Silk (Civ2)

Silk is a commodity and resource type in Civilization II.

Stats

• Food: 1
• Shields: 2
• Trade: 3

Increases the amount of Trade produced in Forest Terrain from 0 to 3

Civilopedia entry

Silk has been a valuable commodity for textiles since its properties were discovered in the 27th century BC. Silk is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm moth, which was originally native to the forests of China. The fine fibers of the cocoon is woven into cloth, which is used to make all types of clothing. Raw silk was obtained only from Asia until 550 AD, when two monks sent from the Roman Empire secretly stole silkworm eggs from China and brought them to Europe. Eventually, silkworms were found in many areas throughout the world. Less expensive synthetic fibers of the 20th century led to a decline in the silk market, but silk is still very popular in many types of clothing and other goods.

Commodity

Main article: Commodity (Civ2)

As a commodity, silk appears in cities near forests, jungles, or hills. The supply of silk is increased for cities in the northeastern quadrant of the map and doubled for the Chinese and for continent numbers divisible by 5.

The value of a silk caravan is tripled if it is in demand. Demand for silk is increased by the presence of deserts, plains, swamps, and jungle. Demand increases with city size, especially for those close to the map's equator and far from its prime meridian. It is potentially higher for cities on continent number 1.

Silk cannot appear as a supplied or demanded wildcard until a civilization has 32 technologies.

Resource

Main article: Resource (Civ2)

...Silk represents a luxurious product of mulberry Forests that brings increased yield from trade goods. —Manual

Silk is a whale-class resource that appears in forests and increases its trade arrows by three. The silk resource does not make the silk commodity more likely to appear in a nearby city, except insofar as it counts as four forest tiles instead of only one.