"Next to agriculture, cotton and cotton goods constituted the principal industry in the Indian sub-continent, as did the woollen industry in England. Up to 1800, no country produced a greater abundance or variety of textiles in the world. China remained the only close rival. In 1700 itself, India was the largest exporter of textiles in the world."

"It is perhaps easier now to understand the opinion of the traveller, Robert Orme, who, though often critical. was forced to admit that “the arts which furnish the conveniences of life have been carried by the Indians to a pitch far beyond which is necessary to supply the wants of a climate which knows so few”."