Editing Cotton (section)

==History==
{{main|History of cotton}}

===Early history===
====South Asia====
{{Further|Tree cotton}}
[[File:Mehrgarh pakistan rel96.JPG|thumb|Mehrgarh shown in a physical map of the surrounding region]]

The earliest evidence of the use of cotton in the [[Old World]], dated to 5500 BC and preserved in copper beads, has been found at the [[Neolithic]] site of [[Mehrgarh]], at the foot of the [[Bolan Pass]] in [[ancient India]], today in [[Balochistan]] Pakistan.<ref name="Mithen2006">{{citation|last=Mithen|first=Steven|title=After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVygmardAA4C&pg=PA411|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01999-7|pages=411–412}} Quote: "One of the funerary chambers, dating to around 5500 BC, had contained an adult male lying on his side with legs flexed backward and a young child, approximately one or two years old, at his feet. Next to the adult's left wrist were eight copper beads which had once formed a bracelet. As such metal beads were only found in one other Neolithic burial at Mehrgarh, he must have been an extraordinarily wealthy and important person. Microscopic analysis showed that each bead had been made by beating and heating copper ore into a thin sheet which had then been rolled around a narrow rod. Substantial corrosion prevented a detailed technological study of the beads; yet this turned out to be a blessing as the corrosion had led to the preservation of something quite remarkable inside one of the beads – a piece of cotton. ... After further microscopic study, the fibres were unquestionably identified as cotton; it was, in fact, a bundle of both unripe and ripe fibres that had been wound together to make a thread, these being differentiated by the thickness of their cell walls. As such, this copper bead contained the earliest known use of cotton in the world by at least a thousand years. The next earliest was also found at Mehrgarh: a collection of cotton seeds discovered amidst charred wheat and barley grains outside one of its mud-brick rooms."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1006/jasc.2001.0779| title = First Evidence of Cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan: Analysis of Mineralized Fibres from a Copper Bead| journal = Journal of Archaeological Science| volume = 29| issue = 12| pages = 1393–1401| year = 2002| last1 = Moulherat | first1 = C. | last2 = Tengberg | first2 = M. | last3 = Haquet | first3 = J. R. M. F. | last4 = Mille | first4 = B. ̂T. | bibcode = 2002JArSc..29.1393M}} Quote: "The metallurgical analysis of a copper bead from a Neolithic burial (6th millennium bc) at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, allowed the recovery of several threads, preserved by mineralization. They were characterized according to new procedure, combining the use of a reflected-light microscope and a scanning electron microscope, and identified as cotton (Gossypium sp.). The Mehrgarh fibres constitute the earliest known example of cotton in the Old World and put the date of the first use of this textile plant back by more than a millennium. Even though it is not possible to ascertain that the fibres came from an already domesticated species, the evidence suggests an early origin, possibly in the Kachi Plain, of one of the Old World cottons.</ref><ref name="JIAPAN2018">{{cite journal |last1=Jia |first1=Yinhua |last2=Pan |first2=Zhaoe |last3=He |first3=Shoupu |last4=Gong |first4=Wenfang |last5=Geng |first5=Xiaoli |last6=Pang |first6=Baoyin |last7=Wang |first7=Liru |last8=Du |first8=Xiongming |title=Genetic diversity and population structure of Gossypium arboreum L. collected in China |journal=Journal of Cotton Research |date=December 2018 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=11 |doi=10.1186/s42397-018-0011-0 |bibcode=2018JCotR...1...11J |doi-access=free |quote=Gossypium arboreum is a diploid species cultivated in the Old World. It was first domesticated near the Indus Valley before 6000 BC (Moulherat et al. 2002).}}</ref>  Fragments of cotton textiles have been found at [[Mohenjo-daro]] and other sites of the [[Bronze Age]] [[Indus Valley civilization]], and cotton may have been an important export from it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ahmed |first1=Mukhtar |title=Ancient Pakistan - an Archaeological History: Volume III: Harappan Civilization - the Material Culture |date=2014 |publisher=Amazon |isbn=978-1-4959-6643-9 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qvVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 }}</ref>

