The fiber is also known as pashm or pashmina for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir, which borders India and Pakistan. The woolen shawls find written mention between 3rd century BC and the 11th century AD. However, the founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the 15th century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who introduced weavers from Turkestan.

In the 18th and early 19th century Kashmir (then called Cashmere by the English), had a thriving industry producing shawls from goat down imported from Tibet and Tartary through Ladakh. The down trade was controlled by treaties signed as a result of previous wars. The shawls where introduced into Western Europe when the General in Chief of the French campaign in Egypt (1799-1802) sent one to Paris. The shawls arrival is said to have created an immediate sensation and plans were put in place to start manufacturing the product in France.

Trading in Commercial quantities of raw cashmere between Asia and Europe began with Valerie Audresset SA, Louviers, France claiming to be the first European company to commercially spin cashmere. The down was imported from Tibet through Kasan the capital of the Russian province Volga and was used in France to create imitation woven shawls, unlike the Kashmir shawls the French shawls had a different pattern on either side. The imported cashmere was spread out on large sieves and beaten with sticks to open the fibres and clear away the dirt. After opening the cashmere was washed and children removed the course hair. The down was then carded and combed using the same methods used for worsted spinning.

In 1819 several Tibetan and Tartary cross goats where imported into France by Mr M. Jaubert under the auspices of the French government and at the expense of Mr Ternaux. Mr Edward Riley (nephew of Alexander Riley) saw the herd in 1828 and described it as a mixture of colors from brown to white, covered with course hair with an average of three ounces (84 grams) of down underneath the hair. Mr Riley also saw Mr M. Polonceau's herd, Mr Polonceau selected from the Ternaux herd and crossed his animals with a selected fine Angoras buck. In 1831 Mr Riley went back to France and purchased ten females in kid and two bucks from Mr Polonceau and sent them to Australia, at the time the average production of the Polonceau herd was 16 ounces (500 grams) of down.

By 1830 the weaving of cashmere shawls using yarn produced in France had become an important Scottish industry and the Scottish Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures offered a 300 Pound Sterling reward to the first person who could spin cashmere in Scotland based on the French system. Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane collected the required information while in Paris and received a Scottish patent for the process in 1831. In the autumn of 1831 the patent was sold to Henry Houldsworth and sons of Glasgow. In 1832 Henry Houldsworth and sons commenced the manufacture of yarn and in 1833 received the reward.

Dawson International claim to have invented the first commercial dehairing machine in 1890 and from 1906 they purchased cashmere from China, but were restricted to purchasing fiber from Beijing and Tianjing until 1978. In 1978 trade was liberalised and Dawson International began buying cashmere from many provinces.

Handle

This is the single most important characteristic of cashmere. Probably most of the features that have been discussed contribute to the handle, including diameter, diameter profile, length and range of length, protruding scale structure and possible protection by the guard hair. Handle is difficult to assess in a non dehaired fleece. When assessing handle in a mixed fleece of hair and down beware of the improvement in total handle resulting from finer guard hair this can be very misleading.