The Silk Road

The Silk Road refers to an ancient network of trade routes between Asia and Europe and takes its name from the most precious commodity that was transported there: silk.

Silkworm farming, known as sericulture, originated in China, where it was discovered around 2,600 BC. For two millennia, China succeeded in keeping its manufacturing technique a secret in order to maintain a monopoly on the silk trade, which was exported to Europe via the Silk Road.

Under the Chinese monopoly of silk production and the Persian Sassanian monopoly of the silk trade, the Byzantines succeeded in developing silkworm farming and the cultivation of mulberry trees from the 6th century onwards. At first they jealously guarded this manufacturing secret, but from the 11th century onwards, the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily disseminated these techniques more widely, first to Spain and then to Italy and France.