Without Indian textiles the british textile industry would not exist as we know it. The Europeans wanted Indian textiles to trade for spices and coffee in South East Asia, to trade in Africa for Gold and Ivory and wanted cashmere and cotton for Europe where these didn't grow. Indian textiles have been traded since 400AD they were compared to the wisdom of God and the most precious jewels in the bible. Indian textiles where known as amazing even by the Romans. This is all because of their very fine cotton muslin and their washable printed cotton which Europe could not compete with as they didn't have the knowledge until 1820. The indians created and trend forecasted fabrics for specific places across the world, even though they had never been to these places, they could forecast what would be out of fashion in France and what would be in fashion in England - this is trend forecasting like no other!! No research trips nothing!
Timeline from 1500 to 1770
1500 - Sea routes from Europe to China via India to The Americas were officially established.
1526 - Moghul empire was established in India
1557 - The first European trading post in China
1600 - Founded the English and Dutch East India companies.
1700 - Ban on sale of Indian chintz in England
1720 - Ban on use of Indian chintz in England
1720 - 1774 - Ban on printing on cotton in England
1742 - China blue printing method was developed in England
1757 English East India company became the main colonial power in India.
From 1770 to 1800 there was a massive overtake in Britain, the british had finally developed a way to print onto cotton and for it to be washable - which was never possible before, but this caused a massive problem for India as from 1800 England took over from India as the major world exporter of printed cotton cloth. in 1857 the British took direct rule over India and in 1947 they took it back with the partition of Pakistan.
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