This paper discusses the uneven development of labor relations across the globe during the last two centuries. Focusing on three sample years (1800, 1880, and 1980) and on three regional textile industries (Lower Austria, Syria/Lebanon, and Gujarat/Maharashtra), the combined and uneven development of the spatial division of labor is reconstructed, with separate locations having different organizational business forms, labor relations, patterns of political regulation, and techniques. It becomes clear that economic “globalization” is not a recent phenomenon, but started around 1800 at the latest.