Being the age of the beginning of industrialization I'm curious to know about some of the first/ most important instances of industrial espionage.
This kind of predates industrialization but Father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles stole the secrets of porcelain making from China and brought it to Europe, which had been a secret for centuries
However, the idea of industrial espionage isn't really suited for this time period since it was before the age of large scale consumerism and the corporation as piracy/espionage is known for. While some nations would try and prevent secrets from leaking out it eventually did (for a better example look at the Newcomen engine and how it spread after he died) and I guess since the various loom innovations took ideas from their predecessor it similar but there was no breaking into offices and stealing/studying documents that would be assumed in the modern era.