When I was a kid vacationing with Mom and Dad in Maine — we moved there when I started fourth grade — our ride home to the Big City was punctuated by a stop at the Bates woolen mill, in Lewiston, Maine. The mill on the banks of the Androscoggin River was where Mom picked out fabrics that would keep her sewing machine busy making clothing for her family.
Back in the day, a person could save a ton of money by purchasing stuff where it was made; why pay transportation costs when you were making the trip anyway. In particular, that mill was what turned Lewiston from an agricultural town to a fabrics manufacturing center.
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