Silk

Silk is a fabric that has long fascinated people from the west, as well as being an important product of east Asian countries, particularly China, Japan and Thailand. The first creator of silk, in legend, is the lady His-Ling-Shi, who was the wife of the Yellow Emperor, a mythical ruler of extraordinary habits and appetites. In any case, the Chinese zealously guarded the methods of production for centuries despite determined efforts by outsiders to learn how to make their own silk.

Although recent archaeological evidence suggests that silk production began in China reportedly c.2700 BCE and for centuries remained a monopoly of that country, Arab and other traders bringing silk to Europe created demand for the product and for the means of its production. Land caravans brought the goods from China across Asia along what became as the Silk Road and the fabulous wealth of the cities along that route testified to the importance of the trade. Inevitably, therefore, repeated attempts were made to obtain silkworms and finally succeeded. Cottage industries were established in France and Italy among other places to try to prevent the continued flow of precious metals east - the Chinese economy was always self-sufficient when it came to western products and barter was not welcomed. Knowledge of silk production also travelled by various means to Korea, Japan and India and also subsequently south to Thailand through the migrations of the Tais. The capture and destruction of the city of Ganfu in 877 AD, which had been the centre of foreign trade silk production, ended trade for 60 years.

From that time, knowledge of silk production methods has been slowly seeping further and further afield. There are many stories told of intrepid travellers, monks and merchants secreting silkworms about their persons and trying to sneak them back home. The reality is likely to have included both this type of secret endeavour and more prosaic bribery and trade. In any case, silk weaving spread.

However, producing silk is a lengthy and quite difficult process. It has proved very difficult to replicate in other areas, as disease and climatic conditions have prevented successful rearing of the silkworms, which are the caterpillars of the mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori. Several intensive efforts to raise silk worms in the USA have ended in failure and in the release of some environmental hazards. The main centres of production are still in East Asia, together with India and some smaller regional areas that have persisted in Europe. These were instrumental in the creation of the Jacquard power loom which helped bring about the Industrial Revolution.

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