SILKS, Italian. The silks brought from Italy are partly wrought, and partly raw and unwrought. Milan, Parma, Lucca, and Modena, furnish none but the latter kind; Genoa most of the former; Bologna affords both kinds. The finest Italian wrought silk comes from Piedmont, Novi, Bergamo, and Bologna: and is imported into England from the ports of Nice, Genoa, and Leghorn.
The silk we have from Italy is generally thrown, and serves for warp for our manufactures: and the greater part we import from Piedmont, at an annual expence of no less than 200,000 l. and in general at the price of 20s. for every pound. And the king of Sardinia, it is said, hath prohibited the exportation of raw silk out of his dominions; though the markets are open in other parts of Italy.