Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE ROLE OF COTTON IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ECONOMY
- PART TWO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH-ITALIAN INDUSTRY
- PART THREE THE GROWTH OF COTTON MANUFACTURE NORTH OF THE ALPS
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE ROLE OF COTTON IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ECONOMY
- PART TWO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH-ITALIAN INDUSTRY
- PART THREE THE GROWTH OF COTTON MANUFACTURE NORTH OF THE ALPS
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
In contrast to the large body of literature on other branches of the textile industry, the history of cotton manufacture in medieval Europe has been largely neglected. Apart from scattered references in general works, to date there have been few attempts to assess its over-all dimensions or significance within the urban economy of the later Middle Ages. The present study seeks to partially fill this gap through a detailed examination of north-Italian production between 1100 and 1600. In size of the labor force, extent of capital investment and its broad commercial ramifications, cotton ranked with wool and silk as one of the ‘great industries’ of this region. As the first largescale industry on European soil, the Italian manufacture marked the initial stage in the spread of cotton goods and the techniques of processing from the Mediterranean to northern Europe, a trend that ultimately culminated in the Industrial Revolution.
The implications of the Italian achievement for later European industrial growth obviously merit a close investigation. But the origins of the industry must be seen in a wider context. The Italian enterprise was the end phase in a centuries-long development within the advanced economies bordering the Mediterranean basin. In the Middle Ages cotton manufacturing experienced its maximum historical growth across a large geographical expanse which encompassed the most powerful empires of the known world. From a costly luxury commodity limited to the privileged classes of ancient society, it became the clothing material par excellence of the common man.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981