Summary Of The Empire Of Cotton

In Beckert's book titled, “The Empire of Cotton”, he argues that the cultivation of cotton in 19th century America went hand in hand with slavery, or violent domination of labour. Before the inception of cotton cultivation in US, slaves were employed in tobacco plantations. When the market for tobacco dwindled, it was an easy move to employ the slaves on cotton plantations, as the cultivation techniques were largely similar. Cotton is a labour intensive crop, and a significant portion of the production costs go towards procuring labour. Slavery was a cost-effective method of employing labour. If slaves were employed, large quantities of cotton could be produced at a cheaper cost, and as a result, could be sold in the market for low prices. One of the reasons
Free wage labour prevented planters from having complete control over the labourers. In fact, it was believed that cotton could not be produced through voluntary labour. Beckert uses the example of India, where free wage labour was employed on cotton plantations, and opines that the reason behind the lack of substantial profits from Indian cotton was primarily due to the employment of free labour. The British failed in their venture to cultivate cotton in India, using free labour, as they could not mobilize the workers, violently coerce them, or extract maximum possible profit from them. With free labour, the control and power is not solely in the hands of the cotton planter. Labourers can choose not to come to the farm, not work as hard, or even revolt. In India, workers frequently went on strike, demanding higher wages, and this affected the share of profits that the cotton planters had. The planters could not use any violent means to dominate their free labourers, and increase their productivity, or discourage