ABSTRACT
Since Marx, cotton spinning has been the classical example for studying the relationship between technology and skill. When a group of Manchester mill owners commissioned Richard Roberts to design a self-acting mule, their principal objective was to break the power of the militant spinners’ union. The Dutch cotton industry started in the region of Twente, in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The foundation of the Dutch Cotton Spinning Mill in 1865 was one example of the large-scale mechanization that took place in cotton spinning at that time. The major technological changes took place in the final stage of production: the spinning of roving into yarn. The Dutch Cotton Spinning Mill bought all their machines abroad. The Dutch textile industry is only one example of an industry constructed with foreign technology. It was not technology as such that determined whether certain machines were men’s machines or women’s machines.