====Americas====
Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near [[Tehuacán, Puebla|Tehuacán]], Mexico, have been
dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged.<ref>Jonathan D. Sauer, ''Historical Geography of Crop Plants: A Select Roster'', Routledge (2017), [https://books.google.com/books?id=moZHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 p. 115]</ref> More securely dated is the domestication of ''[[Gossypium hirsutum]]'' in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Huckell|first=Lisa W.|title=Plant Remains from the Pinaleño Cotton Cache, Arizona|journal=Kiva, the Journal of Southwest Anthropology and History|volume=59|issue=2|year=1993|jstor=30246122|pages=147–203}}</ref> During this time, people between the Río Santiago and the Río Balsas grew, spun, wove, dyed, and sewed cotton. What they did not use themselves, they sent to their Aztec rulers as tribute, on the scale of ~{{convert|116|e6lb|t|abbr=off}} annually.<ref>Beckert, S. (2014). Chapter one: The Rise of a Global Community. In Empire of Cotton: A global history. essay, Vintage Books.</ref>

In [[Peru]], cultivation of the indigenous cotton species ''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'' has been dated, from a find in Ancon, to {{Circa|4200 BC}},<ref>{{Google books|FauFCwAAQBAJ|New World Cotton|page=117}} in {{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-27096-8_4 |chapter=Genetic Improvement of Cotton |title=Gene Pool Diversity and Crop Improvement |series=Sustainable Development and Biodiversity |year=2016 |last1=Manickam |first1=S. |last2=Prakash |first2=A. H. |volume=10 |pages=105–161 |isbn=978-3-319-27094-4 }}</ref> and was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the [[Norte Chico civilization|Norte Chico]], [[Moche culture|Moche]], and [[Nazca culture|Nazca]]. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it.

====Arabia====
The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the [[Wars of Alexander the Great]], as his contemporary [[Megasthenes]] told [[Seleucus I Nicator]] of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Simon |first=Matt |date=8 August 2013 |title=The Most Bonkers Scientific Theories (Almost) Nobody Believes Anymore |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/08/the-most-bonkers-scientific-theories-and-why-you-should-be-thankful-for-them/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US}}</ref> This may be a reference to "tree cotton", ''[[Gossypium arboreum]],'' which is native to the Indian subcontinent.

According to the ''[[Columbia Encyclopedia]]'':<ref name=ce>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140923071411/https://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/cotton "cotton"] in ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. 2001–07.</ref>

{{Blockquote|Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries.}}

====Iran====
In Iran ([[Persia]]), the history of cotton dates back to the [[Achaemenid]] era (5th century BC); however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. Cotton cultivation was common in [[Merv]], [[Ray, Iran|Ray]] and [[Fārs Province|Pars]]. In [[Persian poetry|Persian]] poems, especially [[Ferdowsi]]'s [[Shahname]], there are references to cotton ("panbe" in [[Persian language|Persian]]). [[Marco Polo]] (13th century) refers to the major products of Persia, including cotton. [[John Chardin]], a French traveler of the 17th century who visited [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid Persia]], spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia.<ref>[[Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation]] {{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopaediaislamica.com/madkhal2.php?sid=2820 |title=پنبه |access-date=28 February 2009 |archive-date=30 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630080822/http://www.encyclopaediaislamica.com/madkhal2.php?sid=2820 |url-status=bot: unknown }}, Retrieved on 28 February 2009.</ref>

==== Near East ====
Microremains of cotton fibers, some dyed, have been found at [[Tel Tsaf]] in the [[Jordan Valley]] dated 5,200 BCE. They may be the remnants of ancient clothing, fabric containers, or cordage. Researches suggest the cotton might come from wild species in South Asia, and trade with the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Indus Valley]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Li |last2=Levin |first2=Maureece J. |last3=Klimscha |first3=Florian |last4=Rosenberg |first4=Danny |date=2022-12-08 |title=The earliest cotton fibers and Pan-regional contacts in the Near East |journal=Frontiers in Plant Science |volume=13 |doi=10.3389/fpls.2022.1045554 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-462X |pmc=9772618 |pmid=36570915|bibcode=2022FrPS...1345554L }}</ref>

