Cotton through the ages Cotton is known to have been used in Central America as early as 5800 BC. In China and India it was used from about 3000 BC. Arab merchants began trading cotton products in Europe in about the year 800. The Vikings brought cotton to Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia. It was not until the 1400s that cotton was processed in significant amounts in southern Germany. Up until the 1600s, Augsburg led the industrial mass production of cotton fabric, after wh