Read it through once

No one has discovered the original wild Cotton plant. The robes of the priests in Egyptian temples were made of it. It was introduced into Spain by the Arabs when they invaded that country. When the Spaniards attacked the half-civilized Indian people of Central and South America, they found cotton was regularly cultivated there. Its history in England is rather interesting. In the days of Queen Elizabeth the great English industry was the production of woollen cloth from Yorkshire sheep. A penalty of £20 was imposed, even as late as 1720, on any person who imported or even wore cotton cloths. Yet this was unable to stop the growth of the trade which, thanks to the Flemings and Huguenots who took refuge from religious persecution in this country, eventually became our gigantic textile industry employing millions of factory hands.