History of silk and in part replaced natural silk. Following the crisis in Europe, the modernization of sericulture in Japan made it the world's foremost silk producer. By the early 20th century, rapidly industrializing Japan was producing as much as 60 percent of the world's raw silk, most exports shipping through the port of Yokohama. Italy managed to rebound from the crisis, but France was unable. Urbanization in Europe saw many French and Italian agricultural workers leave silk growing for more lucrative factory work. Raw silk was imported from Japan to fill the void. Asian countries, formerly exporters of raw materials (cocoons and
Silk Hope, North Carolina Silk Hope, North Carolina Silk Hope, in Chatham County, North Carolina, United States, is a farm community centered on a school, a volunteer fire department, several country churches, and many historical farmsteads. Some residents who work in Cary, Chapel Hill, and Research Triangle Park have established "country" homes here. According to oral history, the name came from an early 19th-century enterprise to develop a silk industry here. Entrepreneurs imported silk worms and planted mulberry trees, but were not successful. No signs remain of the silk ambitions. Farmers in the area also cultivated cotton in the antebellum years, and used a