Industrial exploitation of natural resources started started in Ulvila in the 1630s, when the owner of the manor of Sunniemi Margaret Fink set up a saw in Sahankoski on the river Kullaanjoki. Margaret was the widow of Marshal Evert Horn. Evert Horn died in the Thirty Years' War near Pskov, which belonged to Germany that time. The saw was used in the construction of warships in the shipyard in Sunniemi.

Leineperi Ironworks in 1771-1900s was the country's most profitable iron factories, produced 4,000 tons of iron per year.

The cloth factory in Kaasmarkku was founded in 1863, most of its supplies were carried to the Thirty Years' War. In 1926, after the war and the declaration of Finland's independence the factory was burned as useless.