Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/112



study of the industrial organization of ancient times will always be baffling and difficult, because the existing remains of the output of the industries are scattered about in many museums and are practically inaccessible at a distance from the great museum centres. Moreover, as compared with modern times, the amount of available information is small and statistical comparisons quite out of the question. Nevertheless, the field is an attractive one which still offers opportunity for a number of useful studies. These must be made with great care. Most particularly, great restraint is required in the necessary attempt to fill in by legitimate conjecture the blank spaces, both temporal and territorial, in which material is entirely lacking or else vague and insufficient. The best results will be obtained, I think, by highly specialized studies of single trades, carried where possible through the entire period of antiquity. As a model of what may be accomplished by an enthusiastic student of one particular craft and its products, Kisa's Das Glas im Altertume may be cited.

An opportunity to do a similar piece of work, equally interesting and of greater importance, perhaps, in the history of industrial development, is offered in the weaving trade. From Egypt we have great quantities of ancient fabrics, chiefly of coarse weaves. We have, especially from Egypt, a fairly large amount of information, both pictorial and documentary, upon the technique of the weaving industry. The basis for this phase of the work has already been laid in 's Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern. Other more special studies have also been made upon the ancient textile industries and the related dyeing industry. But there is no study of large scope which gives us a perspective of the advance in technical skill or the bearing of the Chinese silk trade upon the development of textile manufactures in the Mediterranean world. There is no satisfactory study of the changing social status of the weavers themselves throughout antiquity. In the period covered