The Vivarais region is located between the silk-worm breeding regions of the Languedoc and the Vaucluse as well as the Lyon silk mills. Because of its geographical location, the region attracts the first silk factories of the 17th century. The Lyon manufacturers were looking for energy and manpower in the valleys.

At the same time, the practice of silk-worm breeding expanded.
    
Silk-worm breeding (sericulture) consists in breeding mulberry tree silk moths (Bombyx mori), which are silkworms which only eat mulberry trees leaves for five weeks and whose weight multiplies ten thousand times since their birth. They weave a continuous thread that solidifies to form a cocoon. A cocoon is made out of a sole silk thread which that can be as long as 1.5 km.
The unwinding of the cocoon or recovery of the wire a long time was made by the sericulturists themselves then by the spinning mills.
The unwinding process, called the “moulinage”, consists in twisting the silk thread in order to make it stronger.
The Ardeche was closely linked with silk working until the end of the 19th century.
At its peak in 1867, the department had 380 “moulinages” and employed two thirds of the department workers.
Chomérac was in the 18th century the small silk capital of the Vivarais region. Jacques Deydier, a lawyer, built one of his first silk factories settled in around Chomérac.