I Can’t Sleep - Silk | Can't Sleep? Learn About Ancient Fabric and the Silk Road

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Silk changed global trade long before most people had maps that made any sense. This episode covers how silk is made, why it became one of the most valuable materials in history, and how entire empires got weirdly protective about tiny caterpillars with very productive hobbies. Along the way, you’ll hear about the Silk Road, ancient China’s monopoly on silk production, medieval trade networks, and the long process of turning cocoons into fabric people still associate with luxury pajamas and expensive scarves. It turns out humans have spent thousands of years obsessing over shiny fabric, which honestly tracks. It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Silk, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. — Ad-free episodes: icantsleep.supportingcast.fmHave a topic in mind? Request a topic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Visit BetMGM casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor.

Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca.

Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for Calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, and today's episode is about silk. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable and effortlessly cool.

With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price? Moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? Scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify.

Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours. They don't move on, they manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans. Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven or knitted into textiles.

The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibrin, and a smaller coating of syrup. It is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm, bombix mori, which are reared in captivity. The shimmery appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fiber, which causes silk cloth to refract incoming light. different angles, thus producing different colors.

Harvested silk is produced by numerous insects. Generally, only the silk of various moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. Research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level, has been conducted. Silk is produced primarily by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis. But some insects, such as web spinners and raspy crickets, produce silk throughout their lives. Silk production also occurs in hymenoptera, bees, wasps, and ants, silverfish, catas flies, mayflies, thrips, leafhoppers, beetles, lace wings, fleas, flies, and midges. Other types of arthropods also produce silk, most notably various arachnids, such as spiders.

The production of silk originated in central China in the Neolithic period, although it would eventually reach other places of the world. Silk production remained confined to China under the Silk Road, opened at some point during the latter part of the first millennium BC, though China maintained its virtual monopoly over silk production for another thousand years. Several kinds of wild silk produced by caterpillars, others than the mulberry silkworm, have been known and spun in China, South Asia, and Europe, since ancient times. However, the scale of production was always far smaller than for cultivated silks.

There are several reasons for this. First, they differ from the domesticated varieties in color and texture, and are therefore less uniform. Second, cocoons gathered in the wild have usually had the pupa emerge from them before being discovered, so the silk thread that makes up the cocoon has been torn into shorter lengths. And third, many wild cocoons are covered. covered in a mineral layer that prevents attempts to reel from them long strands of silk. Thus, the only way to obtain silk suitable for spinning into textiles in areas where commercial

silks are not cultivated was by tedious and labor-intensive carting. Some natural silk structures have been used without being unwound or spun. Spider-webs were used as a wound dressing in ancient Greece, in Rome, and as a base for painting from the 16th century. Butterfly caterpillar nests were pasted together to make a fabric in the Aztec Empire. Commercial silks originate from reared silkworm pupae, which are bred to produce a white-colored silk thread, with no mineral on the surface. Wild silks also tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.

A technique known as demineralizing allows the mineral layer around the cocoon of wild silk moths to be removed. Leaving only variability in color has a barrier to creating a commercial silk industry based on wild silks in the parts of the world where wild silk moths thrive, such as in Africa and South America.

Silk use in fabric was first developed in ancient China. The earliest evidence for silk is the presence of the silk protein fibroen in soil samples, from two tombs at the Neolithic side, Jahu and Hinnon, which date back about 8,500 years. The earliest surviving example of silk fabric dates from about 3,000, and 630 BC, and was used as a wrapping for the body of a child at Yongshuo culture site in Qing Tai Tzu near Xinjiang, anon. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Lezu. Silks were originally reserved for the emperors of China for their own use and gifts to others. But spread gradually through Chinese culture and trade, both geographically and socially, and then to many regions of Asia.

Because of its texture and luster, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. Silk was in great demand, and became a staple of pre-industrial international trade. Silk was also used as a surface for writing. especially during the warring state periods. The fabric was lied, it survived the damp climate of the Yonksa region, absorbed ink well, and provided a white background for the text.

In July 2007, archaeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, dated to the eastern Joe. dynasty roughly 2,500 years ago, although historians have suspected a long history of a formative textile industry in ancient China. This find of silk textiles employing complicated techniques of weaving and dyeing, provides direct evidence for silks dating before the Mauang Duay discovery

and other silks dating to the Han Dynasty. Silk is described in a chapter of the the Fonscheng Zhru-Shu from the Western Han Empire. There is a surviving calendar for silk production in an Eastern Han Empire document. The two other known works on silk from the Han Empire are lost. The first evidence of the long-distance silk trade is the finding of silk in the hair of an Egyptian mummy of the 21st dynasty, circa 170 BC. The silk trade reached as far as the Indian subcontinent,

the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. This trade was so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia came to be known as the Silk Road. The Chinese emperors strove to keep knowledge of sericulture secret to maintain the Chinese monopoly. Nonetheless, Syraculture partially reached Korea with technological aid from China around 200 BC, the ancient Kingdom of Qatan by AD 50,

and India by AD 140. In the ancient era, silk from China was the most lucrative and sought after luxury item, traded across the Eurasian continent. And many civilizations, such as the Persians, benefited economically from trade. In ancient traditional Chinese medicine, silk was used as a means to cover the wound and suture it and hasten the closure and healing process. Wound dressings were frequently woven from silk,

which proliferated as a practice into numerous or numerous, early societies. Archaeological evidence indicates that sericulture has been practiced since the Yayoi period. The silk industry was dominant from the 1930s to 1950s, but is less common now. Silk from East Asia had declined in importance after silkworms were smuggled from China to the Byzantine Empire. However, in 1845, and An epidemic of luxury among European silkworms devastated the silk industry there. This led to a demand for silk from China and Japan, where as late as the 19th and early

