A History of the Cotton Industry

This book is about technology and how it has changed the lives of people on three continents over the last three hundred years. The development of the cotton industry was the starting point for one of the great turning points in history – the industrial revolution. It began with the importation of cloth into Britain from India and that created a new fashion. As the demand for cotton cloth grew, British inventors began to find ways of making the same cloth using powered machinery and built the first cotton mills. The old way of life of the textile workers was transformed, as work moved from home to factory and thousands of small children were brought in to tend the new machines. If conditions in the cotton towns were bad, they were far worse in America where, thanks to the work of slaves, the country took over the supply of raw material from India. During the American Civil War, Britain turned again to India for its supplies. Today, positions have changed dramatically. India again has a thriving industry, while in Britain only a fraction of the old mills are still at work. The author looks in detail at the technology that produced the changes, but the emphasis is very much on the human stories of the industrialists and their workers, the planters and their slaves in Britain, India and America.