the.com/silk textiles
a worm spits thread and empires rise and fall on who controls it.
means fabric woven from the fine protein fiber that silkworms spin to build their cocoons.
from china cracked the code around 3000 bce and guarded the secret for millennia, executing anyone caught smuggling silkworm eggs or mulberry seeds abroad, until byzantine monks reportedly smuggled eggs out inside hollow bamboo canes around 552 ce.
cocoon mathone cocoon yields up to 900 meters of thread
worm costeach silkworm dies to unspool its cocoon whole
road namesakethe silk road was named after this exact cargo
tensile strengthstronger by weight than an equivalent strand of steel
for instance
suzhou brocade — chinese imperial weave prized since the song dynasty
banarasi silk — varanasi weavers hand-loom gold-thread saris since the mughal era
lyon silk — french city built its economy on silk looms by 1600s
thai silk — jim thompson revived the industry commercially in the 1950s