This work is the first English translation of material drawn from the Ming dynasty agricultural encyclopaedia Nongzheng quanshu (“The Complete Book on Agriculture”) by Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), also known as Tseu-Kwang-K’He or Paul Siu. Published at a time when Protestant missionaries were actively engaging with Chinese intellectual and technical traditions, it offered European readers a rare and detailed account of Chinese silk manufacture and mulberry cultivation. As silk remained one of the most desirable and economically significant commodities in East–West trade — long contributing to Europe’s trade imbalance with China — such knowledge held both commercial and scholarly interest. The inclusion of sixteen woodblock illustrations, adapted from original Chinese sources, provided Western audiences with visual insight into traditional methods of silk production and agricultural practice.