ABSTRACT
The economic and social history of Poland has always been inextricably linked to its political history. This dependence is particularly visible in the case of the textile industry The period extending from the mid-seventeenth century to the second half of the eighteenth century is characterized by a gradual deterioration of the Polish textile industry caused by numerous, ravaging wars, and by the fall of the central and provincial government in Poland. Due to the partition of Poland, which led to the abolition of Polish statehood by the end of the eighteenth century, and which were followed by new demarcation lines after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the major centres of the textile industry, situated in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and incorporated into the Prussian state, disappeared.
