Immigration is not just a modern day debate. significant switch in Europe within the 16th and 17th centuries ended in a surge of political and spiritual refugees relocating around the continent. Estimates recommend that from 1550 to 1585 round 50,000 Dutch and Walloons from the southern Netherlands settled in England, and within the overdue 17th century 50,000 Huguenots from France swimsuit. the bulk gravitated in the direction of London which, already a magnet for retailers and artisans around the centuries, started a strategy of significant transformation. New talents, capital, technical knowledge and social networks got here with those migrants and helped to spark London's cosmopolitan aptitude and variety. however the early event of a lot of those immigrants in London was once one among hostility, helping decelerate the adoption and enlargement of latest crafts and applied sciences. Immigrants and the Industries of London, 1500-1700 examines the origins and the altering face and form of many trades, crafts and talents within the capital during this transformative interval. It makes a speciality of 3 crafts particularly: silk weaving, beer brewing and the silver alternate, crafts which had relied seriously on international talents within the sixteenth century and had turn into significant industries within the capital by means of the 18th century. each one craft used to be demonstrated by way of a distinct staff of immigrants, unique not just by way of their social backgrounds, social corporation, identification, causes, migration development and event and hyperlinks with their domestic state but in addition by way of the character in their reception, assimilation and fiscal contribution. switch was once a prolonged technique within the London of the day. Immigrants persisted inferior prestige, discrimination and infrequently exclusion, and this affected either their skill to combine and their willingness to percentage alternate secrets and techniques. And resistance through the English inhabitants intended that the adoption of latest talents usually took many years - often times greater than 3 centuries - to accomplish. The booklet areas the adoption of latest crafts and applied sciences in London inside of a broader eu context, and relates it to the outstanding progress of the city and technological advancements inside of those particular trades. It throws new views at the flow of talents from Europe and the transmission of knowledge from the immigrant inhabitants to English artisans. The e-book explores how, via firm and endurance, the immigrants' contribution helped remodel London from a peripheral and backward eu urban to turn into the workshop of the area through the 19th century. when it comes to end the e-book brings the present immigration debate complete circle to ascertain the teachings we will draw from this early-modern experience.