Silk manufacture or Sericulture, as it is technically called, originated in China. However, silk was an unknown thing for the West for a very long time. Roman historian Pliny wrote in 70th BC that silk was produced “…by removing the down from the leaves with the help of water…” – a clear indication about the ignorance about silk in the West.

Perhaps this secret is one of the safest guarded ones in the history of civilization.

According to the Chinese legend, queen Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor started the idea of silkworm rearing and the loom. Legend says that the Yellow Emperor reined the country in 3000 BC; so China can claim of silk rearing from that period. However, studies conducted that it originated much earlier.
Since silk began with the Royal family, evidently for a long period of time, its use was restricted to the King and his family.  It is said that the king wore a white silk robe inside the palace and a yellow one outside the premises.

Much later, it reached out to the various sections of the society. Its use was initially meant for clothing and decoration and later on for industrial purposes that included fishing lines, musical instruments, and various kinds of bonds, bowstrings and rag paper. In due course of time, this fabric became accessible even to the common man and silk clothing gained popularity.

Silk production is a tedious and lengthy process that requires continuous supervising of the smallest of the details. To ensure the quality of silk, it is important to consider two conditions - prevent the moth from hatching out and setting the perfect the diet on which the silkworms should feed.

The hatching of the eggs occurs at 77 degrees; the baby silk worms gorge on the mulberry leaves and becomes almost 10,000 times their weight within one month. This feeding happens unless they have built up enough energy to enter the ‘cocoon stage’. During this period, a jelly like substance is formed in their silk glands which harden on contact with air. These cocoons look like white puffy balls. After eight to nine days, these silk worms are killed, by steaming or baking. When these cocoons are dropped into hot water, they become loose and open out into filaments which are unwound into a spool. Each filament is between 600 and 900 meters long. To get one silk thread, approximately five to eight filaments are twisted together; these silk threads are then woven into cloth or used for embroidery work.

The popularity of silk became so widespread that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia came to be known as the Silk Road.

According to history, the demand for this fabric became so high that perhaps silk trade started much before the Silk Road was officially opened in the 6th century BC. This belief is based on the discovery of an Egyptian mummy in silk in 1070 BC, the earliest evidence of silk trade. During the second century BC ambassadors of the Chinese emperor Han Wu Di traveled to Persia and Mesopotamia bearing gifts including silks. One of the most dramatic finds of Tang silks along the Silk Road was made in 1907 by Aurel Stein.

Around fourth century BC, the Greeks and Romans began talking of Seres, the Kingdom of Silk. About 53 BC, at the Battle of Carrhae, near the Euphrates River, the soldiers fled from the war field after seeing the bright colored silk banners of the Parthian troops. Chinese silks were very popular in Rome and was primarily used by the upper and the elite sections. It is said that the Roman emperor Heliogabalus used only silk. This fascination for silk continued for decades; the cost of this fabric was extremely high in Rome – Chinese bark, a type of silk was priced at 300 denarii, equivalent to a Roman soldiers salary fro an entire year. Historians argued that this craze was responsible for ruining the Roman economy to a great extent.

In the last few decades the production of silk has almost doubled with China and Japan as the main producers.