In July 1795, after graduation, Lowell set out on a merchant ship carrying cargo to various places including Basque Country in Spain and Bordeaux, France.

[4] Between 1798 and 1808, Lowell was actively involved in overseas trade, specializing in the importation of silks and tea from China, as well as hand-spun and hand-woven cotton textiles from India.

[5] Starting in 1802, with Uriah Cotting, Harrison Gray Otis and others, Francis Cabot Lowell developed India Wharf and its warehouses on Boston Harbor, which became the center of the trade with Asia.

To enlarge his fortune, Lowell bought a rum distillery, importing molasses from the Caribbean sugar-producing islands.

The conflicts between the European Powers and the Embargo of 1807 severely disrupted trade between the United States, Great Britain, France and Asia.

[2] As the War of 1812 began, Lowell and his family left Europe and on their way home, the boat and all their personal belongings were searched at the Halifax port to ensure that no contraband was being smuggled out of Great Britain.

Lowell hired the gifted machinist Paul Moody to assist him in designing efficient cotton spinning and weaving machines, based on the British models, but with many technological improvements suited to the conditions of New England.

[6] To raise capital for their mills, Lowell and partners Aidan and Merquack pioneered a basic tool of modern corporate finance by selling $1000 shares of stock to a select group of wealthy investors, such as Senators James Lloyd Jr. and Christopher Gore, Israel Thorndike Sr. and Harrison Gray Otis.

[7] In 1814, the Boston Manufacturing Company built its first mill beside the Charles River in Waltham, housing an integrated set of technologies that converted raw cotton all the way to finished cloth.

[4][6][7] The Waltham Machine Shop attached to the BMC made power looms for sale to other American cotton mills.

[5][7] The end of the War of 1812 was a severe threat to the budding domestic textile industry as the British dumped cheap cotton cloth on the American market.

The mechanized textile system, introduced by Francis Cabot Lowell, remained dominant in New England for a century until the industry shifted to the Midwest and the South.