Key Messages
The History Of Cotton And Its Impact On The World: From Columbus To Today
If you’re looking to learn the fascinating story of cotton and its impact on our world today, then look no further than Empire of Cotton.
This book explores how essential a role cotton has played in the development of the modern world from Columbus’s discovery of the New World, to industrialization, all the way up to the American Civil War.
It delves into deeper topics such as:
• The connection between slavery and cotton;
• How cotton has created a divide between developed and developing nations;
• Who are some of the major players in the cotton industry today.
All in all, this book provides an eye-opening insight into one of humanity’s oldest commodities and is definitely worth checking out!
The Rise Of The Global Cotton Empire: From Independent Weavers To Violent Triangles Spanned By Three Continents
It’s hard to imagine, but up until the 1500s Europeans were completely unaware of cotton – living and thriving in their traditional wool and linen cloths.
However, when explorers such as Christopher Columbus began travelling and exploring, they were introduced to the marvels of cotton: its exquisite feel on the skin and its ease to wash.
Europe quickly fell in love with this new wonder-fabric.
Europeans, driven by their newfound love for the fabric, launched a widespread violent yet profitable cotton triangle that linked three continents through trade – India, where the cotton was bought; Africa, where European merchants traded it for slaves; and then America where these enslaved individuals worked as forced labor on freshly stolen lands in cotton fields.
Thus began the great international empire of cotton.
Between 1600 and 1800, Europeans took what had been an independent craft worldwide, thereby creating a global phenomenon out of something that many civilizations had long been familiar with.
Through their exploration and domination over other continents and cultures, Europeans ultimately made a massive impact on this timeless industry.
How The Discovery Of Mechanical Cotton Processing Impacted Global Economies For Centuries
The advent of mechanization was a major turning point in the history of cotton production.
It had such a massive impact that it essentially split the world into two parts.
On one side, you had countries like England, France, Germany and Belgium that were utilizing machines to improve productivity and reduce costs.
On the other side, you had countries like India and Brazil which hadn’t industrialized yet and were being left behind.
British manufacturers were able to rapidly overtake Indian manufacturers due to mechanization as they could process 100 pounds of cotton in just under 135 hours while Indian manufacturers needed 50,000 hours!
As a result, British cotton prices dropped by up to 50 percent between 1795 and 1811 due to improved efficiency driven by machines.
This caused substantial financial losses for Indian producers who could not compete.
In order for countries to reap maximum rewards from mechanized production, they needed strong states with an effective police force and military as well as a solid legal system.
Unfortunately, these necessary components weren’t present in some regions, particularly in India which had already been weakened by colonization from Britain.
The Southern United States Emerged As The World Leader In Cotton Production Due To Abundant Resources, Access To Low-Cost Slave Labor, And Brutal Repression Of Indigenous People
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Southern United States had taken its place as the world’s leading exporter of cotton.
This was because it had several advantages that made it better suited for cotton production than other areas, such as its ideal climate, access to pristine agricultural land and a steady supply of slave labor.
The demand for raw cotton had been increasing steadily since 1790, when Britain was spinning six times more cotton than it had been in 1781.
At first, Europe’s colonies provided much of the raw cotton imported to Britain, but they eventually couldn’t produce enough to meet growing demand.
The US South offered a convenient solution with plenty of available land, mild weather and plentiful slave labor.
Between 1783 and 1808 alone, 170,000 slaves were brought from Africa to plantations in this region.
This influx of enslaved people propelled the US South into becoming the preeminent exporter of cotton in the world by 1830; one out of every thirteen Americans were working on a plantation by then.
It was an inexorable system founded on brutality which allowed oppressors to impose brutal conditions while getting rewards from their labor – a tragedy continued even today in some parts many parts around the world which still export large amounts of cotton at great costs to local economies and communities.
The Hard-Working People Who Powered The Industrial Revolution
The industrial age in the United Kingdom was powered by wage labor.
Millions of workers flocked to factories every day, working in harsh conditions and often with meagre pay.
Ellen Hooton’s story is a perfect example of this; as a child, she worked in a cotton factory in Wigan and faced long hours, low wages and even beatings if she made a mistake or was late to work.
On a good week, her take-home pay would be equivalent to around $9.80 USD in 2005 dollars.
This unfair deal faced by many factory workers is nothing new – households could not compete with factory production when it came to homemade items such as clothes and linens, so many home-based weavers were put out of business and had no other option than to find employment in manufacturing plants.
Furthermore, vulnerable groups such as orphans and poor families were also recruited due their need for income.
Essentially, wage labor enabled industry to not only expand but also thrive – which allowed for an unprecedented era of massive economic growth that has shaped modern civilisation as we know it today.
The Rise Of Networking In The Cotton Industry: How Merchants, Brokers And Manufacturers Revolutionized Global Capitalism
The cotton industry was transformed by the emergence of middlemen in the form of merchants.
These merchants coordinated the production of cotton goods worldwide, linking farmers in Gujarat, India with spinners in Oldham and manufacturers Manchester, to name a few.
