The Expansion of Silk Textile Export in Northern Italy, 1919-1929

The purpose of this article is to examine the expansion and the aspect of silk textile export in Northern Italy, especially in Como district, during the period of 1919-1929, when the Italian silk textile industry gained an international competitive advantage. The author would like to propound some views to which little attention has been given. Generally speaking, the modernization of management organization in the early 1920fs accelerated the development of silk textile industry. Firstly, the textile machine industry concurrently came to grow, which made it possible to improve the quality of textiles and helped for the silk industry to acquire the new markets for its goods. Secondly, the increasing use of artificial silk from the early 1920fs drastically changed the situation around silk textile. Thirdly, the silk textiles with the new additional raw material came to be woven under the mass production system. Fourthly, the silk textile industry tried to improve the design of silk textiles for couture, and succeeded in reaching the forefront of Italian fashion, cooperated with the government. All of the above-mentioned facts did start when the British government imposed tariff barriers on the silk textile. At that time, Italy had no choice but to develop overseas market. In the second half of the 1920s, capturing the new markets of Asia, Africa and South America, the export of silk textiles including artificial silk as new mass products remarkably increased.