This thesis studies the production and trade of silk from three interrelated perspectives to understand the transition from an Ancien Régime economy to industrial capitalism in Lombardy. First, it emphasizes how liberalizing elites transformed the “political economy of silk”, and shows how liberals’ ideas trickled down to merchants and workers, determining the new intellectual coordinates around which the production of silk was regulated. Second, the thesis draws attention to the material reality of silk, showing that uncertainty about silk quality has always facilitated the development of a market for stolen silk, which then came under pressure due to the emergence of a new liberal conception of property rights. The third theme is the role of technical innovation in the industrialization process, with information asymmetry in silk exchanges declining with inventions that enabled more accurate measurement of the quality of silk, and the concentration of silk production as steam engines were adopted.