THE EARLY HISTORY OF SILK. 153 



In the middle of the sixth century, the Turks 

 established themselves in Asia, and their frequent 

 subsequent wars had tended greatly to impede the 

 traffic carried on betwixt China and Persia, through 

 the caravans ; consequently, silk in Persia had 

 assumed a high value from its scarcity. 



After the establishment of the peace, Maniak, a 

 prince of Sogdia, through the wishes of his people, 

 was appointed ambassador by the Turkish court, to 

 mediate with Persia for supplying that nation with 

 eastern silk. This prince acted in the twofold capa- 

 city of an envoy and a merchant. He took with 

 him to Persia a number of bales of the manufactured 

 silk, which he expected to sell readily, in consequence 

 of the price at which he could afford to dispose of 

 them being so much lower than in Persia at the 

 time. But the results of this embassy proved different 

 to what the Sogdian prince expected. 



At this time Persia was under the sway of 

 Chosroes, a king, who, to a love for his people, 

 united soundness of policy. He wisely saw that 

 ij would tend to no good to increase the wealth of a 

 prince whose territories lay so close to his own, and 

 who had been actuated by schemes of ambition. To 

 shew, therefore, his contempt for the merchandise of 

 the Sogdian prince and his mercantile followers, he 

 purchased up all their goods, and to prove how little 

 he valued them, committed the whole to the flames. 

 Besides the motives above stated, he considered it 

 would be more for the advantage of his people to 

 carry on a direct traffic with China through the Gulf 



VOL. II. L 



