Prior to the early modern world, European Nations and Far East countries were very isolated and had minimal interaction between each other. The fact of the matter was that before Vasco De Gama’s voyage from Portugal to India at the end of the 15th century, travel from Europe to the East was far too treacherous. However, things started to change during the 16th century. The early modern world was able to become more interconnected through the exchange of goods, slave trade, and the exchange of military tactics, which in turn presented nations with the opportunity to grow and prosper.
The exchange of goods between the European Nations and the East exhibited the interconnectedness present during the early modern world. Fashion had always been a significant part of European society, but the calico craze that existed at the end of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century forced European Nations to interact heavily with these Eastern countries that possessed such resources:
New consumer forces were at work in England in the late seventeenth century; these forces were manifested in the craze for calicoes and other sorts of cottons wrought in the East Indies. The arrival of cotton textiles in the English market brought to a comparatively prosperous population a new sort of commodity, another of the lighter fabrics so much in demand in the early industrial period (Lemire, 3)
The Indian cloth was so fashionable for a couple of different reasons. For one, it was extremely light in comparison to wool and other fabrics, so it was an ideal fabric to wear in hot weather. Also, it was inexpensive so it was extremely popular even among the middle and lower classes. In fact, the fabric became so popular among Europeans that the East India Company gave directions that “recommended that regional fabric motifs be abandoned and those of the Gujarat area be