were thrown into a most miserable condition.147
On the contrary, in an industry which supplies the home market — namely, in the fabrication of linen handkerchiefs, which itself is of a quite recent growth — we see that cottage-weaving is, even now, in full prosperity. Cholet (in Maineet-Loire, south-west of Angers) is the centre of that trade. It has one spinning mill and one weaving mill, but both employ considerably fewer hands than domestic weaving, which is spread over no less than 200 villages of the surrounding region.148 Neither at Rouen nor in the industrial cities of Northern France are so many linen handkerchiefs fabricated as in this region in hand-looms, we are told by Ardouin Dumazet.
Within the curve made by the Loire as it flows past Orleans we find another prosperous centre of domestic industries connected with cottons. “From Romorantin [in Loire-et-Cher, south of Orleans] to Argenton and Le Blanc,” the same writer says, “we have one immense workshop where handkerchiefs are embroidered, and shirts, cuffs, collars and all sorts of ladies’