====Kingdom of Kush====
Cotton (''Gossypium herbaceum'' Linnaeus) may have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern [[Sudan]] near the Middle Nile Basin region, where cotton cloth was being produced.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ancient_egyptian_cotton/|title=Ancient Egyptian cotton unveils secrets of domesticated crop evolution|website=www2.warwick.ac.uk|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> Around the 4th century BC, the cultivation of cotton and the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in [[Meroë]] reached a high level. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroë. Ancient Nubia had a "culture of cotton" of sorts, evidenced by physical evidence of cotton processing tools and the presence of cattle in certain areas. Some researchers propose that cotton was important to the Nubian economy for its use in contact with the neighboring Egyptians.<ref name="Yvanez & Wozniak 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Yvanez |first1=Elsa |last2=Wozniak |first2=Magdalena M. |title=Cotton in ancient Sudan and Nubia: Archaeological sources and historical implications |journal=Revue d'ethnoécologie |date=30 June 2019 |issue=15 |doi=10.4000/ethnoecologie.4429 |s2cid=198635772 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Kingdom of Aksum|Aksumite]] King [[Ezana]] boasted in his inscription that he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroë during his conquest of the region.<ref>{{cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gB6DcMU94GUC&q=cultivation+cotton+Meroe&pg=PA310 | title= Ancient civilizations of Africa |author= G. Mokhtar | publisher= Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa |page= 310 |via = Books.google.com |access-date= 2012-06-19 |isbn= 978-0-435-94805-4|date= 1981-01-01}}</ref>

In the Meroitic Period (beginning 3rd century BCE), many cotton textiles have been recovered, preserved due to favorable arid conditions.<ref name="Yvanez & Wozniak 2019"/> Most of these fabric fragments come from Lower Nubia, and the cotton textiles account for 85% of the archaeological textiles from Classic/Late Meroitic sites.<ref name=Yvanez2018/> Due to these arid conditions, cotton, a plant that usually thrives moderate rainfall and richer soils, requires extra irrigation and labor in Sudanese climate conditions. Therefore, a great deal of resources would have been required, likely restricting its cultivation to the elite.<ref name=Yvanez2018>{{cite journal |last1=Yvanez |first1=Elsa |title=Clothing the Elite? Patterns of Textile Production and Consumption in Ancient Sudan and Nubia |journal=Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae |date=2018 |volume=31 |pages=81–92 |doi=10.23858/FAH31.2018.006 |url=https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?showContent=true&id=67584 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the first to third centuries CE, recovered cotton fragments all began to mirror the same style and production method, as seen from the direction of spun cotton and technique of weaving.<ref name=Yvanez2018/> Cotton textiles also appear in places of high regard, such as on funerary stelae and statues.<ref name=Yvanez2018/>

====China====
During the [[Han dynasty]] (207 BC - 220 AD), cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of [[Yunnan]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/textilesofsouthe0000maxw|url-access=registration|title=Textiles of Southeast Asia: tradition, trade and transformation|author=Maxwell, Robyn J. |year=2003|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|edition=revised|isbn=978-0-7946-0104-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/textilesofsouthe0000maxw/page/410 410]}}</ref>

===Middle Ages===
====Eastern world====
[[Egypt]]ians grew and spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era.<ref name=International>{{cite book|title = The International Cotton Trade|author = Roche, Julian|publisher = Woodhead Publishing Ltd.|location = Cambridge, England|year = 1994|page = 5}}</ref>

Handheld roller [[cotton gin]]s had been used in India since the 6th century, and was then introduced to other countries from there.<ref name=LakGin>{{cite book|ref=Lakwete|author=Lakwete, Angela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOMaGVnPfBcC|title=Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America|place=Baltimore|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8018-7394-2|pages=1–6|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529151903/https://books.google.com/books?id=uOMaGVnPfBcC|archive-date=29 May 2016}}</ref> Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power.<ref name=Baber1>Baber, Zaheer (1996). ''The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India''. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 57. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-2919-8}}.</ref>

The earliest clear illustrations of the [[spinning wheel]] come from the [[Muslim world|Islamic world]] in the eleventh century.<ref name=MIT>{{cite book | last = Pacey | first = Arnold | title = Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History | orig-date = 1990 | edition = First MIT Press paperback | year = 1991 | publisher = The MIT Press | location = Cambridge MA}}</ref> The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350, suggesting that the spinning wheel was likely introduced from Iran to India during the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Pacey | first = Arnold | title = Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History | orig-date = 1990 | edition = First MIT Press paperback | year = 1991 | publisher = The MIT Press | location = Cambridge MA | pages = 23–24}}</ref>

