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The Lakenhal (Cloth Hall) was once the administrative center of the cloth trade. Laken was a heavy woolen fabric, used for decent clothing. Presently De Lakenhal is the museum of the city of Leiden which largely owes its prosperity in the Golden Age to the cloth trade. Laeken in Leiden was a successful export product. In De Laecken-Halle, the sheet was inspected for quality and marked; after that it could only be traded.
The painting shows how the sheet is supplied by boat and is brought into the Cloth Hall on wheelbarrows. The building was opened in 1640, at the height of the Leiden textile industry. Of the 60,000 inhabitants that Leiden had around 1640, at least half were employed in textiles.
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