Facing Rising Uncertainty in the Lyon Silk Market from the Mid-nineteenth Century to 1914

This chapter begins with a seemingly contradictory observation. While contemporary accounts from the 1850s indicateLyonsilk market growing uncertaintyUncertainty in the LyonTeillard et Cie (Lyon) silk marketSilksilk markets due to the replacement of European by Asian silk following the spread of silkworm diseases in the Mediterranean basin, economic historians tend to show that the world silk marketSilksilk markets at the end of the nineteenth century was close to a situation of perfect competition, i.e., with a low degree of uncertaintyUncertainty. This chapter focuses on how the transformation of the LyonTeillard et Cie (Lyon) silk market increased the degree of uncertaintyUncertainty of those involved in it, and three strategies aimed at reducing this uncertaintyUncertainty: through the collection and dissemination of commercial and economic informationEconomic information; the arbitration of commercial disputes and the codification of commercial practices; and the adaptation of the structures and procedures used to define silk-quality standards.