Introduction
Textiles: Silk & Cotton
Textiles, particularly silk and cotton have a long and complex history within the global economy. From their origins, to trade, to the evolution of their production, both silk and cotton have had a significant impacts on the culture and history of the areas that they came into contact with. What makes silk and cotton particularly unique to the history of the world is that both had significant cultural implications in the regions they were produced in as well as the regions they were traded to. The trade of both silk and cotton went far beyond an exchange of goods, along the routes of the silk and cotton trade new ideas such as religious ideals and ways of life spread from place to place.
The first definite production of silk in China dates to around 3000 BCE. Even from the start of its manufacture, it had heavy cultural and economic significance. When silk was first discovered, only the emperor, his close relatives, and the very highest of his dignitaries were permitted to wear it. Gradually, silk came into more general use. It rapidly became one of the main elements of the Chinese economy. It was used for musical instruments, fishing-lines, bowstrings, and even paper. Later on, even common people were able to wear silk garments.
Silk was economically important not just to China. As it began to spread throughout Asia and Europe, the routes along which it traveled became known as the Silk Road. Despite China’s efforts to keep silk production a secret, sericulture was brought to Korea around 200 BCE by Chinese immigrants. Then, shortly after 300 CE, the cultivation of the silkworm was established in India. Around 550 CE, two monks arrived at the court of the Byzantine emperor with silkworm eggs hidden in their hollow bamboo staves. Finally, by the sixth century CE the Persians had also mastered the art of silk weaving.
The origin of the cotton plant has never been definitely determined, but in a transcript by Herodotus, dating from 450 BCE, cotton fiber is referred to as "tree wool." Ethiopia was one of the first places in which cotton was domesticated. There is also evidence of early use of cotton in India. From India, it quickly spread to Persia, where it was grown at the head of the Persian Gulf and was made into cloth. The Gupta Dynasty brought to India a time of heightened agriculture and trade. Cotton textiles became an important part of Indian manufacture and economy. Indians excelled in all aspects of preparing cotton textiles, particularly dyeing and embroidering the cloth. During this time period, India also began to produce its own silk textiles.
Both of these textiles have a long history, dating far back into time as some of the first fibers from domesticated organisms used in commerce. Understanding their importance to ancient civilizations is key to understanding the ancient Old World web, which was drawn and wrought by the trade of these nations. While food and domesticated animals were important to the ancient cultures, neither of these had a profound influence on trade between nations, because most of these nations had their own food and means of transport. Textiles, however, could be marketed in kingdoms far from where the cloth had originated. Thus, it can be deduced that textiles, along with other commodities, were among some of the most important items that sparked trade; and therefore the creation of the Old World, and eventually the Global, web. While we may take the clothes we wear for granted, it is important to recognize that they are perhaps the things that sparked the first push for a global web of trade, two thousand years before today.
There are multiple reasons why we chose silk and cotton as the textiles for our project. One was that both they were particularly economically significant before 1000CE therefore created an interesting history to be portrayed within the project. Also the history of silk and cotton are very closely related; they travelled along a lot of the same roads for trade and places such as India and China trades Cotton for silk and vice versa. Because of this close linkage, silk and cotton are often looked upon together in history.
Another reason why we chose to look at the history of silk and cotton was because of their cultural implications. Both racially altered the ways in which clothing was produced and how clothing was viewed culturally. Silk and cotton can be woven into impressive tapestries and beautiful clothing, as opposed to materials such as wool which were incredibly difficult to manipulate and design at this time. India, which was one of the major origins of Cotton, was influenced by China’s silk production enough that it began to produce silk. This was the same case with China and cotton.
Lastly, silk and cotton both have similar production methods. From the raw materials to the finished piece of art or clothing, they both take close to the same amount of skill and effort to produce. Also, they both have moved from the work of artisans to large scale production today. These are the main reasons why we chose to follow the history of both cotton and silk as the textiles for our project.