The natural protein silk is produced by mulberry silkworm. The evidence of the first silk runs back into around 2696 BC, to the time of the mythical Yellow Emperor of China. The myth says that the King’s wife, Lady His-Ling-Shih invented silk, fortuitously. The story flows as follows. The Lady had noticed the creature responsible for the damage of mulberry trees and she had collected a number of cocoons of silkworm. Accidently, one of them had fallen into her cup of tea which had unwound a thread in hot tea. Afterward, she deliberately had put more cocoons untwisting them making threads that were strong enough for weaving. According to Chinese documents, she is sometimes referred to as The Goddess of Silk.
A moth lays around 500 eggs and dies. Little worms feed themselves on mulberry leaves and a month later they spin cocoons which are steamed and rinsed in hot water which kills the worm and loses the thread. Unwound cocoons are combined into six to make silk threads. Finally, the woven cloths are pounded to make them softer. Triangular prism-like structures in silk fiber refract pure light in different angles making the product differently colored.
Silk was initially restricted among royals and nobles. However, things changed with time (1644-1911 AD) and pheasants and lower caste were also allowed to wear silk. Soon, silk was began to use as a currency (206-220 AD). Civil servants were paid their wages in silk while farmers paid their taxes in grains and silk. Not only for cloth, but also paper was produced out of silk. So were fishing lines, bowstrings and canvas. The discovery of silk paper from the tomb of a noble belonged to around 168 AD reveals the oldest silk paper evidence. Silk was traded to Europe through Silk Road bringing home gold, silver and wool back through over 6000 km long Silk Road passing Damascus, middle east, Pamir mountains and The Great wall of China.
In 550 AD, the secret of silk which was protected for over 1000 years was lost due to the smuggling of silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Modern Istanbul in Turkey). This was planned by the monks of Byzantine Empire. They artfully managed to store the eggs in the hollow of bamboo walking sticks and to get them out of China.
Eventually, many countries started silk production, where Persia managed to develop their unique patterns with the established silk industry during the 6th century. Later on, Italy had the lead of silk production in Europe as many merchants of Constantinople settled down in Italy by the 13th century. It was in 1845, the silk industry in Europe began to fall due to silkworm disease. Japan took their advantage promptly at the time silk was exorbitant. Japan was the world’s largest silk supplier till the second world war, after which China managed to catch up the position they lost a few centuries ago. China’s silk production exceeded 68,000 Metric Tons in 2019, which was over 60% of global silk production.
However, being the center of the current global pandemic, China’s silk industry was highly affected and the silk supplies were further affected by the lockdown of major towns in the world.