In today's economic globalization and trade globalization, there are many exchanges between countries, but the customs import and export control of each country is very strict, in addition to ensuring the safety of the country and the people, in fact, there is a very important point, that is, to prevent the leakage of economic and cultural related characteristic technologies.
At customs on the mainland, inspections are so strict that they hardly let go of any harmful transactions. But as early as thousands of years ago, the Chinese suffered losses in this regard, and the tools at that time were not tall black technology, but simple single bamboo poles.
1. Raising silkworms and cutting silk
Since the era of Yanhuang legend, there has been a great woman who pioneered the weaving industry, which is called the story of the ancestor raising silkworms and cutting silk.
At that time, the Yellow Emperor defeated Chiyou and established a tribal alliance, and in order to improve the lives of the people, he decided to grow grains, make tools, and sew clothes.
He put his ancestor in charge of sewing clothes, and she was a clever and capable woman who made clothes, hats, shoes and socks for people out of bark, hemp nets, furs, and other materials. However, none of these clothes were soft and comfortable, and the ancestor wanted to find better textile materials.
One day, when the ancestor was picking mulberries in the mountains, he found a white fruit, which was actually a cocoon of silkworms. She took the cocoon back to the palace, boiled it in water, stirred it with a stick, and got a slender white thread.
She used this white silk to weave silk, and made a dress and a top hat out of silk for the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor and the common people were amazed by this novelty silk and praised the wisdom and skill of the ancestors.
From then on, the ancestor began to teach people to grow mulberry and raise silkworms, take silk and weave silk, and provided people with high-quality clothing. In order to commemorate the merits of the ancestors, the descendants honored her as "the first silkworm mother".
In later life, when men used their physical strength to hunt and cultivate outside in exchange for food, the ancestors led women to start raising silkworms and cutting silk, so that people's clothes changed from the original animal skins and plant leaves to linen, and later silkworm cloth, that is, silk.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, silk has become a fabric widely used in the aristocracy, and according to different statuses, people also weave all kinds of patterns on silk, which is not only beautiful, but also shows a certain status.
After the unification of the Qin Dynasty, there was also an official in charge of silkworm weaving, called Jinguan. From the name of this official position, it can be seen that the duty of the official is to supervise the pattern on the fabric of the clothes, which determines the manner in which a brocade comes into being.
Of course, in that era of clear classes, not everyone had the ability to wear brocade, except for money that could buy brocade, ordinary inferior people and ordinary people were not allowed to wear it, and even some patterns could only be used by certain royal or noble people.
If ordinary people use it and wear it on their bodies, it becomes an excess.
In this case, many people who do business are very rich, but they still can't wear fine clothes.
Just like in the famous film and television drama "Ming Dynasty 1566", the businessman Shen Yishi, who was the leader, worked for the manufacturing bureau founded by the imperial court, but he could only wear coarse linen clothes, and he could not have the opportunity to wear the brocade he weaved.
During the Silk Road trade, traditional Chinese crafts and specialties such as silk, tea, medicinal herbs and porcelain crossed the border of the Eurasian continent and spread to Western Europe, causing countless people to be shocked and amazed.
In addition to the country they thought was developed, there was such a great country in the East, rich in many graceful and luxurious treasures, so exquisite and magical that the world rarely found.
Because of this, everything brought from China is very popular and sold at a very high price.
Silk, in particular, succeeded in attracting the eyes of the noble counts in Western Europe, and the soft and beautiful cloth, much better than the linen cloth on them, lamented that they also set their sights on the Chinese weaving industry.
2. Steal teachers to learn art
In fact, long ago, when the first silk arrived in an empire called Rome, many people in the country were already ready to move.
Julius Caesar at that time also endorsed the silk of the mainland.
It is said that on one occasion, the emperor of Rome wore a robe made of Chinese silk to a banquet.
This robe was a gift he received from the Chinese envoys, and it was brightly colored, delicately patterned, and softly textured, and it looked very imposing when worn on the body. When he walked into the ballroom, everyone was amazed.
Around him, both men and women, could not help but reach out and touch the robe, admiring its beauty and wonder.
Where have Westerners ever seen such a gorgeous cloth before?
When they learned that such cloth was called silk and came from distant China, the Roman nobles did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy Chinese silk.
And the Romans' thirst for silk even led to a war.
In 53 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero (the most notorious emperor of ancient Rome) sent an army against the Sabbatical Empire in order to seize control of the Silk Road.
