Current event: http://chinaag.org/production/china-agriculture-crops/silk/
Past event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk
Past event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk
"China Silk Production - Major, Minor and Major Again "
The mulberry silk moth is native to China and about 4000 BC the Chinese were the first to discover that the cocoon could be unwound into a long thread and used to make very fine cloth. For many centuries silk use was limited to China. Then starting around 500 BC the famous silk road was created and for the next thousand years China was mostly able to keep how silk was made a secret and had a near monopoly on the world's silk production. An exception was about 200 BC Korea created its own silk industry thanks to a few Chinese immigrants who had settled there. Finally about 300 AD, silk farming, or sericulture began to spread into India, Japan, and Persia, making silk a part of the history of those cultures. The Roman Empire knew the trading of silk. Despite its popularity, however, the secret of silk-making was only to reach Europe around 550 AD. According to a legend enshrined in silk history monks working for the emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople in hollow bamboo walking canes. Thus during the sixth century China lost its monopoly on silk production and it's economy suffered from the loss of that export.
By the twentieth century Japan had become the primary producer of silk but during the Second World
War silk supplies from Japan were cut off and western countries were forced to
find substitutes. Synthetic fibers such as nylon began to be used in products such as
parachutes and stockings, replacing silk. The continued rise in importance of
synthetic fibers and loosening of the protectionist economy contributed to the
decline of Japan's silk industry, and by 1975 it was no longer a net exporter
of silk. With its recent economic reforms, the People's Republic of China has once again established itself as the world's largest silk producer. In 1996 it produced 58,000 tonnes out
of a world production of 81,000, with India at 13,000 tonnes being a distant second. World silk
production has approximately doubled during the last 30 years in spite of
man-made fibers replacing silk for many uses. Thus starting in the late 1970's China, the
country that first developed sericulture, thousands years ago, dramatically
increased its silk production and has again become by far the world’s leading producer
of silk.
For thousands of years
China had a near monopoly on the production of silk but starting about 500 AD
production gradually moved to other countries, especially Japan and India. By the mid nineteenth century European silk
culture was very important but it went
into decline from disease and also the opening of the Suez canal made it easier
to import silk from the Far East. Then
by adopting modern methods of production for much of the twentieth century
Japan had been the major producer of silk.
With the advent of synthetic fibers, such as nylon silk, became much
less important in world trade and China
played a small part in the relatively small market for silk. But by the 1980's China began to quickly
modernize and Japan had almost stopped producing silk. As a result China has once again, after 1500
years, become by far the most important producer of silk and silk products.
Citations:
- http://www.utsavpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Murshidabad-Silk-Sarees.jpg
- http://www.utsavpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Murshidabad-Silk-Sarees.jpg
Current Event Article:
Market Intelligence on Chinas Culture
18 February, 2014 - 01:13 aprilholloway
Link: http://chinaag.org/production/china-agriculture-crops/silk/
Ancient Article:
History Of Silk
Wikipedia
Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk
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