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 machineweaving,
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
