THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK —— them for £55,000. He would have got 34 for 1. Courtaulds control the Viscose Corporation of America, which makes 69 per cent. of all American Artificial Silk. It has interests in mills in Italy, Germany and France. It makes most of the Artificial Silk in the world —possibly 75 per cent. of it. This one firm makes five-sixths of the Artificial Silk in Great Britain, and it is not likely to lose its supremacy. Its main asset is not its money, but its experience. It has the group of specialists who have solved the problem most completely. As we have seen in previous chapters, the making of Artificial Silk requires a new Technique. This new textile is not made by money, nor by standardized machinery, as cotton goods are. It is made by skill all the way along. This skill is in the brains and fingers of very few men, and they have not yet made it known to the public. They have not written books. And most of these men are in the Courtauld Company. _ Courtaulds’ biggest competitor in America is the Du Pont Company, but it makes only 75