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King Cotton: Cause Of The American Civil War

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Cotton is one of the most important commodities to, not only the United States’ economy, but has also played a trivial role in American history. America was once known as “King Cotton” and was the most profitable crop for Southern farmers, causing a rift in the relationship between the north and the south in the mid nineteenth century. It is arguably a cause of the American Civil War, and reshaped the economy. Today, cotton is still a very important crop to the United States economy and something that almost everyone uses in their everyday life. According to Wikinvest, 64 percent of cotton is used for apparel, 28 percent for home furnishings, and 8 percent for industrial products (1). America is still one of the biggest producers of cotton; …show more content…

Nation’s cotton farmers harvest about 7.3 billion bounds of cotton annually, which equates to a revenue of about $100 billion, annually (7). However, cotton requires many capital investments in order to use less labor and have a consistent crop quality (8). Examples of these investments include: tractors, storage mills, irrigation and cotton gins (8). With technology advancements, there has been an increase in cost for these items, which also makes it harder for new competitors to enter into the market without them (8). Each year of crop production involves a purchase of $5.8 billion worth of inputs, labor and equipment (7). In 2015, IBIS World estimated that “an average cotton farmer spends $0.79 on capital for every dollar spent on labor,” (8). Besides the increasing costs involved in the cotton industry, there are other factors that can deter new competitors from entering the market, as well as increasing the price of cotton for …show more content…

Louis Dreyfus Company, the world’s largest trader of raw cotton, has suffered significant losses in it’s cotton sales. The company’s full year profit fell 68%, the lowest sales it has seen in a decade. The company says the drop is due to “an environment of reduced commercial opportunities,” according to Chief Executive Officer Gonzalo Ramirez. The cotton decline not only affects shareholders of Louis Dreyfus and companies who need use cotton to make their products, it could potentially effect the inflation on the Brazilin Real (4). Another cotton company that has fallen victim to the cotton decline is Cargill Inc. The head of Cargill cotton company, Doug Chrisite has left the business. The company has been facing a decline in sales ever since the end of the bull market in 2010. Christie was apart of Cargill Inc. for two decades

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To begin with, the cotton gin was increasing Georgia’s economy through trade, manufacturing, and transportation. For example, document B stated, “Whether it was trade, manufacturing, or transportation, much of Georgia’s economic activity was directly or indirectly driven by cotton.” Meaning Georgia’s economic growth was from one factor. In addition, document B also stated, “They buy cotton, sell cotton, think cotton, eat cotton, drink cotton, and dream cotton....” ” the great staple, sum, and substance...”

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As cotton farms grew, slavery also increased. Although machines helped speeding up the process of developing thread, cotton still needed to get picked up by hands. Slaves worked on the farms and picked up cotton, which only benefited planters (History Learning Site). Human resources affected the growth of cotton by allowing planters to make more money, and produce more cotton. The third resources is capital.

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In the early years of Antebellum South Carolina, the harvesting and processing cotton was very high in demand for the textile industries of the northern

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The many issues that cotton growers faced in Rivoli's, "Travels of a T-Shirt," weren't just localized to within the grower's. They were facing global competition with other countries that also produced cotton. While the United States initially was believed to be unable to produce the amount of cotton other countries could, they would later prove to be able to do so, even going as far as producing more than their competitors. This didn't come without its own set of problems, often of which included labor constraints, the nature of how cotton grew, and the economic scale of the work done to grow the cotton. This essay focuses on some of the key problems that the growers faced when engaging in large-scale cotton production and facing global

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This made it possible to sell cotton to make them about 193 million dollars which is about 1.925 Billion dollars now.

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The purpose of Document E is to illustrate how the cotton industry functions in a daily basis. Moreover, the print elucidates the tranquility and the normality of their economy and life on a Southern plantation filled with slaves and their

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As one of the most influential and successful inventions during the Industrial Revolution, cotton gins brought so many conveniences to the cotton industry, and cotton became one of the fastest way to achieve enrichment. The overweight cotton development made cotton became the only economic resource in the south. Cotton helped the South grow more prosperity in agriculture, but the South still had the industry lags, and even their succeed in agriculture could not save their lack of development in other areas. The southerners relied on the agriculture so much that they ignore the importance of other business. “King Cotton” built a safe disguise to the southerners, which encouraged them to keep using cotton gins to make money because cotton was so important.

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In the beginning or Antebellum Period, the south and north were recovering from the American Revolution and they both went their separate ways. The northern colonies became industrialized building mills & factories along the rivers, while the southern colonies, began to grow cotton, as a result of indigo’s downfall. In the north, Two types of cotton were grown, black seed and short staple. Black seed cotton was grown better on the coastal islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Short staple was grown better on inland farms, but the seeds were harder to pick and it barely made a profit.

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Cotton can be converted into clothing, blankets, and many other things. “They (cotton exports) reached their peak in 1798, and in 1813 they still amounted to £2 million, but thereafter they fell rapidly (52). Thirty years later, half of Indian imports were cotton textiles from Manchester. This collapse in India's main export caused a problem for the Company, which had to find ways to convert its rupee revenue into resources transferable to the UK. The Company therefore promoted exports of raw materials on a larger scale, including sugar, silk, saltpetre and indigo, and greatly increased exports of opium which were traded against Chinese tea.”

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During the Industrialization period, both England and the US-North experienced an increased demand for cotton, which consequently led to the transition towards cotton agriculture. Between 1790 and 1860, the production of cotton surged from 1000 tons to 1 million tons. The plantation states, previously concentrated along the eastern seaboard of the US, gradually shifted towards eight more western states, including Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. The southern planters exported a major portion of the produced cotton, accounting for 75% of the total exports to England. This resulted in the southern states becoming heavily reliant on agriculture, further strengthening the dependency on slavery.

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The southerners focused mainly on cotton

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In Georgia cotton and tobacco were the main crops that came after the American Revolution, cotton later becoming dominant. In 1860, with cotton becoming so dominant, an invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney helped produced more than 700,000 bales of cotton with around 68,000 farmers. Few farmers, around 3,500 farmers, had 500 acres or more, and others had around less than 100.Cotton became an overwhelming product of the south, in 1870 Georgia was suppressing 725,000 bales. However, the negative effect of cotton was that is tarnished the soil that it was being produced on. In result of the negative effects Georgia began to place more focus on livestock, poultry, orchards, vineyards, vegetables, forage, and forestry.

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Rivoli believes that the U.S. began with a pretty large advantage over many countries when it came to the cotton industry because of its involvement in slavery. Slavery is probably one of the most immoral moments in U.S. history, however Rivoli believes that it contributed to most of the early success of the cotton industry. “Slavery was the first significant American ‘public policy’ that served to protect cotton growers from the perils of operating in a competitive market” (11). Slavery was a good source of cheap labor and it allowed the U.S. to profit more than other countries.

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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

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Since the Untied States provides subsidies to their cotton industry, they remain an international power in “white gold” and this in turn has hindered developing countries in West Africa, who are able to cultivate cotton at a much cheaper price, but are unable to compete when the U.S. grants subsidies to their farmers. If these subsidies would no longer be provided then the U.S. costs for cultivating cotton would be “100x more expensive than in Africa.” The two main reasons why the U.S. continues to protect the cotton industry are tradition and preservation of jobs. During the United States early years, cotton was one of the main reasons as to why the South was able to prosper to such a high degree and the U.S. would like to continue to preserve this industry because of its historical background. Now in today’s society the cotton industry isn’t as large,

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