Excerpt from Report to the Department of State on Silk and Silk Manufacturers, 1868 Two centuries before the Christian era, the Chinese carried on a commerce of silk with Persia, Greece, and Italy. Their caravans, or troops of dealers, were protected by military settlements or colonies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.