Book Summary: The Travels Of The T-Shirt In The Global Economy

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

Immigrant labor also played a major role in the consistency of the U.S leading cotton industry. With the assistance of this cheap labor, the profits of the industry greatly helped the economy, while becoming the world leader in cotton production. As a result of cottons huge contribution to the U.S economy, the government would therefore regulate to the benefit farmers in cotton fields. Furthermore, the alliance of agricultural organizations to protect farmers for fair trade of into markets, research supported by Universities to advance farming technology, and the government subsides to insure farmer get paid. All of these were constructed in favor of the U.S control of the profitable cotton market. Although according to the book the market was not a completely runned by the U.S, the environment of course had a partial effect on its trade, but all that changed when herbicides and pesticides were introduced. Once again the U.S ruled cotton production by its understanding of the industry along with using proficient