alternatehistory.com

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 Byzantine silkworms to produce silk in Sicilian plantations.

What if, in addition to smuggling silkworm eggs, these Nestorian monks managed to bring a collection of Chinese agricultural or metallurgical texts into the Empire?

How fast would these technologies diffuse outward and what would change in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean?
Top