For a time it must have seemed that every waterfall in New England was becoming the center of a new town, and Philadelphia, with its Schuylkill River, became “the workshop of the world” for at least 90 years, until steam power replaced water power, and the textile industry drifted South, where labor was cheaper. Today, of course, most textile production takes place abroad. In Guangzhou, China, they have had whole streets devoted to selling yarn. A century ago, there were more than 800 businesses related to textile manufacturing in Philadelphia alone; today there are around a hundred.