Short History of Linen/Textile Manufacturing In The United S
At one time, the Northeast states(Conn,MA, NY, etc) did much of the textile manufacturing. Cotton would be shipped from the South to be spun into threads, woven into cloth, etc. Indeed the "Pequot" brand of linens comes from the name of a town, which in turn took it's name from a tribe of Indians which inhabited an area of MA.
With time many plants moved down to the South, to take advantage of cheap labour. All over Conn and MA for instance you can find abandoned mills and textile plants. The South remained strong until around the 1980's and 1990's when production began to shift to Asia, again because of cheap production costs.
One by one the great names either merged or moved production out of the United States, but still have product shipped back for sale. Pillowtex, Martex, Cannon, Dan River, Fieldcrest, and so forth have all either merged, or went bankrupt (Pillowtex), and or have production overseas.
One of the reasons the South has had such a hard economic times for awhile was the loss of so much textile and mill work. Sewing, running weaving and spinning machines, and the rest of what goes into making all sorts of textils and garments is a skill, but one that can be learned and does not require a collge much less high school degree. The loss of those jobs has pretty much wrecked the economy of many small towns in the South and indeed some states.
For what is worth, Europe is now having the same problems, with even many high end Italian and French textile producers sending more and more work to Asia. Reason is simple, one simply cannot beat the low cost labour.
L.
