Embroidery

The foreigners who wrote about Madeira at the beginning of the second quarter of the 19th century make no mention of the embroidery industry. This seems to mean that either it did not exist at that time or it was still of no importance at all on the island. In 1850 some Madeiran embroidery appeared at an industrial exhibition held in Funchal, but it was only between 1854 and 1856 that this work began to be produced on a large scale on the island. This was owing to the demand it already enjoyed in the markets of England, where Miss Phelps had made it known through some of her acquaintances. After Miss Phelps came the English merchants Roberto and Franck Wilkinson, who began exporting Madeiran embroidery to England on a larger scale. In this way an industry gradually developed for which the women of our countryside showed a decided aptitude, and which some 60 years ago was already an important source of wealth for our island. In 1862, according to the Estatística Industrial do Districto do Funchal by Francisco de Paula de Campos e Oliveira, there were 1029 embroiderers in Madeira. Sales of embroidery across the whole island amounted to some 100 contos (one million réis) of island réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), and nearly 15 kilograms of thread were used in this work every day. The same Estatística adds that most of the embroidery was sold to foreigners, who took it away in their luggage; the embroidery exported directly through the customs house was worth no more than 6 or 7 contos de réis. Embroiderers’ wages at that time were around 100 to 150 réis a day.

Exports of embroidery grew steadily, we believe, until 1878, when they were estimated at 55,252,000 réis. By 1880, however, they had fallen to 12,937,000 réis, because luxury embroidery had gone somewhat out of fashion in England. Large sums nevertheless remained on the island from sales of embroidery to the many foreigners who visited us. It was this that sustained and encouraged an industry which, although it brought no great profit to the women who practised it, did in some measure help to improve the situation of many families. Madame Counis’s shop in Rua de João Tavira made more sales than any other in the city at that time. It offered work of the most varied kinds, from white embroidery of simple design to silk embroidery and tapestry work in single or double stitch. It was a little over 50 years ago, around 1890, that the first German embroidery export houses established themselves in Funchal. This was of clear benefit to an industry that had long stood still for lack of consumer markets. Our embroidery, until then well known only in England, began to spread not only to Germany but also to the United States of America and other countries. The result was a considerable increase in production, greatly benefiting not only the rural economy but the economy of the whole district. The sum required to pay for labour across the whole archipelago, which was 200 contos in 1893, rose to 461 contos in 1906. This was due to greater exports and to a considerable increase in sales within Funchal, thanks to the arrival in our harbour of a larger number of steamers carrying passengers in transit.

The following table, which shows only the value of exports passing through the customs house, gives an idea of the importance of the embroidery industry to Madeira in the period from 1900 to 1919:

1900	229,928,090
1901	213,957,270
1902	190,719,700
1903	98,863,340
1904	58,735,200
1905	99,690,760
1906	242,342,180
1907	277,530,240
1908	186,194,810
1909	257,599,400
1910	287,551
1911	188,560
1912	79,950
1913	143,009
1914	156,767
1915	201,052
1916	29,140
1917	702,695
1918	766,128
1919	615,057

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In Madeira,’ says Vitorino José dos Santos in no. 5 of the Boletim do Trabalho, ‘there are two perfectly distinct classes of embroiderers: rural embroiderers and professional embroiderers. The former are found scattered throughout the district, though far more densely on the south coast of Madeira and on the island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’). The latter live mainly in the municipality (concelho) of Funchal, and above all in the parishes of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’) and São Gonçalo, where the finest embroidery in the whole district is produced.

The earnings of the two classes of embroiderers also differ greatly. Some professional embroiderers manage to earn two or three times as much a day as the best of the rural embroiderers. This result is always achieved at the cost of steady application over an excessive number of working hours, and of the consequent perfection of the embroidery produced.

The embroidery industry does not, however, offer these embroiderers the advantages we have pointed out for rural embroiderers. The rural women, through the variety of the work they do, the more carefree life of the countryside and the lower intensity of their labour, carry on an activity in reasonably healthy conditions that does not wear them out. The professional embroiderers, by contrast, most of whom suffer from an inordinate love of luxury, and who live in the municipality of Funchal, where such luxury is very widespread among the less well-off classes, work more than they should, day and night, with exhausting intensity. They almost always take very little care to eat nourishing food, and so they soon wear themselves out and contract serious illnesses, such as tuberculosis, which causes great havoc in this class of embroiderers.’

