The first experiments of silk manufacture started
with the fabrication of veils. With this craftsmanship a workshop
for the organzine silk-reeling was started and was placed in the Royal
Courtyard of the Belvedere in 1783.
The development process of San Leucio, combined
with the introduction of the silk manufacture, was the best way for
King Ferdinand IV to continue the project undertaken by his father,
Charles III, who already bore in his mind the idea that silk was a
source of refined wealth and set up the silk factories in Valenza.
In 1787 the production of silk materials
was consecrated in San Leucio with the introduction of two gigantic
hydraulic machines which constituted the spinning-wheels started by
the water coming from the Caroline aqueduct built by architect Vanvitelli
in order to bring water to the majestic falls of the Royal Palace
in Caserta. This is the beginning of the industrialization through
wheels and levers started by driving power which give motion to the
silk-reeling whisks, the spinning section of spindles supports and
the twisting plants.
The Bourbons and the silk The
Bourbons had already printed in Messina in 1735 the handbook
of “The Rules” for silk-reeling, spinning and the
negotiation and marketing of the materials. In order to promote
the silk production of the Reign of the two Sicilies, imports
of silk materials were forbidden and ambassadors, counsellors
and ministers working for the king travelled in all Europe continuously
looking for technical innovations and valuable patterns to use
in the Royal Factory. In 1737 the first Royal Factory was also
opened at San Carlo of Mortella in Naples, for the manufacture
of tapestry by the tapestry masters from Florence and the first
work-shops were set up for the training of local labour.
