Global Silk Trade. How Silk Drive Global

¶ … global silk trade. How silk drive global trade contact? Reference Book: A History World Societies, Eighth Edition, Vol1 by: McKay, Hill, Buckler, Ebrey, Beck, Crowston, & Wiesner-Hanks

Global silk trade

The presence and evolution of silk within the past and modern day societies are intriguing in both national and global contexts (McKay, 2009). Silk is part of the world's history, traditions and society. It is a sign of royalty and prestige and it has been used for symbolism purposes, aside from its traditional purposes (Reddy).

Silk represented an important trade commodity ever since it was discovered, and ever since the West discovered the East. Silk was one of the most popular and desired commodities in the West and they were generally exported from Japan and China.

Similar to any other commodity, the trade of silk was sensitive to numerous forces outside the actual product. For instance, the world wars disrupted the trade of the commodity due to the emergence of violence and conflicts between the countries. Then, after World War Two, as more textile factories were opened, synthetic fabric came to be manufactured and this also decreased the demand for natural silk.

"Though silk suffered set-back with nylon replacing silk in women's hosiery and socks, it survived with remarkable resilience and during 1970s, 1980s and 1990s silk trade and production shot up from 49,360 MT in 1978 to 100,175 MT in 1993; again it dropped to 82,660 MT in 1996. The silk production started declining in Japan and South Korea despite their best efforts to maintain its growth but raw silk in developing countries -- India, Thailand, North Korea and Brazil; and recently Vietnam, rose substantially to meet the global demand" (Datta, 2007).

Other changes in the recent trade of silk in the international arena include the decrease in the role played by the Eastern Hemisphere in the production of silk, as more and more countries in the West have begun to produce it. In such a setting, the field came to be better regulated in the meaning that the United States and the European countries have imposed quotas on silk imports. The justification for this decision is represented by the need to support the domestic textile industry (Datta, 2007).

As history has shown however, the imports of silk generate little impact on domestic textile industries, such as cotton, polyester or viscose. The regulations on imports implemented by the states have as such generated little impact and contract within the international community, and have also had little impact on the consumption of silk.

This consumption of silk nevertheless is stimulated by other features which impact the societies. Some examples in this sense include changing customer demands and preferences, as well as an overall increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability. In such a setting then, the environmentally conscious consumers prefer natural fibers and as such generate an increase in the demand and consumption of silk (Datta, 2007).