Silk Industry in Lebanon 1800's till the first world war

Silk Workers 1880's (source: Shemali )

Extracts from the book: "Merchant Republic of Lebanon"

Lebanon's position in the nineteenth-century international market economy was shaped by the development of sericulture. While Lebanon had already begun to specialize in raw silk production by the eighteenth century, its econmic potential and effects were not realized until the next century when silk exports to France expanded rapidly
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Rapid growth of output and export of Lebanese silk began in the mid nineteenth century, as suggested by the elevnfold increase of silk exports from beirut between 1841 and 1857. this trend peaked between 1873 and 1902 when production of raw silk in Lebanon and Syria increased by over 350%, due entirely to rising foreign (primarily French) demand. Moreover, the weight of silk products in total exports from Beirut's port doubled from about 25% at mid-century to 50% during the 1890's. Silk and cocoon output in Lebanon and Syria grew most rapidly from 1873 to 1915, when export dependence on France became almost complete: 40% of total silk exports were sent to France in 1873, growing to 99% in 1914. Just prior to the war, silk production comprised 73% of total value-added in agriculture and industry (cocoon production accounting for 55% and silk thread for 18%) and 36% of gross product in Mount Lebanon. At the same time, annual operating capital in Mount Lebanon's spinning factories was estimated at FF 9 million of domestic resources and another FF 8-9 million of foreign investment; domestic fixed capital comprised an additional FF 2.3 million and foreign fixed assets amounted to FF 0.2 million, making the industry a recipient of a large share of the total flows and stock of capital in the mountain. Most investment was financed internally: funds retained from net profits in silk reeling, 37% of total factor income being profits, were far higher than what was required for investment and current operations. Two final indicators of the economic importance that silk had attained in Mount Lebanon by the prewar years were that half of Mount Lebanon's population was economically dependent on sericulutre and that cocoons, silk thread and waste comprised 62% of total exports from Mount Lebanon