Lievin Bauwens

Scion of a Ghent tanning family, Bauwens lived in England learning cotton processing. In 1798, defying strict British export laws punishable by death, he dismantled spinning mules and smuggled the parts, along with dozens of skilled British mechanics, hidden in sugar barrels across the English Channel.

In 1801, Bauwens set up his mechanized cotton spinning mill in the former Norbertine Abbey of Drongen and Ghent's Castle of the Counts. Awarded a gold medal by Napoleon Bonaparte, who visited his mills in 1803 and appointed him Mayor of Ghent, Bauwens sparked Belgium's modern textile industry.