_(For the Mirror.)_
The frequency of open hostilities between the Emperor of Constantinople
and the monarchs of Persia, together with the increasing rivalry of their
subjects in the trade with India, gave rise to an event which produced a
considerable change in the silk trade. As the use of that article, both in
dress and furniture, became more general in the court of the Greek
emperors, who imitated and surpassed the sovereigns of Asia in splendour
and magnificence; and as China, in which, according to the concurring
testimony of oriental writers, the culture of silk was originally known,
_(Herlelot. Biblioth. Orient.)_, still continued to be the only country
which produced that valuable commodity; the Persians improving the
advantages which their situation gave them over the merchants from the
Arabian Gulf, supplanted them in all the marts of India, to which silk was
brought by sea from the east. Having it likewise in their power to molest
or to cut off the caravans, which, in order to procure a supply for the
Greek empire, travelled by land to China through the northern provinces of
their kingdom, they entirely engrossed that branch of commerce.
Constantinople was obliged to depend on the rival power for an article
which luxury reserved and desired as essential to elegance. The Persians,
with the usual rapacity of monopolists, raised the price of silk to such
an exorbitant height, that the Emperor Justinian eager, not only to obtain
a full and certain supply of a commodity which was become of indispensible
use, but solicitous to deliver the commerce of his subjects from the
exactions of his enemies, endeavoured, by means of his ally, the christian
monarch of Abyssinia, to wrest some portion of the silk trade from the
Persians. In this attempt he failed; but when he least expected it, he, by
an unforeseen event, attained in some measure (A.D. 55.) the object which
he had in view. Two Persian monks having been employed as missionaries to
some christian churches which were established (as we are informed by
Cosmas) in different parts of India, had penetrated into the country of
the Seres, or China. There they observed the labours of the silk-worm, and
became acquainted with all the arts of men in working up its productions
into such a variety of elegant fabrics. The prospect of gain, or perhaps
an indignant zeal excited by seeing this lucrative branch of commerce
engrossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them to repair to
Constantinople. There they explained to the emperor the origin of silk,
as well as the various modes of preparing and manufacturing it--mysteries
hitherto unknown, or very imperfectly understood in Europe, and encouraged
by his liberal promises, they undertook to bring to the capital a
sufficient number of those wonderful insects to whose labours man is so
much indebted. This they accomplished by conveying the eggs of the
silk-worm in a hollow cane. They were hatched by the heat of a dunghill;
fed with the leaves of a wild mulberry-tree, and they multiplied and worked
in the same manner as in those climates where they first became objects of
human attention and care. Vast numbers of these insects were soon reared
in different parts of Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus. Sicily
afterwards undertook to breed silk-worms with equal success, and was
imitated from time to time in several towns of Italy. In all these places
extensive manufactures were established and carried on with silk of
domestic production. The demand for silk from the East diminished, of
course. The subjects of the Greek emperors were no longer obliged to have
recourse to their enemies, the Persians, for a supply of it; and a
considerable change took place in the nature of the commercial intercourse
between Europe and India.
Before the introduction of the silk-worm into Europe, and as often as its
production is mentioned by the Greek and Roman authors, they had not, for
several centuries after the use of it became common, any certain knowledge
either of the countries to which they were indebted for this favourite
article of elegance, or the manner in which it was produced, By some, silk
was supposed to be a fine down adhering to the leaves of trees or flowers;
others imagined it to be a delicate species of wool or cotton; and even
those who had learned that it was the work of an insect, show by their
description that they had no distinct idea of the manner in which it was
formed. A circumstance concerning the traffic of silk among the Romans
merits observation. Contrary to what usually takes place in the operations
of trade, the more general use of that commodity seems not to have
increased the quantity imported in such proportion as to answer the
growing demand for it; and the price of silk was not reduced during the
course of 250 years from the time of its being first known in Rome. In the
reign of Aurelian it still continued to be valued at its weight in gold.
(See Robertson's _History of India_.)
It is a singular circumstance in the history of silk, that, on account of
its being an exertion of a worm, the Mahomedans consider it as an unclean
dress, and it has been decided with the unanimous assent of all their
doctors, that a person wearing a garment made entirely of silk cannot
lawfully offer up the daily prayers enjoined by the Koran. _(Herbel. Bibl.
Orient.)_ C.V.
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