LESSONS: Social Studies and History

Silk and Trade from The Shining Cloth: Dress and Adornment that Glitter by Victoria Z. Rivers.

Many hundreds of years ago, the source of silk and the knowledge of how to harvest and weave it were highly guarded secrets. China was the land of Bombyx mori, the silk worm that produced the smoothest, shiniest silk fiber. Silk has a glorious history full of stories about economic power and trade, ingenious artistry and beauty.

The trail of smooth white Bombyx mori silk begins in China. Early evidence of silk cultivation (sericulture) such as silkworms, loom and spinning parts, and bits of embroidered and woven silk dating from 7000 to 1600 BC were found in Chinese tombs. Chinese silks reached Mongolia and as far west as Syria, then into the Mediterranean region by the second century BC. Silks reached India by the fourth century AD, and Persia and Japan by the sixth century AD. Over the centuries, several powerful kingdoms took their turns at controlling silk industries and supply routes. The famed overland Silk Road which crossed Asia, was not one big road but several routes which branched off into many different directions. As goods were traded far and wide over these routes, places became famous for their silk weaves. Many words entered our present-day vocabulary from the ancient silk trade. The word satin probably came from a place in China called Zatun. The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo described muslin as a cloth woven with silk and gold. The name comes from a city in Iraq called Mosul, where the weave originated. Tabby was originally the name for a striped, rustling cloth called taffeta, woven in Attabiy, in Baghdad. Its irregular patterns gave striped cats their name.

Traders and caravans rarely traveled the entire length of the Silk Road. Bands of merchants typically traded certain goods to one destination, then bartered the goods they picked up in another town, and so on until they made their way back from where they started. Silks and other luxury goods, like jewels, perfumes, gold, and ivory, were just some of the items from the East. There was also a tremendous exchange of knowledge about great religions, philosophy, and plants, to name a few. The spice trade was also intricately linked with the silk trade and trade routes. The Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gamma arrived in India in 1498, which led to sea trade routes connecting Europe and Asia. Europe's merchants sent manufactured goods like woolens, caps, kerchiefs, clocks and watches, wines, mirrors and crystal glassware, jewelry, pictures, coins, musical instruments, dried fruits and cheese, iron and lead. In return, goods from Asia included spices, pearls and jewels, honey, wax, silk, carpets, furniture, embroideries, drugs, perfumes, and cottons. By the eighteenth century, sea trade and resulting wealth by-passed once powerful Asian/Middle-Eastern cities, and the economic power base shifted to Europe.

The production of beautiful cloth greatly changed, also. The industrial revolution in the nineteenth century and the invention of chemical dyes led to machine-produced cloth dyed with artificial colors. Hand weavers and dyers were greatly affected, because quicker, cheaper mass-manufactured European goods flooded world markets. Some of the ancient weaving industries never recovered, while others are being revived with government encouragement.

Today, in fashion and soft products for the home like bedding and upholstery, there is great interest in silk and Asian textile motifs. Ancient Chinese long-life symbols, bamboo and plum blossoms, dragons, and other lucky images are appearing. See Gallery images: Silk/Surfaces 1/1, 1/2, 1/3; and Gold 2/6. Textile motifs and patterns from India are seen, too. Many garments and goods are inspired by Indian textiles with tie dye and mirror embroidery. The mango or cashew-shaped patterns known in India as butta, are more popular than ever. We know these shapes as "paisley" designs, named after the Scottish mill city where once-handloomed shawls with butta patterns were imitated by machine. See a butta shape in the Gallery section: Silk/Surfaces 1/6.

Beautiful weavings and embroideries are beginning to fill peoples' walls, halls, and closets again. Today, these textiles are made with silk, or some other material. A little of the history of the Silk Road and the beauty of the textiles that made those famous journeys lives on in these textiles today. And it is fascinating to remember that much of the world at one time was connected by the thread from a caterpillar - the silkworm.

For other visuals to accompany this assignment, go to the Shining Cloth Web site at: http://shiningcloth.ucdavis.edu Click on the Gallery section and look at images 1/4 kapadu; 1/5 silk coat; 1/8 polished ikat; 1/11 silk and lacquer cloth; 2/1 trousers; and 2/2 vest.

Suggested Discussion Questions and Projects:

1. Why did people value silk? What determines whether or not something is valued? What are some of the items we value today and why?

2. What were some luxury goods that came from China? How do people acquire goods today? How is this different from the past?

3. There were positive and negative aspects to European contact and trade domination in foreign lands. Identify some aspects of each and discuss.

4. How did people acquire their soft goods and clothing hundreds of years ago? How many students or their family members know how to make thread and/ or clothing today? How is this different from one to two hundred years ago?

5. Students can study textile images in the Virtual Gallery. They search for and cut out pictures of contemporary Chinese and Indian -inspired textiles from magazines and mail-order catalogs. They learn to identify motifs and styles, and to look for similarities and differences between things made in the past and those made in the present.