Regulation and the health of child workers in the mid-Victorian silk industry.

The silk industry of nineteenth-century Britain failed to conform to the pattern of child employment in other branches of textiles, for child labour remained unregulated in the dynamic years of the industrial revolution, allowing the continued employment of comparatively large numbers of children. Two main arguments were persistently advanced by silk manufacturers for special treatment. First, as tariff protection was eroded through the nineteenth century it was imperative to keep labour costs low to combat foreign competition. Second, the silk industry had much healthier working environments than other branches of textiles, and therefore regulation was unnecessary.