Naples' silk factory at Reggia di Caserta

Parents forbidden to interfere in children's love affairs. So ran Ferdinand IV's Law Code. The era was late 18th, early 19th century and Ferdinand IV, the then King of Naples, was looking to set up shop in Caserta, an expansive town to the north of Naples. The shop he set up was a silk factory, near the Royal Palace and on the grounds of San Leucio Belvedere.

The link between silk and meddling families may seem a tenuous one and Ferdinand's family law was not quite the free and liberating exercise it may appear, for it came with a catch. Children were free from parental interference but on the other hand only those who could work silk were allowed to marry. It was a shift from the influence of the family unit to a broader type of social engineering.

Ferdinand opened Italy's first free and compulsory public school to act as a foundation for his San Leucio silk factory and it was the start of what became a grand network. As the young King built a complete silk production process, whole families entered the trade. Local children were taught the finer skills at the new school. Men and women were employed in the processing and over time looms even entered the family home, both as a symbol and means of handing down the craft.

In a modern light this may not be quite enough separation between work and home life, or between education and the economy. At the time though it promoted Ferdinand's social illuminism, opening aristocratic land and a certain form of opportunity to the people. It also created a renowned Italian silk industry stemming from the Royal Factory of San Leucio.

Now listed as World Heritage and found in the town of Caserta, a few kilometres north of Naples, the Silk Factory is open to visitors keen to examine its royal rooms, industrial site, silk museum and workers' houses and garden.