ABSTRACT
Students of the silk trade are blessed with the rare fortune to study an international trade that is almost as ancient and as continuous as the records of human civilization. Silk, with its appeal of lustrousness, elasticity and durability, has long been considered a symbol of luxury, elegance and sacredness, and was rightfully dubbed the queen of fabrics, the thread of gold. Even in the days of antiquity when transportation was primitive and treacherous, silk, with its high value and low volume and the ease with which it can be carried, stored and packed, could overcome what Braudel called the “tyranny of distance,” which precluded long-distance trade of most commodities. Silk trade on a global scale has gone on for a recorded period of about 3,000 years.