====Europe====
[[File:Mandeville cotton.jpg|thumb|Cotton plants as imagined and drawn by [[John Mandeville]] in the 14th century]]
During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant. Because [[Herodotus]] had written in his ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', Book III, 106, that in India trees grew in the wild producing wool, it was assumed that the plant was a tree, rather than a shrub. This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in several Germanic languages, such as German ''[[wikt:Baumwolle|Baumwolle]]'', which translates as "tree wool" (''Baum'' means "tree"; ''Wolle'' means "wool"). Noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. [[John Mandeville]], writing in 1350, stated as fact that "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." (See [[Vegetable Lamb of Tartary]].)[[File:Vegetable lamb (Lee, 1887).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Vegetable Lamb of Tartary]]]]
Cotton manufacture was introduced to Europe during the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]] [[Muslim conquest of Sicily|and Sicily]]. The knowledge of cotton weaving was spread to northern Italy in the 12th century, when [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Sicily was conquered by the Normans]], and consequently to the rest of Europe. The [[spinning wheel]], introduced to Europe circa 1350, improved the speed of cotton spinning.<ref name=Middle>{{cite web|title = Technology in the Middle Ages|author = Backer, Patricia|access-date = 12 June 2011|work = History of Technology|url = http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/middle.htm|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130508045210/http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/middle.htm|archive-date = 8 May 2013}}</ref> By the 15th century, [[Venice]], [[Antwerp]], and [[Haarlem]] were important ports for cotton trade, and the sale and transportation of cotton fabrics had become very profitable.<ref name=Facts>{{cite encyclopedia|title = cotton|author = Volti, Rudi|encyclopedia = The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society|year = 1999|url = http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49\&iPin=ffests0220}}</ref>

===Early modern period===
====Mughal India====
{{Main|Mughal Empire|Muslin trade in Bengal}}
{{Further|Economic history of India}}
[[File:Renaldis muslin woman.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A woman in [[Dhaka]] clad in fine [[Muslin trade in Bengal|Bengali muslin]], 18th century]]

Under the [[Mughal Empire]], which ruled in the [[Indian subcontinent]] from the early 16th century to the early 18th century, Indian cotton production increased, in terms of both raw cotton and cotton textiles. The Mughals introduced [[agrarian reform]]s such as a new revenue system that was biased in favour of higher value [[cash crops]] such as cotton and [[Indigo dye|indigo]], providing state incentives to grow cash crops, in addition to rising market demand.<ref name="richards">[[John F. Richards]] (1995), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA190 ''The Mughal Empire'', page 190] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220230104/https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA190 |date=20 December 2017 }}, [[Cambridge University Press]]</ref>

The largest [[manufacturing]] industry in the Mughal Empire was cotton [[textile manufacturing]], which included the production of [[piece goods]], [[calico]]s, and [[muslin]]s, available unbleached and in a variety of colours. The cotton [[textile industry]] was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade.<ref name="schmidt">Karl J. Schmidt (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 ''An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History'', page 100] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220230104/https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |date=20 December 2017 }}, [[Routledge]]</ref> India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century.<ref>[[Angus Maddison]] (1995), ''Monitoring the World Economy, 1820-1992'', [[OECD]], p. 30</ref> Indian cotton [[textile]]s were the most important [[manufactured goods]] in world trade in the 18th century, consumed across the world from the [[Americas]] to [[Japan]].<ref name="Parthasarathi">{{Citation |title=Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850 |given=Prasannan |surname=Parthasarathi |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-49889-0 |page=2}}</ref> The most important center of cotton production was the [[Bengal Subah]] province, particularly around its capital city of [[Dhaka]].<ref name="Eaton">Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 ''The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760'', page 202] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627124201/http://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 |date=27 June 2014 }}, [[University of California Press]]</ref>

The [[worm gear]] roller [[cotton gin]], which was invented in India during the early [[Delhi Sultanate]] era of the 13th–14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire some time around the 16th century,<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', page 53], [[Pearson Education]]</ref> and is still used in India through to the present day.<ref name="LakGin"/> Another innovation, the incorporation of the [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]] handle in the cotton gin, first appeared in India some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', pages 53–54], [[Pearson Education]]</ref> The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in the villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the [[spinning wheel]] across India shortly before the Mughal era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA54 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', page 54], [[Pearson Education]]</ref>

