Travels Of A T-Shirt In A Global Economy Summary

The book Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy show the journey a T-shirt takes around the world, from the start as cotton, to the finished product on store shelves, to what happens to the shirt after the original owner does not want it anymore. The book is divided into four sections. I will discuss the first section, titled King Cotton, discussing the insights on the global economy, the role of politics in the cotton growing, the idea of free markets with the cotton, and the winner and losers in cotton growing.
In the first part of the book, King Cotton, the simple item like a T-shirt provides insights into the global economy. The cotton that is grown in West Texas is shipped all around the world. Growing the cotton is the first step of making a T-shirt. This step is done wither America, or places like Africa, or India. Cotton requires very particular weather to grow and these places have

From the begging when the cotton is being grown, the cotton is not free. When the cotton is grown it faces government intervention and regulation. One part of the regulation is the seeds that are genetically modified; they cannot be reused like any other seeds. They have to be either sold back to the company that made them, or they have to be paid for again by the farmer (Rivoli 25). On top of this regulation, the cotton still encounters markets that are not truly free. The cotton faces quotas and tariffs from import countries. Only a certain amount of cotton may be taken into each nation. These forms of government control help control the amount of cotton that is taken in a country from a certain area of the world. These types of limitations have a negative effect on the industry. It allows someone’s product to get left out of the production cycle. Some farmers’ cotton may not be bought because that there is a limit on how much cotton may be bought or used in certain