In the Sixth Century, A.D., all the raw silk was still being imported from China by way of Persia, when the Emperor Justinian, having engaged in war with Persia, found his supply of raw silk cut off and the manufacturers in great distress. His foolish legislation did not help the situation, and a crisis was averted only by two Nestorian monks, who came from China with seed of the mulberry tree and a knowledge of the Chinese method of rearing worms. No one, on pain of death, was allowed to export the silkworm eggs from China, but Justinian bribed the monks to return to that country, and in 555 they came back, bringing with them a quantity of silkworm eggs concealed in their pilgrim’s staffs. And here let us say that there has only once since been an important importation of eggs from Asia. That was about 1860, when Dr. Pasteur was making a study of a germ disease which was threatening the industry. Consequently, it can truly be said that practically all the silkworms of the Western world are descended from those brought in the eggs by the monks to Constantinople. Justinian gave the control of the silk industry to his own treasurer. Weavers, brought from Tyre and Berytus, were employed to manufacture the silk, and the whole production was a monopoly of the emperor, he fixing its prices. Under his management, the cost of silk became eight times as great as before, and the Royal Purple was twenty-four times its former price. But this monopoly was not of long duration and, at the death of Justinian in 565, the monopoly ceased, and the spread of the industry commenced in new and diverse directions. While every detail of the growth of the industry has an unusual interest, as showing how such an insignificant thing as a worm may become a potent factor in Nature’s economy, the scope of this article will hardly allow us to more than sketch some of the other more salient points of the history of the silkworm. About the year 910, the silkworms made their appearance in Cordova, Spain, being brought there by the Moors. From Spain silk culture soon extended to Greece and Italy. ~WHEN SILK CULTURE WAS INTRODUCED IN AMERICA~ Silk was introduced on this continent through the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, and the first silkworm eggs sold for $60.00 an ounce. A century later royal orders were issued requiring mulberry trees to be planted in the Colony of Virginia, and a fine of twenty pounds of tobacco was imposed for neglect, and fifty pounds of tobacco was given as a bounty for every pound of reeled silk produced.