In the proto-industrial stage, cotton was produced in the following ways: (i) Merchant clothier bought wool from stapler, the person who sorted wool according to its fibres. (ii) Then he took the wool to spinners to produce spun yarns. (iii) Yarn (threads) were finally given to the weavers for weaving and the fullers who gathered cloths by pleating and finally sent to dyers for colouring. As a result, a close relationship between town and countryside developed in which a network of commercial exchange existed between merchants and farmers.