Cotton was first imported to England in 16th century. Early products were a mix of cotton and linen or worsted yarn.
www.spartacus-educational.com/Textiles.htm
It doesn't cite a primary source.
Interesting.
When you quote the import of cotton, does it state if they are talking about importing bolls for spinning and weaving, or spun cloth/fabric?
I was thinking that probably England didn't import much from USA or India before colonisation/Empire, but of course Eygypt was weaving fine cotton cloth. Probably other countries on trading routes as well.
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No elaboration on type of cotton. Spartacus Educational website has bite-sized chunks on each topic with links to sub topics, people etc. It has excerpts from primary sources with some (e.g. testimony of former apprentices) and suggests a few recommended books for each topic. It's an easy introduction to a subject.
Cotton had been introduced to Continental Europe before Britain. There seems to be no certainty about when. Different times to different countries. The 2nd lot of Flemish weavers to settle in Lancashire wore fustian, a mix of cotton and linen.
When John Leland mentioned cotton production being a cottage industry around Bolton in his account to King Henry in 1540, he may have meant wool.
www.bolton.org.uk/industry.htmlI'm not sure if the fustian-wearing Flemish weavers had arrived in Bolton by then.
I've learned a few things about the history of cotton in the past few days. Many of my family were employed in the cotton industry in 20thC (+ a few in wool) and most of my mother's ancestors from mid 19thC onwards but I didn't know anything about the early history. The earliest of my mother's paternal ancestors I traced was a handloom weaver at beginning of 18thC. His 3x greatgranddaughter (my 3xGGM) worked in the linen industry; most of the next 3 generations of her family + some of the 4th were cotton operatives. So they went from wool through linen to cotton.
Edit. I think that information about import of cotton into Britain came from the book by Baines to which Ramsin refers in post #27. (I missed reading that post earlier.)