Although the silk manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this country by the Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so great that it interfered very considerably with its progress.

Organzine was principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by means of a large and curious engine, the like of which did not exist elsewhere.

The Italians, by the most severe laws, long preserved the mystery of the invention.

The punishment prescribed by one of their laws to be inflicted upon anyone who discovered the secret, or attempted to carry it out of the Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of all the goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name and crime of the person, there to be continued for a perpetual mark of infamy."[3] Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave all this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret.

It may be remembered with what courage and determination the founder of the Foley family introduced the manufacture of nails into England.