globalization. another highly prized pigment was tyrian purple discovered by the phoenicians making it involved extracting a mucous accretion from sea snails. that reportedly took a quarter of a million of them to die one garment in ancient rome emperor nero band of purple clothing for anyone but himself on pain of death. fancy pigments fell out of favor in europe after the roman empire collapsed before making a comeback though food was scarce around eight hundred charlemagne ordered the cultivation of plants that yielded pigments that contributed to an economic upswing as towns with textile dying workshops flourished. the greatest advance was the creation of the first synthetic dye movie by a british chemist william henry perkin in eight hundred fifty six his accidental discovery formed the basis for a new chemical industry and eventually for the pharmaceutical industry and ellen