�he �erman �ool and cotton industry from the si�teenth to the twentieth century

This was also the case for the process of industrialization in the nineteenth century that took place due to free market policies and thus under international competition. Production was concentrated in the urban centres, which had already developed in the eighteenth century, and which went on to become modern industrial cities. However, until the second half of the nineteenth century rural areas retained their prominence in hand-weaving.4