Ottoman Carpet Industry After 1870, European and American demand for Oriental carpets had mounted rapidly By 1914, contemporary observers suggest, some 60,000 persons were working in the carpet industry of Asia Minor. Uşak was the major single center and typically accounted for two-thirds to three-quarters of all carpets produced and sold in Anatolia between 1860 and 1900.

Workers and Division of Labor The number of knitters at Uşak rose steadily in the late nineteenth century. An elaborate division of labor: The production of wool rugs included washing and cleansing the wool, spinning the wool, dyeing the yarn and then knotting or weaving the finished product. Changeable gender division of labor

Problems of the Carpet Makers After c.1900, the quantity of carpets made in Uşak had leveled off and perhaps declined. The rise of rival production centers: cheap labor and increasing productivity The foundation of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Ltd: A trust in the carpet industry The new company and other mechanized factories took away spinning and dyeing jobs in Uşak while vastly increasing the number of competing looms working outside the town.

Riots in Uşak A crowd largely composed of women and children attacked the wool spinning mills in the town The women in fact had two basic demands (i) the factories were demolished totally and completely (ii) yarn imports from the spinning mills of the trust were prohibited. The end??