This interconnection enabled global, modern capitalism and played an integral role in the development of the empire of cotton.
Manufacturers switched from dealing directly with dealers to buying from brokers instead.
This allowed them to gain access to larger amounts of cotton and made networking key for success.
Those who built strong and trusting networks around family, religion or geography were able to thrive as businesspeople in the increasingly risky game of trading cotton goods.
For instance, Nathan Mayer Rothschild left Frankfurt for Manchester where he did business with fellow Jews from his home city.
Thanks to their trust in him, they even gave him credit to invest in factories based there – so much so that he tripled his original investment virtually overnight!
That’s how important networking had become in a modernizing cotton industry.
The Impact Of The American Civil War On The Global Cotton Industry
The American Civil War was a game changer for the global cotton industry.
Two factions were at odds: one group of American industrial capitalists wanted to expand their operations and make use of wage labor, while the old Southern planter elite sought to maintain and extend slavery.
The heated battle between both sides put demands on the government and eventually led to civil war in 1861.
This conflict had devastating consequences on the US cotton-export industry: by 1862, British spending decreased by 96% compared to the previous year.
This drastic fall meant that European manufacturers had to look for new sources abroad, like India–which had recently seen improvements in its infrastructure from increased investments by British colonial officials as well as a reduction of import taxes from 10% to 5%.
As a result of this, Indian exports jumped dramatically with 75% of British and 70% French cotton originating from India by 1862.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, slavery came to an end and consequently deprived Southern growers of its labor force.
However, they quickly shifted gears through finding alternative sources of workforce which made it possible for US cotton to rise again from the ashes.
How Property Rights, Sharecropping, And Usury Contributed To Global Cotton’S Boom
When slavery ended, a new economic system emerged around the production of cotton.
As demand for cotton skyrocketed, compensating the massive loss of labor from the abolition of slavery, plantation owners in the United States introduced an imbued version of sharecropping which allowed former slaves to work on their land in exchange for a portion of the crops grown.
Concurrently, Britain’s enforcement of property rights drastically changed agriculture in India by introducing individual ownership over communal land.
This shift caused a new problem— most farmers lacked enough money to buy seeds and tools needed to grow crops and were therefore forced to take out sowkar loans with outrageous interest rates up to 30%, giving them little choice but to produce higher quantities of cotton in order to pay off debt.
These new economic systems not only provided the labor needed to satisfy increasing global demand for cotton but also benefitted cotton-buying manufactures since prices dropped down by more than 50%.
Until 1894 US buyers paid less than 7 cents per pound compared with 11 cents pre-Civil War.
Colonial Powers Exploited Their Colonies For Cotton Production, But At The Cost Of Deindustrialization And Devastating Human Suffering
In the early twentieth century, colonial powers sought to increase their cotton production by expanding their colonies and exploiting resources within them.
Japan embarked on an effort to achieve raw material independence, sourcing its cotton from its own territories, while Russia started farming cotton in its Central Asian colonies.
The United States also took part in this practice, taking land from indigenous Americans to grow cotton.
Between 1860 and 1920, more than 55 million acres became new cotton fields in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
To facilitate this massive expansion, colonial powers had to undermind existing industries in these colonies through deindustrialization – by imposing tariffs and duties that hampered local production of goods.
By 1920, Japan was already importing over one billion pounds of cotton a year, compared to just 125 million pounds in 1893.
In India alone between two and six million were left unemployed due to deindustrialization.
The repercussions of this expansion were felt across many parts of the world as people depended on global changes while suffering famines due to rising food prices.
The Rise And Fall Of The Cotton Industry: How Global Wages, State Support And Wars Reshaped An Industry In The 20th Century
The early twentieth century saw a dramatic change in the international cotton industry, with countries such as China and India emerging as major producers.
This was largely thanks to the favorable conditions offered by these newly industrializing nations, where wages were far lower than those of older industrial countries like Britain or Germany.
At this time, Chinese spinners earned just 6.1 percent of what their American counterparts did due to government support and assistance for mill owners, who sought to keep wages low.
As a result, by World War I Chinese production had started booming and when Western producers were knocked out of the game during the wartime period it provided this new sector with an even larger advantage.
Between 1913 and 1931, the total number of spindles in China rose by 297 percent- the fastest growth worldwide!
These trends continue today- though some changes have been made throughout history due to various factors, China remains the world’s largest producer of cotton at 29%, followed by India (21%) and then America (14%).
It is clear that China and India’s emergence in the early twentieth century has had lasting effects on our modern economy and that despite some fluctuation throughout history both countries remain two of our most significant global suppliers in cotton production.
Wrap Up
Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert is a comprehensive explication of the history and effects of cotton production, over centuries.
It suggests that global power has been intricately linked to the production and export of the plant, impacting wars and driving the capitalist economy.
It’s a story with such an expansive scope it might be challenging to grasp from start to finish, but one key takeaway is this: Cotton has had a tremendous impact on world history and still continues to shape our present day – whether it be in terms of socio-economic dynamics or in terms of fashion trends!
An essential read for anyone interested in learning about how our intertwined histories were made.