It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, which is half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean {{convert|28|lb|kg}} of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce {{convert|250|lb|kg}} per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, and a few people's labour was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly.<ref>[[Karl Marx]] (1867). Chapter 16: "Machinery and Large-Scale Industry." ''[[Das Kapital]]''.</ref>

====Egypt====
{{Main|History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty}}
[[File:Cotton Picking in Egypt.tif|thumb|A group of Egyptian [[fellah]]s picking cotton by hand]]
In the early 19th century, a Frenchman named M. Jumel proposed to the great ruler of Egypt, [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Mohamed Ali Pasha]], that he could earn a substantial income by growing an extra-long staple Maho (''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'') cotton, in [[Lower Egypt]], for the French market. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in [[Egypt]]; and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops.

[[Egypt under Muhammad Ali]] in the early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of [[Spindle (textiles)|spindles]] per capita.<ref>{{cite book|title=Between Development and Underdevelopment: The Precocious Attempts at Industrialization of the Periphery, 1800-1870|author=Jean Batou|publisher=[[:fr:Librairie Droz|Librairie Droz]]|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjD4SCOE6IgC|page=181|isbn=978-2-600-04293-2}}</ref> The industry was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such as [[animal power]], [[water wheel]]s, and [[windmill]]s, which were also the principal energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870.<ref name="batou193">{{cite book|title=Between Development and Underdevelopment: The Precocious Attempts at Industrialization of the Periphery, 1800-1870|author=Jean Batou|publisher=[[:fr:Librairie Droz|Librairie Droz]]|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjD4SCOE6IgC&pg=PA193|pages=193–196|isbn=978-2-600-04293-2}}</ref> It was under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century that [[steam engine]]s were introduced to the Egyptian cotton industry.<ref name="batou193"/>

By the time of the American Civil war annual exports had reached $16 million (120,000 bales), which rose to $56 million by 1864, primarily due to the loss of the Confederate supply on the world market. Exports continued to grow even after the reintroduction of US cotton, produced now by a paid workforce, and Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903.

===Britain===
====East India Company====
{{Main|Calico Acts|Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution}}

[[File:Cotton bales at the port in Bombay in the 1860s.JPG|thumb|[[Cotton bale]]s at the port in [[Bombay]], India, 1860s]]

The [[English East India Company]] (EIC) introduced the British to cheap [[Calico (textile)|calico]] and [[chintz]] cloth on the restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s. Initially imported as a novelty side line, from its spice trading posts in Asia, the cheap colourful cloth proved popular and overtook the EIC's spice trade by value in the late 17th century. The EIC embraced the demand, particularly for [[Calico (textile)|calico]], by expanding its factories in Asia and producing and importing cloth in bulk, creating competition for domestic woollen and linen textile producers. The impacted weavers, spinners, dyers, shepherds and farmers objected and the calico question became one of the major issues of National politics between the 1680s and the 1730s. Parliament began to see a decline in domestic textile sales, and an increase in imported textiles from places like [[China]] and [[India]]. Seeing the East India Company and their textile importation as a threat to domestic textile businesses, Parliament passed the 1700 Calico Act, blocking the importation of cotton cloth. As there was no punishment for continuing to sell cotton cloth, smuggling of the popular material became commonplace. In 1721, dissatisfied with the results of the first act, Parliament passed a stricter addition, this time prohibiting the sale of most cottons, imported and domestic (exempting only thread [[Fustian]] and raw cotton). The exemption of raw cotton from the prohibition initially saw 2 thousand bales of cotton imported annually, to become the basis of a new indigenous industry, initially producing [[Fustian]] for the domestic market, though more importantly triggering the development of a series of mechanised spinning and weaving technologies, to process the material. This mechanised production was concentrated in new [[cotton mill]]s, which slowly expanded until by the beginning of the 1770s seven thousand bales of cotton were imported annually, and pressure was put on Parliament, by the new mill owners, to remove the prohibition on the production and sale of pure cotton cloth, as they could easily compete with anything the EIC could import.

