Germany's first machine spinning mill, built in 1784 in Ratingen near Düsseldorf, was called "Cromford" after its famous English predecessor, but it did not usher in industrialisation; instead, it stood alone in the farmland. Germany was fragmented into many principalities which levied customs duties at the borders, they also had their own currencies and units of measurement, all of which made it difficult for a market for mass production to develop.