The Teutonic Order, as well as the bishops and cathedral chapters in their territories, thanks to their water rights, could control the construction of and regulations on grain mills not only in rural areas but also in towns. The same was true for industrial mills (fulling mills, tanneries, sawmills, forges, oil mills, and grinderies). In many cases, these issues were additionally regulated in the town founding privileges, where provisions were made reserving the right for the Teutonic Order or the bishop to allocate a place for mill construction within the town. Such provisions were recorded in the founding privileges of 26 out of a total of 93 towns established in the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia (including Gdańsk Pomerania). The Teutonic Order reserved the right to build a mill in the case of town founding privileges in 23 towns and exercised it in 18 of them. The bishops of Warmia reserved a place for a mill in two towns, and the Warmia cathedral chapter in one. In total, there were about 60 different industrial mills operating in the towns of the State of the Teutonic Order. Their existence was noted in 37 towns, with some of them possibly operating at different times in the same location but as different industrial establishments. In the case of several centres, industrial mills were also established outside the towns, although undoubtedly they operated for the needs of the craftsmen functioning within them.
A special case is the area of the later Old Town of Gdańsk (Ger. Altstadt). Thanks to the construction of the Radunia Canal by the Teutonic Order, it became possible to place numerous industrial mills there, initially working for the needs of the castle and later also for the Main Town (Ger. Rechtstadt) and the Old Town of Gdańsk. In the mentioned area, the following were built: a copper mill (1355), an oil mill (1367), two grinderies (1373), a tannery, and a fulling mill (1374). Additionally, there was a sawmill operating on the outskirts of the castle (before 1367), and before the Main Town of Gdańsk, there was another fulling mill (1397). All these facilities were powered by water flowing through several branches of the aforementioned Radunia Canal.
In addition to independently managing the facilities located in the outskirts of castles (fulling mills, sawmills), a solution often employed by the Teutonic Order was to grant the right to build industrial facilities (copper mills, tanneries, oil mills) to townspeople or guild organisations. In return, they paid an annual rent expressed in money and performed commissioned work for the castle. The control of the Teutonic Order over the regulations concerning industrial mills in towns prevailed almost until the end of its rule in Gdańsk Pomerania, although competition from industrial mills operating on the estates of the Cistercians from Oliwa (tannery and sawmill) was visible from the end of the fourteenth century. Additionally, in 1453, the council of the Main Town built a tannery without the consent of the Order, which immediately triggered a reaction from the local commander of the Teutonic Order.