The acts were repealed in 1774, triggering a wave of investment in mill-based cotton spinning and production, doubling the demand for raw cotton within a couple of years, and doubling it again every decade, into the 1840s.<ref name="Broadberry & Gupta 2005"/>

Indian cotton textiles, particularly those from [[Bengal Subah|Bengal]], continued to maintain a competitive advantage up until the 19th century. In order to compete with India, Britain invested in labour-saving technical progress, while implementing [[protectionist]] policies such as bans and [[tariff]]s to restrict Indian imports.<ref name="Broadberry & Gupta 2005">{{cite web |last1=Broadberry |first1=Stephen N. |last2=Gupta |first2=Bishnupriya |title=Cotton Textiles and the Great Divergence: Lancashire, India and Shifting Competitive Advantage, 1600-1850 |website=Centre for Economic Policy Research |date=August 2005 |series=CEPR Press Discussion Paper No. 5183 |ssrn=790866 |url=https://cepr.org/publications/dp5183 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> At the same time, the East India Company's [[Company rule in India|rule in India]] contributed to its [[deindustrialization]], opening up a new market for British goods,<ref name="Broadberry & Gupta 2005"/> while the capital amassed from Bengal after its [[Battle of Plassey|1757 conquest]] was used to invest in British industries such as textile manufacturing and greatly increase British wealth.<ref name="tong">Junie T. Tong (2016), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_UQGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA151 ''Finance and Society in 21st Century China: Chinese Culture Versus Western Markets'', page 151], [[CRC Press]]</ref><ref name="esposito">[[John L. Esposito]] (2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KZcohRpc4OsC&pg=PT190 ''The Islamic World: Past and Present 3-Volume Set'', page 190] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220230104/https://books.google.com/books?id=KZcohRpc4OsC&pg=PT190 |date=20 December 2017 }}, [[Oxford University Press]]</ref> British colonization also forced open the large Indian market to British goods, which could be sold in India without tariffs or [[Duty (economics)|duties]], compared to local Indian producers who were heavily [[tax]]ed, while raw cotton was imported from India without tariffs to British factories which manufactured textiles from Indian cotton, giving Britain a monopoly over India's large market and cotton resources.<ref name="Cypher">{{cite book|title=The Process of Economic Development|author=James Cypher|year=2014|publisher=[[Routledge]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxFxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97|isbn=978-1-136-16828-4}}</ref><ref name="Broadberry & Gupta 2005"/><ref name="Bairoch">{{cite book |last1=Bairoch |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul Bairoch |title=Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes |date=1995 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-03463-8 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LaF_cCknJScC&pg=PA89 }}</ref> India served as both a significant supplier of raw goods to British manufacturers and a large [[captive market]] for British manufactured goods.<ref>{{cite book|title=Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India|first1=Henry |last1=Yule |author-link1=Henry Yule |first2=A. C. |last2=Burnell |author-link2=A. C. Burnell |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2013|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NXOCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|isbn=978-1-317-25293-1}}</ref> Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer in the 19th century.<ref name="Broadberry & Gupta 2005"/>

India's cotton-processing sector changed during EIC expansion in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From focusing on supplying the British market to supplying East Asia with raw cotton.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789047429975_006 |chapter=British Exports of Raw Cotton from India to China during the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries |title=How India Clothed the World |year=2013 |pages=115–137 |isbn=978-90-474-2997-5 |first1=H. V. |last1=Bowen |publisher=Brill |editor1-first=Giorgio |editor1-last=Riello |editor2-first=Tirthankar |editor2-last=Roy |jstor=10.1163/j.ctv2gjwskd.12 |jstor-access=free |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwskd.12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240120040905/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwskd.12.pdf |archive-date= Jan 20, 2024 }}</ref> As the Artisan produced textiles were no longer competitive with those produced Industrially, and Europe preferring the cheaper slave produced, long staple American, and Egyptian cottons, for its own materials.{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}}

====Industrial Revolution====
{{Main|Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution}}
The advent of the [[Industrial Revolution]] in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, as textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. In 1738, [[Lewis Paul]] and [[John Wyatt (inventor)|John Wyatt]], of [[Birmingham]], England, patented the roller spinning machine, as well as the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds. Later, the invention of the [[James Hargreaves]]' [[spinning jenny]] in 1764, [[Richard Arkwright]]'s [[spinning frame]] in 1769 and [[Samuel Crompton]]'s [[spinning mule]] in 1775 enabled British spinners to produce cotton yarn at much higher rates. From the late 18th century on, the British city of [[Manchester]] acquired the nickname ''"[[Cottonopolis]]"'' due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, and Manchester's role as the heart of the global cotton trade.<ref>{{Cite OED|Cottonopolis}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last= Lowe |first= J |year= 1854 |title= A Manchester warehouse |journal= [[Household Words]] |volume= 9 |pages= 269 }}</ref>

