Introduction: A Brief History of Global Trading and Cotton It is undeniable that under the influence of globalisation, the development of global economy is flourishing. Driven by the technological development, the world becomes smaller, connects tighter, and, at the same time leads to the simplification and reduction of trading process and costs, including the production cost and transportation cost and so forth. The global specialisation/ division of labour in the globe also contributed to the global production and global trading. Under the impact of globalisation, the global trading network becomes more and more complex, and this is the phenomena that scholars called ‘Economic Globalisation’. When studying globalisation, people usually regarded …show more content…
Studying the history of cotton, on one hand could understand the transformation of its trading pattern and the changing relationships between different countries, on the other hand can provide us a lens to know more about how cotton influences the rise and fall of states economy in India, Great Britain and in America before, during, and after the first and second industrial revolution. The more important is, cotton is a mirror to reflect the development of globalisation and global trading system in the world. Apart from understanding the development of industrial economy, Çalişkan (2010: 12) has another idea towards cotton as considering cotton is the “source of power” and led the “colonial struggles” at that time. The colonial power in fact was involved in the process of cotton plantation as the colonisers employ their colonial power to control salves and the lands in their colonies in order to serve interests of the coloniser. Since the slave is one of the indispensable parts in the textile production chain as responsible to grow and collect cotton, the law implementation of anti-slavery in America has created an obstruction to the cotton trading, and again influence the global trading system and the states economy. It can be seen that the relations of cotton trading, planting and manufacturing is tightly connected and indivisible, therefore, the study on cotton is essential to show the complexity of the early global trading, and the transformation of
In 1790, America produced 1,500 pounds of cotton. By the 1800’s production had increased to 35,000 pounds. By 1848 production exceeded to 1,000,000 pounds. Simultaneously, slavery spread across the
Therefore, to grow more cotton, there had to be more labor. So planters used slave labor to produce more cotton. As a result, cotton production grew along with the growth of slavery. Cotton then became the dominant source of wealth for the country. Cotton enriched southern farmers as well as Northern bankers,
As the steamship and transportation as a whole began to futher integrate itself into northern economy, the South focused more on cotton growth and strenghtening planations. The concerns about the workload were justified through the necessity of cotton, buhe concept of slaves being property and used harshly for profit went against the country’s Declaration of Independance which states that man is entitled to liberty. On the other hand, the North spent days at the factory to create product and participate in trade. Although the North used southern cotton for textile creation, there is no denying that with one clear side of manufacturing, and another on agriculture, the lines of national economy were clearly blurred as both ends of America continued to work without working
Between 1787 and 1808, 250,000 new slaves arrived in the U.S. because of the cotton boom (2). Plantation owners were involved in the slave trade which was the transporting and selling humans as slaves. When selling the slaves, prices varied depending on the person's skin color, sex, age and location (3). In 1834, a man named Joseph Ingraham wrote about the slave trade said that “to sell cotton in order to buy negroes—to make more cotton to buy more negroes, ‘ad infinitum,’ is the aim and direct tendency of all the operations of the thorough going cotton planter; his whole soul is wrapped up in the pursuit (3).” Families were separated because of the slave trade.
At the turn of the 19th century America was growing both in geographical size and in the economic sector. In the South this economic expansion was created by a new “cash crop” called cotton. The southern United States had the perfect environment to grow cotton, and plenty of land
These essential records will endeavor to indicate how critical bondage and the cotton business intended toward the south amid the common war period. The cotton business in the United States was conceivable in view of the cotton gin. The cotton
Slaves were used in virtually every aspect of the system; working in homes, construction, factories, mining, transportation, and agriculture (Schulman). By the 1850’s, owners were already extremely confident in the slave industry because of the wealth being acquired so rapidly and were very confident (“American Economic”). In addition, another factor that promotes the use of slavery directly affecting the economy of the North, South, and international systems, was based off the utilization and growth of one crop, cotton. Cotton had provided at the time over half of all the nation’s export income. By 1840, the South was producing over half of the world's cotton (“American Economic”).
The Portuguese took sugar cane grass from South and East Asia and they planted it in Brazil. Then, they sold the cane sugar to Europe and North America. This sale made North America involved with the Triangle Trade. “The triangle trade fed the innovation-driven insatiability of British mills. Only after industrialization could advanced nations benefit from free trade, and they used their empires to force it on the developing world.”
Since the creation of the cotton gin, cotton was the most important plantation crop. With the possibility for mass production of cotton products, the need for labor increased as well, making slavery the most viable option. The cotton produced by plantations fueled northern manufacturing, forcing the north to rely on the south for economic growth. With the cotton economy depending on slavery, cotton became a “great staple crop” that is crucial in the south since it “cannot be carried on in any portion of our country where there are not slaves” (Doc B).
No matter your stance at the time, one thing became clear: socially, politically and economically, slavery was the fabric of American success and gave birth to the Old South as we know it today. At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world.
The Travels of the T-shirt in the Global Economy, details the depths of a traveling T-shirt through production from the cotton fields, to textiles, its distribution, and finally its reuse in poorer countries while describing everything in between. The book uses the origins of cotton to explain the birth of the cotton T-shirts among other clothing in the worldwide trade markets. It uses real accounts of farmers, factory workers, even politicians as a source to present the journey of a simple commodity in the universal economy. The book compares two different markets dominated by two countries, cotton in the U.S and textiles in China; and tries to justify its success in the global world. The beginning discusses the process of production of cotton in the 18th century, often very strenuous, back breaking work with no mechanical systems, as we see
“As the Industrial Revolution spread to the United States, plants such as this textile factory appeared.” (Document 3) Textile factories were a big part in the rapid growth in product production. Textile factories produced clothing and other items that required cloth or cotton. If textile mills weren’t around then the U.S. would have to import all of these items making the economy go down. “In the graphic showing different methods of manufacturing, the cars were being made faster than anywhere else allowing the U.S. to export more than import.”
Marielle Apronti Prof. Oscar Williams AAFS 311 4 March 2018 The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was the most important factor when considering the early development of European capitalism. The arrival of the Portuguese to the West African Coast and their establishment of trading and slave ports throughout the continent set in stone a trend of exploitation of Africa 's labor and human resources. Europeans greatly benefited from the Trans-Atlantic trade, as it allowed them to aggregate raw materials such as sugar and cotton to manufacture products that funded the Industrial Revolution. In the book “Capitalism and Slavery” by Eric Williams he addresses the origin of “Negro” history, the economic and political impact of slavery in Great Britain, the role of the American Revolution and the decline of slavery in Great Britain.
Imagine if the cotton businesses had no slaves the Southerners would have to create their own factories, for example, if they did have to create their own industry, they would have to sell all their slaves and that’s one of the last things that they wanted to do. If the South had no slaves, they would have to do everything all by themselves. According to page 242 it says " planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories, most wealthy southerners had their wealth invested in land and slaves. Planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories. Most wealthy southerners were unwilling to do this.
During the time, the Europe heavily relied on raw cotton produced in America. Because of that, the cotton business had created many of rich people. The South America then was considered as the largest cotton industry in the world in the nineteenth-century. Most of cotton