20th centuries, Japanese exports competed directly with Chinese in the international market in such low-value-added labor-intensive products as raw silk. Between 1850 and 1930, raw silk ranked as the leading export for both countries, accounting for 20% to 40% of Japan's total exports and 20% to 30% of China's. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Japanese silk exports quadrupled, making Japan the largest silk exporter in the world. This increase in exports was mostly due to to the economic reforms during the Maiji period, and the decline of the Qing dynasty in China, which led to rapid industrialization of Japan whilst the Chinese industries stagnated. During World War II, embargoes against Japan had led to adoption of synthetic materials,

such as nylon, which led to the decline of the Japanese silk industry and its position as a lead silk exporter of the world. Today, China exports the largest volume of raw silk in the world. Silk has a long history in India. It is known as Risham in eastern and north India and Patu in southern parts of India. Recent discoveries in Harappa and Chanhudaro suggests that Syraculture employing wild silk threads from native silkworm species, existed in South Asia during the time of the Indus Valley civilization, dating between 2,450 BC and 2000 BC. Sheila Venker, a silk expert at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford,

who sees evidence for silk production in China significantly earlier than 2,500 to 2000 BC, suggests people of the Indus civilization either harvested silkworm cocoons or traded with people who did, and that they knew a considerable amount about silk. India is the second largest producer of silk in the world after China. About 97% of India's raw mulberry silk

comes from six states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu, and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and West Bengal. North Bangalore, the upcoming side of a $20 million silk city, Ramanagra, and Mysore, contribute to a majority of silk production in Kanataka. In Tamil Nadu, mulberry cultivation is concentrated in the Coimbatore, Erode, Bagalpuri, Tirupur, Salem, and Dharmapuri districts, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, and Gobichetapaliyam, Tamil Nadu, where the first locations in India have automated silk reeling units. In the northeastern state of Assam, three different types of indigenous variety of silk are produced, collectively called Assam silk, Mugha silk, airy silk, and pot silk. Muga, the golden silk and airy, are produced by silkworms that are native only to Assam. They have been reared since ancient times.

Silk is produced year-round in Thailand by two types of things. two types of silkworms, the cultured bombicity and wild saturnity. Most production is after the rice harvest in the southern and northeastern parts of the country. Women traditionally weave silk on hand looms and pass the skill onto their daughters, as weaving is considered to be a sign of maturity and eligibility for marriage. Thai silk textiles often use complicated patterns in various colors and styles. Most regions of Thailand have their own typical silks.

A single thread filament is too thin to use on its own, so women combine many threads to produce a thicker usable fiber. They do this by hand-reeling the threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. The process takes around 40 hours to produce a half kilogram of silk. Many local operations use a reeling machine for this task, but some silk threads are still hand-reeled. The difference is that hand-reeled threads produce three grades of silk,

two fine grades that are ideal for lightweight fabrics and a thick grade for heavier material. The silk fabric is soaked in extremely cold water and bleached before dying to remove the natural yellow coloring of tie silk yarn. To do this, skeins of silk threads are immersed in large tubs of hydrogen peroxide. Once washed and dried, the silk is a very thick. the silk is woven on a traditional hand-operated loom. The Rajshahi Division of northern Bangladesh is the hub of the country's silk industry. There are three types of silk produced in the region.

Mulberry, Andi, and Tussar. Bengali silk was a major item of international trade for centuries. It was known as Ganges Silk and medieval Europe. Bengal was the leading exporter of silk between the 16th and 19th centuries. In the Torah, a scarlet-cloth item called in Hebrew Shneetolaad, literally Crimson of the Worm, is described as being used in purification ceremonies, such as those following a leprosy outbreak, alongside Cedarwood and Hissop,

eminent scholar and leading medieval translator of Jewish sources and books of the Bible and Arabic, Rabbi's Sa'adiah Gaon, translates this phrase explicitly as crimson silk. In Islamic teachings, Muslim men are forbidden to wear silk. There are disputes regarding the amount of silk a fabric can consist of. e.g. whether a small decorative silk piece on a cotton caftan is permissible or not, or to be lawful for men to wear. But the dominant opinion of most Muslim scholars

is that the wearing of silk by men is forbidden. Modern attire has raised a number of issues, including, for instance, the permissibility of wearing silk neckties. In the Odyssey, 19.2, when Odysseus, while pretending to be someone else, is questioned by Penelope about her husband's clothing, she says that he wore a shirt gleaming like the skin of a dried onion, which could refer to the lustrous quality of silk fabric. Aristotle wrote of Coavestis, a wild silk textile from Kose-Se silk from certain large sea shells was also. valued. The Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk, and Chinese silk was the most highly priced luxury good imported by them. During the reign of Emperor Tiberias, some churru laws were passed that forbade men from wearing silk garments, but these proved ineffectual.

