A bit more elaboration Edward Gibbon, the historian of ancient Rome, is also said to have exclaimed that if the Romans had not imported silk cloth from China but the printing technology for disseminating history and poetry instead, Rome might not have declined.
以《羅馬帝國衰亡史》知名的十八世紀英國史家吉朋也曾經慨嘆，如果當年羅馬人從中國進口的不是美麗的絲綢，而是可以流傳史詩的印刷術，羅馬或許不至淪亡。