Cotton 4

The British commercial empire grew the cotton industry enormously. British cotton products were successful in European markets, constituting 40.5% of exports in 1784 - 1786.

Cotton's versatility allowed it to be combined with linen and be made into velvet. It was cheaper than silk and could be imprinted more easily than wool, allowing for patterned dresses for women. It became the standard fashion and, because of its price, was accessible to the general public. New inventions in the 1770s, such as the spinning jenny, the water frame, and the spinning mule, made the British Midlands into a very profitable manufacturing centre. In 1794 - 1796, British cotton goods accounted for 15.6% of Britain's exports, and in 1804 - 1806 grew to 42.3%.

The Lancashire textile mills were major parts of the British industrial revolution. Their workers had poor working conditions: low wages, child labour, and 18-hour work days. Richard Arkwright created a textile empire by building a factory system powered by water, which was occasionally raided by the Luddites, weavers put out of business by the mechanization of textile production. In the 1790s, James Watt's steam power was applied to textile production, and by 1839 200,000 children worked in Manchester's cotton mills.

Anglo-French warfare in the early 1790s restricted access to continental Europe, causing the United States to become an important, and temporarily the largest, consumer for British cotton goods. In 1791, U.S. cotton production was small, at only 900,000 kilograms. Several factors contributed to the growth of the cotton industry in the U.S.: the increasing British demand; innovations in spinning, weaving, and steam power; inexpensive land; and a slave labour force. The modern cotton gin, invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, enormously grew the American cotton industry and helped cotton to surpass tobacco as the primary cash crop of the South. By 1801 the annual production of cotton had reached over 22 million kilograms, and by the early 1830s the United States produced the majority of the world's cotton. Cotton also exceeded the value of all other United States exports combined. The need for fertile land conducive to its cultivation lead to the expansion of slavery in the United States and an early 19th-century land rush known as Alabama Fever.

Cultivation of cotton using slaves brought huge profits to the owners of large plantations, making them some of the wealthiest men in the U.S. prior to the Civil War. In the non-slave-owning states, farms rarely grew larger than what could be cultivated by one family due to scarcity of farm workers. In the slave states, owners of farms could buy many slaves and thus cultivate large areas of land. By the 1850s, slaves made up 50% of the population of the main cotton states: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Slaves were the most important asset in cotton cultivation, and their sale brought profits to slaveowners outside of cotton-cultivating areas.

It was thought that the American Civil War caused the Lancashire Cotton Famine, by blocking off American raw cotton. Some, however, suggest that the Cotton Famine was mostly due to overproduction and price inflation caused by an expectation of future shortage.

Prior to the Civil War, Lancashire companies issued surveys to find new cotton growing countries if the Civil War were to occur and reduce American exports. India was deemed to be the country capable of growing the necessary amounts. Indeed, it helped fill the gap during the war, making up only 31% of British cotton imports in 1861, but 90% in 1862 and 67% in 1864.

Additionally, the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and France, began to turn to Egyptian cotton. The Egyptian government took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports,sending Egypt into a deficit spiral that led to the country declaring bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's occupation by the British Empire in 1882.

Textile mills have moved from Western Europe to lower wage areas. Industrial production is currently mostly located in countries like India, Bangladesh, China, and in Latin America. In these regions labour is much less expensive and attracts poor workers.

The demand for cotton has doubled since the 1980s.The main producer of cotton, as of December 2016, is India, at 26%, past China at 20% and the United States at 16%. The leading cotton exporter is the United States, whose production is subsidized by the government, with subsidies estimated at $14 billion between 1995 and 2003. The value of cotton lint has been decreasing for sixty years, and the value of cotton has decreased by 50% in 1997 - 2007. The global textile and clothing industry employs 23.6 million workers, of which 75% are women.