ABSTRACT
In the seventeenth century the main centre for the hosiery trade was London, the largest luxury market and the chief port for the importation of silk from which most stockings were made. In the eighteenth century the market for cheaper goods of wool and worsted increased, and the East Midlands, with local supplies of wool and plenty of cheap labour available, rose to meet the new demand. Hundreds of frames were transferred from London. Nottingham became the principal centre for the cotton hosiery trade, Leicester for worsted hose and Derby for silk.
