In England, efforts were made to standardize the width of cloth, to promote
mercery. The first on record is the
Assize of Cloth (also called the Assize of Measures), which was first introduced in the reign of
Richard I (1189–1199). It defined two English
ells (then ) as the only legal breadth for woolen cloth. Article 35 of
Magna Carta reaffirmed this standard; In the reign of
Edward I (1272 - 1307), an official called the king's
alnager was appointed to enforce the law, and all towns were required to have an accurate
ellwand (measuring stick one ell in length). See Weights and Measures Acts (UK)#England for details. In the late-sixteen- and seventeen-hundreds, English merchants exported broadcloth to both the
Levant and the
Indies. This cloth was defined as having a breadth greater than a . Anything narrower was narrow cloth.
James Bischoff noted in his 1842 publication,
A Comprehensive History of the Woollen, and Worsted Manufactures, that British woolens were imported into
Ireland with two different descriptions, broadcloth and narrow cloth. These were priced (per yard length) at six shillings fourpence and three
shillings eightpence, respectively. He did not mention whether the two were distinguished by width, but the doubling of price suggests that broadcloth was similar to narrow cloth except for being twice the width. In the United States in the early 19-hundreds, fabrics with a width of less than were classed as narrow cloth; wider fabrics were classed as broadcloth. The American
1909 Webster's dictionary (as reprinted in 1913) defines broadcloth as , and narrow cloth as , but also gives
the newer definition based on the type of cloth. In the 1990s, the US government defined "broadwoven fabrics" and "narrow woven fabrics", with a breadth cutoff of 30 centimeters (about 12 inches) (per the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States). By this definition, the US government estimates that 70-75% of all cloth production globally, by weight, is broadwoven. == Types and uses ==