Empire of Cotton: A Global History

The reasons I really enjoyed reading this book are: a) it gives a very different view of the English Industrial Revolution, b) it is a fascinating historical account, c) it brings to light in a detailed and readable manner the darker side of capitalism. An important part of our view of the western world is that the English Industrial Revolution arose out of inventions, technological innovation, institutional and legal structures, literacy and numeracy and a few other very important advances in Western European society ( not in other parts of the world ) which led to an enormous leap in productivity, and which in turn allowed mankind to achieve a far higher level of prosperity and well-being. Inotherwords, superior western technology and human endeavour was what brought us the wonderful world of modernity: capitalism is great. This book, rather Marxist in tone ( although I doubt the author would describe himself as Marxist ) lets us see that the latter may all be true but we are missing another essential ingredient to this story of success, embodied in the cotton industry, central to and emblematic of that Revoluition: the plundering of Indian technology, quota and tarriff barriers on imports of poorer countries, monopolistic trade practices, the organization of human trafficking and slavery, dispossesion of native and foreign lands ( Amercian indians, and Mexican ) for cotton growing, child labour, the ruination of rural and city life, and so on. A lot of this has been corrected over the past two centuries, but the auhtor points out that much continues in developing countries. These are the darker aspects, and less glamorous side of capitalism, and should not be downplayed. The book is based on enormous erudition: one third of the 600 or so pages is used for notes and references to the immense bibliography which the author brings to his work. The book does not make reference to lofty abstract concepts of "alienation" or "reification" as a typical Marxist theoretician would, it simply outlines in sometimes repetitive detail the evolution of an industry central to the growth of capitalism with exquisite detail and a graphical, fascinating historical narrative. Every reader can take the conclusions he or she wants from Beckert's work: mine was not so much to discard capitalism as a valid economic model, but as one whose origins should be borne in mind in its modern application.

This book chronicles the spread of cotton as the dominant textile, enabled by coupled economic (low wage, or slave, labor) and technological factors (cotton gin, spinning jenny, programmed looms) and financed by capital from state and private institutions. It started with the ante-bellum American south, enabling the industrial finished cloth empire in England; when the supply from the American south was cut off by the Civil War primary production shifted to Egypt and India, where subsistence farmers lowered their standard of living as they were forced into growing cotton which paid less than the accelerating cost of food. Cotton worldwide continued to increase so the by the end of the 19th century US production was more than twice it's pre Civil War level. The manufacturing of cloth and finished goods shifted from England to lower wage Asia, eventually settling in China and Japan in the early 20th century. About 98 percent of all garments sold in the United States today are made abroad. Now massive retailers like Walmart, Metro, and Carrefour that have come to dominate the commodity chains linking contractors, subcontractors, farmers, mills, and sweatshops. Products are “pulled” across oceans by retailers, allowing them to pit manufacturers, contractors, and workers against one another to ensure the quickest speed and lowest cost. The state, the very institution that facilitated capitalists’ rise to wealth and power in the first place, is now increasingly desperate for their investments. In 2001, the U.S. government paid a record $ 4 billion in subsidies to US cotton growers, a cost that exceeded the market value of the crop (14% of worldwide production) by 30%. Not only is this history a fascinating read, but the economic observations along the way provide more insight into the workings of capitalism than can be found in most textbooks on the subject.

This book is a must read for all history buffs.the author has done extensive research for this book.

The EconomistとNYTの2015年ベスト本の一冊。（長いというほどでもないのですが地味な主題のせいで）読むのは骨が折れました。しかし価値ある一冊。綿産業がいかに現代世界を形作って来たかを、膨大な（おそらく数字ばかりの）史料をもとに紡ぎ上げた驚異の労作です。 現代世界が奴隷労働や低賃金労働者の搾取によって生まれてきたという資本主義のあまり明るくない一面を書くのが本の目的だと著者は最初に断っており、実際そのままの内容で、ページをめくるごとに息を呑む事実と洞察の連続です。各章の構成と流れもみごとで、歴史の動きを意識しながら読み進められます。 アジア、アフリカ、アメリカという「南」の作物だった綿はそもそも欧州には縁がなかったが、産業革命によって「奴隷を大量投入して綿花を作らせ、英国の工場で賃金労働者を使って綿製品を大量生産する」という画期的なビジネスモデルが生まれます。人類史上初めて、毎年10%以上も成長する商売というのが生まれたわけです。かくて資本は綿産業に流入し、金融や先物取引が繁栄し、富を蓄えた西欧は世界をリードするのですが、その原動力こそ綿産業だったという説明にははっとします（実際、産業革命盛事の英国の貿易の大半は綿関連だったそうです）。また、いまのように労働者が「毎日同じ場所に行って決まった時間に働く」という習慣は英国の綿製品工場で初めて生まれたそうで、その点でも綿産業は現代世界のさきがけでした。 いっぽうで農地と労働力を求めて西欧諸国はアジア・アフリカで植民地獲得競争に一斉参入し、そこで資本家は国家に働きかけを強めて（関税や植民地経営、インフラなどは国家の関与が必須なので）、各国は現代あるような国民国家のかたちに近付いていく…という筋書きです。実に綿産業がなければ現代世界はいまのような形にならなかっただろうということが納得できます。 日本についての言及も多く、西欧諸国のコストが上昇した20世紀初頭に安い労働力で綿産業を育て、それを基盤に近代国家を作り上げたということが描かれており、いまさらながらはっとします。 口惜しいけど、日本人には書けない種類の、スケールの大きな本です。 おそらく翻訳では（もし出たとしても）上下巻で6000円以上になるはずなので、英語で読む方がいいかと思います。

In my opinion there's much more to tell in a history of cotton, e.g. the trading companies that started in the middle 1800s and exists until today, the techniques of cotton production that evolved greatly in the last 150 years.

gute Darstellung der Weltgeschichte aus dem Blick der Baumwolle und seiner Verarbeitung

Brilliant and well written. While it's true that this book focuses on cotton, the book is a remarkable, all-encompassing study of the growths of industrialism, capitalism, colonialism, and empire. Beckert is a superb writer: the pages fly by, as one absorbs all sorts of fascinating details about this era. Beckert's main contribution to our larger world is to rethink the roles of state power and coercion in the making of industrial capitalism. Beckert places violence and state power squarely at center stage: tariffs, gunboats, slavery, forced labour, manipulation, and violence. In an age where people wax endlessly about the "free market" and "liberalization" and get rhapsodic about "civilization" or new technologies, Beckert's book is a stout rejoinder. Slavery, he notes, was not vestigial, not a holdover, not an aberration: it was one of the key devices in amassing the capital that drove industrialism. So too, Beckert examines the brutishness of many empires--British, French, American, Japanese, Russian, German--as they crushed the economic autonomy of other nations, turning them in poor and dependent places; giving birth to the "third world." By the end of the book, Beckert invites us to see that the cruel devices of the 19th century are by no means gone: the global south is still made to toil endlessly to produce raw materials (and now finished goods) for richer countries. The terms of this "commerce" are anything but free. Following Beckert--and other like minded historians--we really have to rethink our mythologies about markets, prices, state power, and capitalism itself.