Exchanges between France and China during the Age of the Enlightenment have attracted considerable attention from historians, but, hitherto, the Chinese influence on French sericulture during the eighteenth century, is a question which has been tackled neither by French nor by Chinese historiography. But Chinese know-how in the field of silk production nonetheless had considerable influence on French sericiculture du-ring this decisive period.

In this present study we reconsider the history of the circulation of silk production techniques, moving first of all from China to Europe but later coming back to China with some European ‘improvements’, always at the instigation of the French. The first and second parts of the article concentrate on the efforts of the French to understand Chinese techniques, leading to the creation of a ‘French school of sericiculture’ during the first half of the nineteenth century.

The weakening of China after the Opium wars, and, in France, the epidemics affecting silk worms, marked a turning point. Following French successes in treating the contagious diseases, Western businessmen tried to introduce modern techniques to Chinese silk production. These efforts were not always crowned with success and are to be understood in a complex context of Chinese domestic history and the country’s delicate relations with European and Japanese powers at the end of the nineteenth century.