The Historia Augusta mentions that the 3rd century emperor, Ilegabalus, was the the first Roman to wear garments of pure silk, whereas it had been customary to wear fabrics of silk cotton or silk linen blends. Despite the popularity of silk, the secret of silk making only reached Europe around AD 50 by the Byzantine Empire. Contemporary accounts stayed that monks working for the Emperor Justinian I, smuggled silkworm eggs to constant. from China, inside hollow canes. All top-quality looms and weavers were located inside the Great Palace complex in Constantinople, and the cloth produced was used in imperial robes, or in diplomacy, as gifts

to foreign dignitaries. The remainder was sold at very high prices. Italy was the most important producer of silk during the medieval age. The first center to introduce silk production to Italy was the city of Catanzaro during the 11th century in the region of Calabria. The silk of Cantanzaro supplied almost all of Europe and was sold in a large market fair in the port of Reggio Calabria to Spanish, Venetian, Genovese, and Dutch merchants. Katanzaro became the lace capital of the world for a large city. silkworm breeding facility that produced all the laces and linens used in the Vatican. The city was world famous for its fine fabrication of silks, velvets, damask, and brigades.

Another notable center was the Italian city state of Lucca, which largely financed itself through silk production and silk trading, beginning in the 12th century. Other Italian cities involved in silk production were Genoa, Venice, and Florence. The Piedmont area of northern Italy became a major silk producing area when water-powered silk-throwing machines were developed. The silk exchange in Valencia from the 15th century, where previously in 1348, also Perksul, was traded as some kind of silk, illustrates the power of a wealth of one of the great Mediterranean mercantile cities.

Silk was produced in and exported from the province of Granada, Spain, especially in the Albuhras region, until the Moriscos, whose industry it was, were expelled from Granada in 1571. Since the 15th century, silk production in France has been centered around the city of Lyon, where many mechanic tools for mass production were first introduced in the 17th century. James I attempted to establish silk production in England, purchasing and planting 100,000 mulberry trees, some on land adjacent to Hampton Court Palace, but they were of a species unsuited as a silkworms, and the attempt failed.

In 1732, John Guadivallio set up a silk-throwing enterprise, at logwood mill and Stockport. In 1744, Burton Mill was erected in Macclesfield, and in 1753, Old Mill was built in Congleton. These three towns remain the center of the English silk-throwing industry until silk throwing was replaced by silk waist spinning. British Enterprise also established Silk Filleture and Cyprus in 19, In England, in the mid-20th century, raw silk was produced at Lollingston Castle in Kent.

Silkworms were raised and reeled under the direction of Zoe Lady Hart-Dyke, later moving to Ayat St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire in 1956. During World War II, supplies of silk for UK parachute manufacturer were secured from the Middle East by Peter Gaddam. Wild silk taken from the nests of native butterfly and moth caterpillars was used by the Aztecs to make containers and as paper. Silkworms were introduced in Wahaka from Spain in the 1530s, and the region profited from silk production until the early 17th century, when the king of Spain banned export to protect Spain's silk industry. Silk production for lowly. local consumption is continued until the present day, sometimes spinning wild silk.

King James I introduced silk growing to the British colonies in America around 1619, ostensibly to discourage tobacco planting. The Shakers in Kentucky adopted the practice. The history of industrial silk in the United States is largely tied to several smaller urban centers in the Northeast region. in the Northeast region. Beginning in the 1830s, Manchester, Connecticut emerged as the early center of the silk industry in America. When the Cheney Brothers became the first in the United States to properly raise silkworms

on an industrial scale, today the Cheney Brothers historic district showcases their former mills. With the mulberry tree craze of that decade, other smaller, producers began raising silkworms. This economy particularly gained traction in the vicinity of Northampton, Massachusetts, and its neighboring Williamsburg, where a number of small firms and cooperatives emerged. Among the most prominent of these was a cooperative utopian Northampton Association for Education and Industry,

of which Sojourner Truth was a member, following the destructive Mill River flood of 1874, one manufacturer, William Skinner, relocated his mill from Williamsburg to the then-new city of Holyoke. Over the next 50 years, he and his sons would maintain relations between the American silk industry and its counterparts in Japan, and expanded their business to the point that by 1911, the Skinner Mill Complex contained the largest silk mill under one roof in the world,

and the brand Skinner Fabrics had become the largest manufacturer of silk satins internationally. Other efforts later in the 19th century would also bring the new silk industry to Patterson, New Jersey, with several firms hiring European-born textile workers, and granting it the nickname Silk City as another major center of production in the United States. World War II interrupted the silk trade from Asia, and silk prices increased dramatically. U.S. industry began to look for substitutes,

which led to the use of synthetics, such as nylon. Synthetic silks have also been made from lyosel, a type of cellulose fiber, and are often difficult to distinguish from real silk.