ipl-logo

Silk Road From China To The Roman Empire

443 Words2 Pages

THE SILK ROADS

Silk Road spreads over 3,000 miles from China to the Roman Empire. Silk Road is known by that name because its original purpose was being a Chinese silk trading path

Silk is an Ancient Chinese textile, that is woven from the protein fibre from a silkworm cocoon material, and was developed about 2,700 BC. It was regarded as an extremely valuable product, and was kept for the special usage of the Chinese Imperial Court for cloths, banners, drapes, and things of reputation. The production of silk was a secret that was heavily guarded within China for about 3,000 years. Anyone who revealed the process of production would be executed. The tombs in the Hubei province that were built from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC contain outstanding …show more content…

It was also traded broadly, first with China’s adjacent neighbours, and next, further away. Chinese cloths have been discovered in Egypt, in northern Mongolia, and elsewhere

Sometime, about the 1st century BC, it was introduced to the Roman Empire, where it then was deemed an exotic luxury. Silk’s popularity continued throughout the Middle Ages, with scheming regulations for the production of silk clothes, demonstrating its significance as an essentially royal fabric, and an important source of income for the crown. This luxury item was one of the incentives in the makings of routes for trading from Europe to the Far East.

However, whilst the silk trade was one of the earliest catalysts for the trading routes through Central Asia, it was only one of lots products that was traded between East and West. The Silk Roads began to become popular over the Middle Ages, and they were still functioning in the 19th century. These trading paths did not follow any one trail – people had a wide choice of which route they would take. There were also maritime routes, where people transported goods from China and South East Asia across the Indian Ocean to Africa, India and the Near

Open Document