[[File:William L. Sheppard - First use of the Cotton Gin, Harper's weekly, 18 Dec. 1869, p. 813.png|thumb|Slaves using an early cotton gin (prior to Whitney's developed version) to help harvest and process the cotton. Illustration in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', 1869 depicting late 18th-century America.]]
[[File:MapCotton-1907-2023.jpg|alt=World map of cotton cultivation and export routes in 1907|thumb|World map of cotton cultivation and export routes in 1907]]
Production capacity in Britain and the United States was improved by the invention of the modern [[cotton gin]] by the American [[Eli Whitney]] in 1793. Before the development of cotton gins, the cotton fibers had to be pulled from the seeds tediously by hand. By the late 1700s, a number of crude ginning machines had been developed. However, to produce a bale of cotton required over 600 hours of human labor,<ref name=r1>{{cite journal |title=100 Years of Cotton Production, Harvesting, and Ginning Systems Engineering: 1907-2007 |journal=Transactions of the ASABE |date=2008 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=1187–1198 |doi=10.13031/2013.25234 |first1=S. E. |last1=Hughs |first2=T. D. |last2=Valco |first3=J. R. |last3=Williford }}</ref> making large-scale production uneconomical in the United States, even with the use of humans as slave labor. The gin that Whitney manufactured (the Holmes design) reduced the hours down to just a dozen or so per bale. Although Whitney patented his own design for a cotton gin, he manufactured a prior design from Henry Odgen Holmes, for which Holmes filed a patent in 1796.<ref name=r1/> Improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British traders to develop a commercial chain in which raw cotton fibers were (at first) purchased from [[British Empire|colonial]] [[plantations]], processed into cotton cloth in the mills of [[Lancashire]], and then exported on British ships to captive colonial markets in [[British West Africa|West Africa]], [[British Raj|India]], and China (via Shanghai and Hong Kong).

By the 1840s, India was no longer capable of supplying the vast quantities of cotton fibers needed by mechanized British factories, while shipping bulky, low-price cotton from India to Britain was time-consuming and expensive. This, coupled with the emergence of American cotton as a superior type (due to the longer, stronger fibers of the two domesticated native American species, ''[[Gossypium hirsutum]]'' and ''[[Gossypium barbadense]]''), encouraged British traders to purchase cotton from [[Plantations in the American South|plantations in the United States]] and in the [[Caribbean]]. By the mid-19th century, "[[King Cotton]]" had become the backbone of the [[antebellum South|southern American]] economy. In the United States, cultivating and harvesting cotton became the leading occupation of [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]].

During the [[American Civil War]], American cotton exports slumped due to a [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] [[blockade]] on [[Confederate States of America|Southern]] [[port]]s, and because of a strategic decision by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] government to cut exports, hoping to force Britain to recognize the Confederacy or enter the war. The [[Lancashire Cotton Famine]] prompted the main purchasers of cotton, [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and [[France]], to turn to [[Egypt]]ian cotton. British and French traders invested heavily in cotton plantations. The Egyptian government of [[Isma'il Pasha|Viceroy Isma'il]] took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned [[Egyptian cotton]] and returned to cheap American exports,{{citation needed|reason=I've seen this the other way round with the South suffering because British interests in Egypt persisted and they liked the product better|date=September 2012}} sending Egypt into a deficit spiral that led to the country declaring [[bankruptcy]] in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's [[History of Egypt under the British|occupation by the British Empire in 1882]].
[[File:Espanya Industrial - segle XIX.jpg|thumb|Espanya Industrial" cotton factory, in Sants, Barcelona in the late 19th century.]]

