CREFELD 
Crefeld, the centre of the German silk industry, is situated in the Prussian 
province of Rhineland, four miles from the left bank of the Rhine and twelve 
miles north-west of Düsseldorf. It is peculiar among the large industrial towns 
of Germany on account of the remarkable fluctuation in the rate of its increase 
of population, and its relatively small progress in recent years. The following 
Table gives the population at intervals of ten years since 1840, and in 1905 :— 
Year. 
1840 
1850 
1860 
1870 
1880 
1390 
1900 
1905 
Population. 
25,897 
37,129 
52,442 
57,772 
73,872 
102,376 
106,886 
110,344 
Decennial 
Increase. 
11,232 
15,313 
5,330 
16,100 
28,504 
4,510 
3,458* 
Decennial 
Increase per cent. 
432 
412 
101 
27-8 
38 6 
44 
32* 
Five-year increase. 
These fluctuations are coincident with changes in the conditions of Crefeld's 
chief industry. The period from 1840 to I860 witnessed a great expansion of 
the silk industry, and was followed by a decade in which there was little forward 
movement. A fresh period of progress began after 1870, and this was followed 
between 1880 and 1890 by the rapid change from hand-weaving to machine 
weaving, and the substitution of the factory system for the old domestic 
industry. The hand-weavers suffered badly—less perhaps in Crefeld itself than 
in the surrounding districts—but the rise of the factories brought for a time a 
rapid increase in the urban population. In recent years the strong tendency 
has been for the employers to erect factories outside the town limits, because of 
(a) the lower rates of wages, (b) cheaper land, (c) the encouragement, by the 
reduction or remission of some taxes for a term of years, and in other ways, 
received from the authorities of the outer districts. 
A wide range of goods is produced by the Crefeld silk industry, the principal 
articles being velvets, plushes, silk and velvet ribbons, silk dress and blouse 
stuffs, linings, waistcoat stuffs, tie, umbrella, and furniture stuffs, &c. 
As would be expected from the slow growth of the town, its population is 
indigenous to a far larger extent than in towns of more rapid development, like 
Düsseldorf, in the same province. While at the Census of 1900 only 44 8 
per cent, of the inhabitants of the latter town were natives, the corresponding 
percentage in Crefeld was 62‘2. For many years Crefeld’s natural rate of 
increase of population has declined, for though the death-rate has steadily 
fallen, the birth-rate has fallen to a greater extent. In 1871 the birth-rate was 
47 5 per 1,000, in 1880 it was 42, ten years later it was 39, in 1900 it was 28'8, 
in 1903 it was 26*6, in 1904 25*3, and in 1905 24 9 per 1,000. 
The general death-rate in 1905 was 14 0 per 1,000, against 14 8 in 1904, 
and 15 8 in 1901. 1 he number of marriages per 1,000 of the population in