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Lagi Netzler
Dr. Magnusson
ECON 1740-404
December 12, 2014

Development of Americas Economic History With Respect to Cotton

[Cotton is] a perennial plant. If cold weather didnt come along, cotton would
grow into a tree. Ben H. Swadley, Director of the Plantation Agriculture
Museum

In the way that the unusual anatomy of the scraggly cotton plant allows its bolls to
become stronger when twisted tightly together, our Americans in general have gradually united
in a similar manner over the past few centuries to become stronger as one nation. One way our
nations strength is displayed in the world is in the great impact its economic activities has on the
world. And one way that Americas economic activities affect the world is through its role in the
cotton business.
Cotton is used in many things: not just clothes, but from living room appliances and food
to bombs and electronic devices. So where theres cotton, there also will be the influence of the
countries from which the cotton comes. And such influences are therefore spread to virtually the
rest of the world. These days, America is considered to be one of those countries that have such a
global impact with cotton being one of many reasons. And there is evidence of that which shows
throughout Americas economic history.

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To attempt adequately breaking down how all that came to be, this paper will first go into
where all the cotton came from in the first place and how America eventually got involved. Next,
the discussion will go into how cottons ubiquitous nature in our nation was controversially
involved with of slavery, and afterwards the paper will talk about about the many ways in which
cotton is used. As the conversation turns towards the many uses of cotton, it is of the hopes that
anyone reading this will see how America (and other nations who produce significant amounts of
cotton) has economic activities that greatly affect the world, production of cotton-containing
products being one of such economic activities.
In the documentary Modern Marvels: Cotton, the narrator explains how the growth of
different progenitor cotton species has spread across the world from four areas; First, cotton
started growing in Northwest Indias Indus Valley. India is where the worlds first cotton
industry resides and where the first cotton-woven cloth was found, which dates back to five and
a half millennia ago. Next, a second species with naturally pigmented bolls was then bred in the
Andes Mountains of South America. It was grown as early as 2000 years before the time of the
Inca people, who are known to be weaving masters of their area. Another species of cotton was
found to grow next in Central America and then in East Africa. From these four regions of the
world is where the earliest cotton plants were bred to bring us the cotton plants that are used in
many things today. (Modern Marvels)
And from the first of these regions is where cotton played vital roles in the worlds
history. It started from those who lived in Europe, who relied on linen and wool and never heard
of cotton. Once travelers in the 1500s found people in India wearing clothes that held their dye
on cloth material made of cotton, cotton cloth and cotton plants started making its way up to
Europe. This was because Great Britain took over India for its many resources, cotton included.

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Until Indians found a way to protest their colonisers centuries later, Britain kept using India for
making more cotton products at faster paces. (Modern Marvels)
America comes into the global mix when 1). the use of cotton clothes from Britain spread
over to their colonists going to America, and 2). the introduction of cotton gins benefit the
growing amount of textile mills in Britain. Because of how the two nations helped each other
grow in this manner, they kicked off the Industrial Revolution. This relationship also kicked off
the Civil War of 1865. (Modern Marvels)
Why did cotton become such a massive cash crop for young America in the first place?
During the nations early stages, cotton wasnt profitable; it took a slave up to a year and a half
to remove seeds from just one bale of cotton. But when Eli Whitney came out with the gin in
1793, cotton production increased by a factor of 50, 10,000 bales were produced by the south the
year the gin came out, and the south made a million bales a year by 1830. By then, cotton made
up for over two thirds of the nations exports. As a result, the gin, along with other agricultural
equipment like hoes, shovels and axes, helped the daily cotton picking rates increase fourfold
between 1801 and 1860. Thats how cotton became king. (Hughes and Cain, Modern Marvels)
With the increase of cotton output, however, resulted in an increase of slaves. And
instead of replenishing the soil with methods of crop rotation, plantation owners just kept
moving west and grabbing more slaves. (Modern Marvels)
One reason why cotton (and indirectly, slavery) became important to helping America
pay some bills around the early 19th century was that we used more than we made. As a result,
we were forced to borrow. The problem with that is that loans, even in these centuries before the
school and home equity loans of present, rack up interest. Other complications arose so exports
were the saving grace of getting the nations debts paid off. (Hughes and Cain)

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What became the leading export of the 1850s? Cotton.
And as iterated before, more cotton meant more slaves.
It didnt help that the girls working in the looming factories built by Francis Cabot
Lowell were treated much better than the slaves that picked their cotton. And it also didnt help
that the South assumed England would keep buying American cotton when its slavery-tainted
production methods pushed them to eventually buy from India. So even though the gin helped
grow the Industrial Revolution in places like England, the gin also worsened the slavery problem
enough to break out in war on the yanks side of the pond. That is, until the South lost the war
and became super poor from assuming England to be Americas permanent cotton customer.
(Hughes and Cain, Modern Marvels)
How did King Cotton rise again after the Civil War? After fighting off poverty for many
decades and fighting off boll weevils until the 1980s, denim jeans became a fad with cotton Tshirts. As a result, up went the cotton production in America again. sidenote: of paper
money is made of leftover denim jeans product. (Modern Marvels)
Denim jeans and cotton t-shirts are seemingly all over the place because of its comfort
and ability to absorb moisture to keep people cool. (Nanotechnology fixes the problem of cotton
retaining moisture when people are in bad weather, as a side note.) Clothes like denim and cotton
t-shirts can afford to be worn by many in the U.S. and similar nations because cotton production
is still massively high.
As mentioned in the beginning of the paper however, cotton is used for much more than
clothing. Some mills in America have learned how to make oil from cottonseeds to be used in
foods like potato chips, other cotton factories use it to make couch stuffing, insulation fibers and
fine writing paper. The cotton could also be used in making film and objects for electronics

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devices. And though the cotton lint may not have much bioavailable nutritional value for the
human body, cotton could theoretically be a good body cleanser since it is the purest form of
cellulose found in existence. It also is used in feeding meal for cows and making nitrocellulose, a
big component in bomb weapons for war and safety glass. (Modern Marvels)
Cotton has also upped the pollution of our environment, and its mainstream production
has branched out from America to other factories overseas. It is seemingly everywhere, thanks to
going from India to Europe as clothes and eventually growing big time in America. From it came
war, the crescendo and decrescendo of slavery in our nation along with the enhancement of
fashion, food and technology. This was possible in America and other countries that have been
influenced by cotton all because of the role it has played in not just our economic history, but the
economic history of other countries similar to us for these reasons. And because 1). cotton
doesnt seem to be going anywhere any time soon, and 2). humans are generally intelligent
creatures, at least one person is probably wondering what will become of the worlds future
should people keep coming up with newer, brighter, and possibly more dangerous, innovative
uses for cotton.

Works Cited

Hughes, Jonathan, and Louis Cain. American Economic History. 8th ed. Addison-Wesley, 2011.
Print.
Modern Marvels: Cotton. A & E Television Networks, 2006. Film.