In the 1560s, the inhabitants of the Swabian Black Forest, a hilly and wooded region of the Duchy of Württemberg, found a new way of making a living. They began to weave light worsted cloths called Engelseite or Zeuge, and sell them to export markets throughout central and southern Europe. Swiftly this new industry became the most important single livelihood in many villages and small towns in the region, surpassing the older weaving of heavy woollens for local and regional consumption. For the next 240 years, the production of light, inexpensive worsted cloths for export would remain one of the two most important industries in Württemberg, and the economic mainstay of a region of more than 1,000 square kilometres, one-ninth of the total land area of the duchy. The history of this industry is not an economic success story. Although it survived for more than nine generations, it stagnated after the first remarkable expansion, and its workers' struggle for survival became very grim. Yet it was probably the most important German worsted industry until about 1700 and, despite the rise of competitors, retained a significant presence on south German, Swiss, and Italian markets until the late 1790s. Pockets of domestic worsted production still survived in the region well into the nineteenth century.

This industry is an example of what has been called ‘proto-industry’: the export-oriented cottage manufacturing which arose throughout Europe in the two or three centuries before factory industrialization.