, that though there be only one dye in the caldron, yet different colours appear on the cloth, nor can the colours be afterwards removed" (Hist. Nat. xxxv.) It will be perceived by those versed in such matters that the description thus given is nearly as applicable to printing as dyeing, and might be taken as a very fair account of one 1 Ante, chap. iii. p. 109 et seq.