ABSTRACT
The traditional Jewish trade in textiles produced countless Jewish clothing businesses, while others took the step into manufacturing fabrics. Until the early nineteenth century, textile manufacture was very much a cottage industry. Workers, mostly women, wove woollen cloth and strips of cotton fabric at home, which were then marketed by manufacturers. The Industrial Revolution brought the rapid emergence of textile factories. Jews were very active in Twente, in the east of the country, the most important region of the Netherlands for textiles.
