What you can’t have, is what you want; during the 1600-1900 Europeans wanted Asian goods. By 1686 the British Colonies were already shipping goods worth over £1 million to London, mainly imported by the East India Trade Company based in London. The imported items included spices, tea, sugar, tobacco.
Indian Textiles were viewed as luxury goods because they were made of fine cashmere and cotton; two textile resources not popularly farmed in Britain at the time. The European equivalents available were not comparable in quality either. Along with Indian Textiles, silk from Asia was also of high value and interest specifically because Asian silk worms only fed on mulberry leaves, unique to their region. The dye fastness of the Indian Textiles also made their textiles highly covetable in the European market.
However, around the 1770s Britain was becoming more technologically advanced, mainly in the fabrication of cotton; thus, beginning to export woolen textiles to India, around 1800. Due to machinery advances in the production processes, Britain later took over the market by providing comparable products to the consumer.
Are you aware of where the products you currently buy come from? What is their history?
Some more interesting information, about the current industry and trade, can be found here.
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