During this time, cotton cultivation in the [[British Empire]], especially Australia and India, greatly increased to replace the lost production of the American South. Through tariffs and other restrictions, the British government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in India; rather, the raw fiber was sent to England for processing. The Indian [[Gandhi, Mohandas K.|Mahatma Gandhi]] described the process:

#English people buy Indian cotton in the field, picked by Indian labor at seven cents a day, through an optional monopoly.
#This cotton is shipped on British ships, a three-week journey across the Indian Ocean, down the Red Sea, across the Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, across the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean to London. One hundred per cent profit on this freight is regarded as small.
#The cotton is turned into cloth in Lancashire. You pay shilling wages instead of Indian pennies to your workers. The English worker not only has the advantage of better wages, but the steel companies of England get the profit of building the factories and machines. Wages; profits; all these are spent in England.
#The finished product is sent back to India at European shipping rates, once again on British ships. The captains, officers, sailors of these ships, whose wages must be paid, are English. The only Indians who profit are a few [[lascar]]s who do the dirty work on the boats for a few cents a day.
#The cloth is finally sold back to the kings and landlords of India who got the money to buy this expensive cloth out of the poor peasants of India who worked at seven cents a day.<ref>(Fisher 1932 pp 154–156){{full citation needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>

===United States===
{{Main|Cotton production in the United States|Black Belt in the American South}}
	{{Multiple image
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| image1 = Cotton pickers and overseer around 1850.jpg
| image2 = Family of slaves in Georgia, circa 1850.jpg
| caption1 = Slaves picking cotton while being observed by an [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States#Overseer|overseer]] on horseback, {{Circa|1850}}
| caption2 = Slaves with the cotton they had picked. Georgia, {{Circa|1850}}
| image3 = Adams & Bazemore Cotton Warehouse, 4th near Poplar, circa 1877 - DPLA - 7e9ab74033df525c16cfacddfb85955f.jpeg
| caption3 = Adams & Bazemore Cotton Warehouse, Macon, Georgia, {{Circa|1877}}
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In the United States, growing Southern cotton generated significant wealth and capital for the antebellum South, as well as raw material for Northern textile industries. Before 1865 the cotton was largely produced through the labor of enslaved African Americans. It enriched both the Southern landowners and the new textile industries of the Northeastern United States and northwestern Europe. In 1860 the slogan "[[King Cotton|Cotton is king]]" characterized the attitude of Southern leaders toward this [[monocrop]] in that Europe would support an independent [[Confederate states of America|Confederate States of America]] in 1861 in order to protect the supply of cotton it needed for its very large textile industry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Owsley |first1=Frank Lawrence |title=The Confederacy and King Cotton: A Study in Economic Coercion |journal=The North Carolina Historical Review |date=1929 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=371–397 |jstor=23514836 }}</ref>
Russell Griffin of California was a farmer who farmed one of the biggest cotton operations. He produced over sixty thousand bales.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=D. Clayton |title=King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945 |date=2011 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62846-932-5 }}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>
Cotton remained a key crop in the Southern economy after slavery ended in 1865. Across the South, [[sharecropping]] evolved, in which landless farmers worked land owned by others in return for a share of the profits. Some farmers rented the land and bore the production costs themselves. Until mechanical [[cotton picker]]s were developed, cotton farmers needed additional labor to hand-pick cotton. Picking cotton was a source of income for families across the South. Rural and small town school systems had split vacations so children could work in the fields during "cotton-picking."<ref>Rupert B. Vance, ''Human factors in cotton culture; a study in the social geography of the American South'' (U of North Carolina Press, 1929) [https://archive.org/details/humanfactorsinco00vancrich online free]
</ref>

During the middle 20th century, employment in cotton farming fell, as machines began to replace laborers and the South's rural labor force dwindled during the World Wars. Cotton remains a major export of the United States, with large farms in California, Arizona and the [[Deep South]].<ref name="auto"/> To acknowledge cotton's place in the history and heritage of Texas, the [[Texas Legislature]] designated cotton the official "State Fiber and Fabric of Texas" in 1997.

===The Moon===
China's [[Chang'e 4]] spacecraft took cotton seeds to the [[Far side of the Moon|Moon's far side]]. On 15 January 2019, China announced that a cotton seed sprouted, the first "truly otherworldly plant in history". Inside the [[Von Kármán (lunar crater)|Von Kármán Crater]], the capsule and seeds sit inside the Chang'e 4 lander.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.space.com/43012-china-cotton-seed-moon-far-side-chang-e4.html|title=Cotton Seed Sprouts on the Moon's Far Side in Historic First by China's Chang'e 4|last1=Bartels|first1=Meghan|last2=January 15|first2=Space com Senior Writer {{!}}|website=Space.com|access-date=2019-01-15|last3=ET|first3=2019 11:47am|date=15 January 2019}}</ref>