ABSTRACT
Next to iron and steel, cotton has been the largest single factor in the industrial and commercial changes of the last century and a half. Only within recent times, comparatively speaking, has cotton become an important article or product of commerce in the western world. Grown and used long ago in the Orient, cotton and cotton goods were little known in Europe until the seventeenth century. Before that cotton had been grown in Spain by the Moors, and Italian traders had brought small quantities of Oriental cotton into Europe. But at no time was this early trade important.
