silk

According to some accounts, Emperor Justinian I managed to support two monks in their efforts to smuggle silkworms out of China, and succeeded, leading to the establishment of a native silk industry. The monks smuggled silkworm eggs and young larvae inside their bamboo canes, and successfully...

In the 550s AD, two Nestorian monks smuggled silkworm eggs from China into the Byzantine Empire for Emperor Justinian. This created the Byzantine silk industry, a thriving source of income for the Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantines held a monopoly on silk for centuries, until the Normans captured...