Both sides fought fierce but undecided battles on many battlefields such as Kale, Nisibis, and Altaxa.
It was not until 63 A.D. that Rome and Anxia reached a consensus and signed a peace treaty and respected each other's territorial rights and interests. Since then, the Silk Road has been reopened and trade has returned to its former prosperity.
It can be seen that the Romans did not hesitate to start a war in order to get silk.
In addition, in order to pursue silk, the Romans spent a lot of money, and even exchanged gold for silk of equal weight.
Silk became a fashion and symbol of Roman high society, and also became a link and bridge between China and Rome.
However, the price of silk was very expensive, because the distance was long and it was difficult to transport it in large quantities, so there was some room for monopoly in this East-West trade.
Whoever masters this transport route is equivalent to mastering a large amount of wealth. Again, if this transport route collapses, no one will have silk to use.
As the price of gold and silver in the exchange of silk increased, the masters of the Roman Empire issued timely orders not to allow the silk trade, in an attempt to curb this outflow of funds from international trade.
How expensive was silk at that time?
According to records, in the second century AD, a pound of silk was sold for the equivalent of 360 grams of gold, and some Romans even spent more than 400,000 gold on silk every year.
Therefore, the rulers of the Roman Empire at that time were very afraid, and the love of silk of the Romans was almost crazy and had to be curbed.
Although the emperor issued an order, "from thrift to luxury, from luxury to thrift", once someone enjoys the comfort and convenience brought by silk, they can never return to the previous life of wearing only coarse linen clothes every day.
If the official government did not allow trade, they went underground and took silk with them as part of the black industry.
Of course, the prices of black market transactions were much higher than normal, and the silk trade seemed to be moving even more unfavorably in Rome's direction.
So, there were people who wanted to import this technology for the production of silk from China, so that they didn't have to buy silk from China, they could weave it themselves, and they would be completely in control of the industry.
After learning about the technology of silkworm breeding, the Europeans purchased some silkworms from China during a certain trade exchange, and in order to smoothly transport the silkworms out of China, they also chose a very convenient tool: bamboo poles.
Bamboo poles are hollow and straight, and are often used as a utensil for holding water, as well as for weaving various tools and ornaments, and the inside of the bamboo tube can also be used to store food, fuel, etc., making it a good container.
The Romans put silkworms in hollow bamboo poles and made them into the shape of crutches, and successfully took out China.
In the era of lack of infrared sensing and scanning technology, no one would have thought that a bamboo pole could become a carrier of cultural leakage, and that a bamboo pole of Chinese origin would become a tool for others to steal.
At that time, the silkworm babies in the Central Plains went out for the first time, but it turned out that not all places are suitable for the growth of Chinese silkworm babies, and silkworms will not adapt to the soil and water.
3. International trade
By the time they arrived in Rome after a long journey, the Romans had lost a lot of silkworms that had been stolen, and the silkworms that were still alive were also very weak, and they seemed to be very dissatisfied with going abroad in this way, and they rebelled with the power of their lives.
But the few silkworms that survived, under the care of the Romans, multiplied and grew up, constantly spinning silk, and were used by the Romans to weave cloth.
However, due to the poor silkworm raising technology, the living conditions of the silkworm pupae are also relatively poor, and the cloth made by the Romans is of inferior quality, so the price is very low.
However, the advantages and disadvantages of cloth have their own advantages, those who could not afford to buy real silk, and those who could not find a way to buy silk, naturally bought the "silk" made by the Romans themselves, and the space of China's original trade market was further compressed, and heavy losses were made.
The whole Roman people copied the technology of raising silkworms and cutting silk, it is simply a new stand-in literature in today's novels, Roman silk is trying to replace the Central Plains silk step by step in the development, although it is inferior in material and quality, but it is not legal and easy to obtain, and the market for white moonlight silk is squeezed out.
Although there was also an exodus of Chinese silk handicrafts in subsequent international trade, such as Zheng He's voyage to the West, they were no longer as unique as before.
Today, many of the mainland's unique culture and technology have applied for cultural heritage protection in the international community, and they have been labeled as Chinese in an open and honest manner, although some plagiarism in the world has been repeatedly banned, but I believe that in the future development, the mainland's characteristic technology will only get better and better, so good that others cannot surpass it, and it is more difficult to imitate.
The market cake is so big, whoever masters the technology will have the initiative. Silk is already produced in China, and the development of the homeland will definitely be better.