History About Silk

Early Silk History

Silk was first developed in early China, possibly as early as 6000 BC and definitely by 3000 BC. Legend gives credit to a Chinese Empress Xi Ling Shi.

Though first reserved for the Emperors of China, its use spread gradually through Chinese culture both geographically and socially. From there, silken garments began to reach regions throughout Asia.

Silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants, because of its texture and lustre. Because of the high demand for the fabric, silk was one of the staples of international trade prior to industrialization.

Silk Trade

Perhaps the first evidence of the silk trade is that of an Egyptian mummy of 1070 BC. In subsequent centuries, the silk trade reached as far as the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. This trade was so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia has become known as the Silk Road.

Silk Secret

The Emperors of China strove to keep the knowledge of sericulture secret from other nations, in order to maintain the Chinese monopoly on its production. This effort at secrecy had mixed success.

Sericulture reached Korea around 200 BC with Chinese settlers, about the first half of the 1st century AD in Khotan, and by 300 AD the practice had been established in India.

Although the Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk, the secret was only to reach Europe around AD 550, via the Byzantine Empire. Legend has it that the monks working for the emperor Justinian were the first to bring silkworm eggs to Constantinople in hollow canes.

The Byzantines were equally secretive, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly; all top-quality looms and weavers were located inside the Palace complex in Constantinople and the cloth produced was used in imperial robes or in diplomacy, as gifts to foreign dignitaries. The remainder was sold at exorbitant prices.

[Source: WIKIPEDIA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk]