Articles and Studies

Sites 28

• A History of Cotton Mills and the Industrial Revolution Extensive excerpt of a book on the development of the textile industry in Mississippi, USA. Author: Narvell Strickland.
• Australian Innovation in Textile Technology A review of the history, development and current state of the art in textile technologies and processes. From the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering's Technology in Australia 1788-1988.
• The Wool Trade in English Medieval History Series of Ford Lectures about sheep and wool production, the development and organization of the wool trade, the taxation of wool, the staple system, and the wool trade and the middle classes. First published in 1941. Author: Eileen Power.
• Mill Life in Lowell: 1820-1880 Collection of essays, photographs, images, letters and songs related to the daily life of cotton textile workers on Lowell, Massachusetts, during a period that lasted nearly a century. From the Center for Lowell History.
• Child Labor and the Division of Labor in the Early English Cotton Mills Pre-publication draft paper from 1994 about child labor in the English cotton textile industry, the move away from it prior to child labor legislation in the early 1830's, and the development of a labor market for productive adult factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. Author: Douglas A. Galbi.
• Cotton Textile Exports from the Indian Subcontinent, 1680-1780 Paper presented at the XIV International Economic History Congress in 2006, discussing the historical importance for regional and global trade of cotton textile exports from India from the late 17th Century to the end of the 18th Century. Author: Prasannan Parthasarathi.
• Economic Change and Sex Discrimination in the Early English Cotton Factories Research paper discussing the wage discrimination between men and women working in the early English cotton textile industry, using a labor sorting model as an alternative explanation of how discrimination could be transmitted from established labor markets to the new factory labor market. Author: Douglas A. Galbi.
• Subcontracting and Vertical Integration in the Spanish Cotton Industry Working paper on economic history examining the changes in the organization of the Spanish cotton textile industry from 1720 to 1860 in its core region of Catalonia. Author: Joan R. Rosés.
• Linen - From Field to Fabric Short narrative about flax cultivation, fiber processing and linen textile manufacturing. From Scholehouse for the Needle, a resource and forum for sharing educational information about embroidery from the 17th to 19th centuries. Author: Alison Smith.
• Japan and the Crisis in Cotton Mills in Interwar Bombay: The Role of Labor Institutions Draft paper prepared for the International Economic History Congress of 2006, suggesting that the cotton textile industry in India lost the competition with Japan in the period between the two World Wars as the leading center of supply because of its inferior labor organization. Author: Tirthankar Roy.
• The Relocation of the Market for Australian Wool, 1880-1939 Working paper analysing the historical developments which caused the international wool auction market to shift decisively from Britain to Australia during the period between 1880 and the start of the Second World War. Author: Simon Ville.
• Gold, Guilds and Government Extensive paper about the impact of monetary and labor policies on the Flemish cloth industry, dealing with the period between 1390 and 1435. Author: Prof. John H. Munro.
• The Symbiosis of Towns and Textiles Discussion paper examining the relative advantages of urban and rural locations for cloth manufacturing in later Medieval England and the Low Countries in the period between 1270 and 1570. Author: Prof. John H. Munro.
• Weaving Tutorial The history of weaving in the Middle East, the America's and Asia, and the development of weaving as a mechanised industry in the Western world. From VKR Tex.
• A Global History of Ottoman Cotton Textiles, 1600-1850 European University Institute 2007 working paper, revisiting and situating the historiography of Ottoman cotton textiles within ongoing debates concerning the emergence of a world economy through the lens of the cotton industry as the first global industry. Author: Athanasios Gekas.
• The Loss of Woollen Spinning, 1794 Part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history, containing excerpts from historic articles and texts highlighting the opposition to the introduction of mechanised spinning and weaving. Edited BY Paul Halsall.
• The Philosophy of the Manufacturers Article written by Prof. Andrew Ure in 1835, enthusiastically promoting the development of mechanised textile manufacturing in the factory system invented during the Industrial Revolution. From the Modern History Sourcebook.
• Industry Structure and the Marketing of Synthetic Fibers Paper published in 1990 by the Business History Conference about the explosive growth of organic chemicals and synthetic polymers since World War II, resulting in a move away from using natural fibers in favor of man-made fibers. Author: Amy L. Hardin.
• The Impact of Monetary and Labour Policies on the Flemish Cloth Industry Study focusing on the consequences of monetary policy in aggravating ongoing conflict in the English and Dutch cloth industry's labor relations during the late 14th Century. Author: John Munro. Text abstract. Full article on PDF document.
• The Low Countries' Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean Basin Cost-benefit analysis, challenging the conventional wisdom in European economic history that long-distance maritime transport in 1200-1600 as always more cost effective than overland trade routes. Author: John H. Munro. Text abstract. Full article on PDF document.
• The "Industrial Crisis" of the English Textile Towns Working paper arguing that the industrial crisis of the traditional English textile towns during the period 1290-1340 was caused by a far reaching economic crisis afflicting their major cloth markets in the Mediterranean basin, rather then the emergence of supposedly superior, lower-cost rural competition. Author: John H. Munro. Text abstract. Full text on PDF document.
• Industrial Change in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Low Countries Review of the circumstances which resulted in Merino wools to become the chief woollen cloth in the southern Low Countries during the later fifteenth and early sixteenth Century. Author: John H. Munro. Text abstract. Full article on PDF document.
• Textiles as Articles of Consumption in Flemish Towns Reconstruction of a Flemish basket of consumables price index for the period 1350-1500, aimed to determine the value of luxury broad woven woollen cloth related to income. Text abstract. Full article on PDF document. Author: John H. Munro.
• The West European Woollen Industries and their Struggles for International Markets Working paper presenting a macro- and micro-economic historical study of competition in the West European woollen textile industries, from ca 1000 to 1500. Author: John Munro.
• Cotton Promotes Slavery Short article from 'An Outline of American History', showing how the combination of the introduction of new types of cotton, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin and the Industrial Revolution which vastly increased demand for cotton, contributed to the continuation of slavery in the United States.
• Selling English Cotton into the World market Paper about the importance of the English cotton textile industry, highlighting the dimension of the merchanting sector using trade directories to show that the number of export companies continued to increase from early 1900 until 1913, and did not decline until the depression in the 1930's. Authors: Andrew Marrison, Stephen Broadberry and Tim Leunig.
• Flemish Woollens and German Commerce during the Later Middle Ages Article on the major changes in textile products, production costs, prices, and market orientations during the era. Author: John Munro.
• The Symbiosis of Towns and Textiles Extensive working paper on the effects of urbanization of the textile industry on cloth manufacturing in the Low Countries and England between 1280 and 1570 CE. Author: John H. Munro. Text abstract, and full text on PDF document.