Mr Santos supposes that in 1906 there were 30,000 rural embroiderers and 2,000 professional ones in the whole district, the former earning an average wage of 70 réis and the latter 200 réis. The firms that gave these workers employment, not counting a few small Portuguese traders, numbered 8, of which 2 were Portuguese and 6 German, and the sum they set aside for paying labour amounted to 461,000,000 réis across the district. Estimating at 151,000,000 réis what these same firms spent on staff salaries, the distribution of fabrics, the collection of finished work and various other charges, Mr Santos concluded that about 596,000,000 réis were paid into the district’s economy every year, not counting, of course, what also remained here from the profits of the export trade.

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Madeira embroidery,’ Mr Vitorino José dos Santos goes on, ‘was formerly almost all worked in blue thread on calico or cambric, first fitted and tacked over special designs (riscos) and carefully warped. These operations were fundamental to making good, strong and lasting embroidery.’ ‘Embroidery is still done this way in Madeira today when it is called for, but that rarely happens. Since the German firms set up in Funchal, the practice of embroidering in white thread directly onto fabrics already printed with the designs has become general, and the demand for lower prices has made quantity prevail over quality, while the warping, which was one of the main requirements for the durability of the embroidery, has also almost disappeared.

The European war in which Portugal found itself involved at first did serious damage to the embroidery industry. The German markets, says Mr Vitorino José dos Santos in issue 97 of the Boletim do Trabalho Industrial, closed, and even in America the contingencies of an uncertain future soon reduced orders, forcing a cut in work and the dismissal of employees and female workers in the head houses and workshops. The crisis, terrible as it was, did not last long, however, and at the end of 1918 there were 34 embroidery export houses in Funchal, which spent about 1,500 contos on labour and staff salaries. On 31 December 1912, that is, before the war began, these houses numbered 19 and spent about 600 contos on labour.

Mr Vitorino José dos Santos supposes that on 31 December 1912 there were 32,000 rural embroiderers and 2,500 professional embroiderers in the whole district, and that by 31 December 1914 the work produced by these embroiderers had fallen by half, owing to the crisis that resulted from the European conflagration.

The embroidery industry is now (1923) flourishing in Madeira and no longer seems to feel the losses it suffered when the European war closed the German markets to the island’s products. The United States is the country that imports the largest quantity of Madeiran embroidery, and England, despite the restrictions it has placed on the import of luxury goods, remains an important market for it. Many women of Funchal live solely from the embroidery industry, and in the countryside the earnings that many female workers draw from it do a great deal to make life easier for many families.

If an industry that brings so many benefits to the great majority of the Madeiran population, and is today the most important on the island, is to survive, however, its products must be of a kind that finds wide demand in the consuming centres. To sacrifice quality to quantity, as has often been done when meeting orders from abroad, is to bring our embroidery into discredit and to provoke a future crisis that will cause incalculable harm to the economic life of our land.

At the end of 1923 there were some 100 embroidery houses in Funchal, and the value of exports to America, England, South Africa, Canada, France, etc., was estimated at about 70,000 contos. At the same period the embroidery industry employed about 70,000 people of both sexes, some working in the export houses and others at home. Some women earned 8, 9, 10 and 12 escudos (Portuguese currency from 1911, = 1,000 réis) a day in this industry, and some men had salaries ranging from 200 to 1,500 escudos a month.

The expansion of the embroidery industry has brought profound changes to our social life, and it is much to be wished that the industry should always remain flourishing, so that many households do not come to feel wants and hardships unknown there at present (1923). The large profits that part of the population draws directly or indirectly from the industry we are discussing have created, for many people, needs that must be satisfied. So if tomorrow this industry, which has brought plenty and in some cases wealth to many homes, were to lose its importance, the result would be a crisis that could give rise to great evils.

The devaluation of our currency is the main cause of the expansion of the embroidery industry. It should be pointed out, however, that while this expansion has softened the effects of the economic crisis the country is going through, it has also done much, through higher wages and business profits, to give part of our people a taste for pleasure and spendthrift habits that were not seen in the past.

Since the embroidery industry does not enjoy the conditions for permanent prosperity, prudence advises those who live from it not to grow used to needless or useless spending, for if such spending is possible today, it may not be tomorrow, should the conditions under which the industry operates on our island change (1923).

At the end of this volume of the Elucidário we shall give further information and various statistics on this important Madeiran industry for recent years.