Encyclopedia article on the cotton industry from Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexicon. It traces the history of cotton manufacture from India through China, the Near East, Europe, the Americas and England, then gives statistics on spindles, looms, workers, capital and trade for Britain, the USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Russia, India and Japan. It ends with a table of yarn and cloth exports and a bibliography of works on cotton manufacture.