Summary: The silk industry was one of the most important fields of production in the medieval and early modern world. For several centuries, silk fabrics were globally identified as luxury goods. Silk cloth was an important medium for the transmission of design and a taste for luxuries, and silk textiles were part of gifting practices in diplomatic and private contexts. Silk manufacturing also fostered the circulation of skilled craftsmen, connecting different centres and regions across continents and linking the countryside to urban production. The production and consumption of silks spread from China to Japan and Korea and travelled westward as far as India, Persia, and the Byzantine Empire, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. In this process of diffusion, silk fostered technological innovation and allowed new forms of organization of labour to emerge. Its consumption constantly reshaped social hierarchies, gender roles, aesthetic and visual cultures, and rituals and representations of power. This book examines the integration of silk production and consumption into various cultures and its relation to everyday and regulatory practices. It considers silk as a major force of cross-cultural interaction through technological exchange and trade.

Contents: Introduction - Silk in the Pre- Modern World, Luca Molà and Giorgio Riello and Dagmar Schäfer ; Power and Silk - The Central State and Localities in State-owned Manufacture during the Ming Reign (1368-1644), Dagmar Schäfer ; Why Velvet? Localised Textile Innovation in Ming China, Angela Sheng ; The Dutch East India Company and Asian Raw Silk - From Iran to Bengal via China and Vietnam, Rudi Matthee ; The Localisation of the Global - Ottoman Silk Textiles and Markets, 1500-1790, Amanda Phillips ; Ottoman Silks and their Markets at the Borders of the Empire, c. 1500-1800, Suraiya Faroqhi ; A Study in Contrasts - Silk Consumption in Italy and England during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Lisa Monnas ; What d'ye lack Ladies? Hoods, Ribbands, very fine silk stockings - The Silk Trades in Restoration London, David M. Mitchell ; From Design Studio to Marketplace - Products, Agents and Methods of Distribution in the Lyons Silk Manufactures, 1660-1789, Lesley Ellis Miller ; The Manila Galleon and the Reception of Chinese Silk in New Spain, c. 1550-1650, José L. Gasch-Tomás ; 'The Honour of the Thing' - Silk Culture in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania, Ben Marsh ; A Global Transfer of Silk Reeling Technologies - The English East India Company and the Bengal Silk Industry, Karolina Hutková ; Changing Silk Culture in Early Modern Japan - On Foreign Trade and the Development of 'National' Fashion, from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Century, Fujita Kayoko ; Textile Spheres - Silk in a Global and Comparative Context, Giorgio Riello. (Pasold Studies in Textile, Dress and Fashion History)

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