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podcast transcript
It’s soft, common, and something most people wear almost every day. But behind this humble structure lies one of the most dramatic stories in human history.
Cotton helped connect ancient civilizations, build global trade networks, fuel the Industrial Revolution, enrich empires, and sustain slavery.
Few plants have had a greater impact on the modern world. From the fields of India and Peru to the factories of England and the farms of America, cotton transformed everything it touched.
Learn more about the amazing history of cotton in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Cotton comes from a plant in the genus Cotton. GossypiumA group of shrubs native to tropical and subtropical regions.
Cotton fibers grow around the seeds of the plant. Once washed, spun, and woven, the result is a fabric that is soft, breathable, washable, and comfortable in warm climates. Compared to wool, cotton is lighter and cooler. It was easier to weave in a variety of fabrics compared to linen. It can also be dyed easily.
Unlike crops with a single growing center, cotton was grown independently in different parts of the world.
At least four species of animals have been domesticated by humans. In the Old World Gossypium Arboretum Domesticated in South Asia, that is, the Indus region. Gossypium herbaceum In Africa or Arabia. In the new world Gossypium hirsutum Domesticated in Central America, possibly Mexico. Gossypium barbadens South America, especially along the Pacific coast of Peru.
Cotton fibers have been discovered in Peru as far back as 6000 BC, and in Mexico 2000 years later. The Indus Valley not only cultivated cotton until 3000 BC, but it was also woven into specific fabrics.
African communities have used cotton in the Nile Delta since 5000 BC, 2000 years before the rise of Egyptian civilization.
Before the advent of cotton, people wore fabrics depending on where they lived. Sheep’s wool was quite popular in Europe and Central Asia, especially in cold climates. During the Middle Ages, the wool trade was the backbone of the European, especially Northern European, economy.
In East Asia, silk production was widespread, but linen was worn by commoners because it was more easily produced by the elite.
Linen from the flax plant was the primary fabric for clothing, even in areas where cotton was available. This is because cotton required much more intensive care and advanced irrigation.
Weavers from ancient communities in modern-day India and Pakistan gained local fame for their technical mastery of cotton textiles. There was a high demand for exquisite “calico” from South Asian weavers. Because this calico was found in trade markets such as Egypt and the Mediterranean world.
The properties of cotton were pointed out by the Greek historian Herodotus. “There are trees growing wild in India, which produce a type of wool of better beauty and quality than that with which the Indians make their clothes.”
India’s outstanding spinning and dyeing skills have made it the center of the world’s cotton industry. Indian cotton became an important part of the developing Indian Ocean trade network, with Indian Ocean cotton being treated as a valuable commodity and often traded for African gold and spices in the Indonesian Spice Islands.
Indian weavers achieved complete mastery of cotton production with the development of muslin. Muslin is a cotton with a very light and airy texture that was developed in Dhaka, modern-day Bangladesh.
The BBC noted the importance of cotton muslin: “It was created through. Made through a sophisticated 16-step process using rare cotton that grows only in Africa. The cloth from the banks of the sacred Meghna River was considered one of the greatest cloths. A treasure of the times.“
Muslin was more highly regarded in China than even the most exquisite silk fabrics.
Phuti Karpas, a cotton species once thought to be extinct, was the source of Dacca muslin, a very fine fabric nicknamed “salty wind” by the Romans.
Researchers and scientists have scoured the area around the Meghna and Brahmaputra rivers in modern-day Bangladesh to find extinct species of rogue plants. The search relied solely on historical evidence, including where the plant once grew and fossilized leaves preserved in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
Researchers were delighted to discover several perfectly genetically matched plants near the river in 2014, and began a restoration campaign to cultivate previously extinct cotton species.
In an effort to help England’s wool industry in the early 18th century, Parliament banned the import of cotton goods from India. This ban combined with the rapid industrialization of Britain led to the demise of the Indian muslin industry. As a result, the British East India Company overwhelmed the South Asian market with cheap, tariff-free British textiles.
Muslin producers were forced to obtain their services by the British East India Company at prices well below market, effectively putting an end to the industry. The biggest challenge was finding the families of previous weavers and gathering family legacy stories about their craft.
Because cotton is not native to East Asia, the Silk Road was key to introducing cotton to China. Cotton took time to gain a foothold in China, as it was considered a “southern” innovation and was disparaged by the Chinese elite, who preferred silk for themselves and hemp clothing for the common people.
Cotton was not widely accepted in China until the conquest because the Mongols showed no interest in traditional Chinese customs. The Mongols knew that cotton could be layered, and they discovered quilted cotton lined with leather or silk, an invaluable asset in the harsh climate of Central Asia.
The arrival of Europeans did not introduce cotton, which already existed, to the Americas, but rather a new economy. After the mass migration of Europeans to the Americas and the establishment of British colonies, cotton belts emerged.
Being a tropical and subtropical plant, cotton requires a frost-free environment, which excludes most of North America above 37 degrees latitude.
The area below Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky was well suited to cotton growing, and as British industrialization expanded after the introduction of the water mill and later the steam engine, the region increased production and moved away from tobacco.
The development of cotton production in North America coincided with the introduction of slave labor in the southern colonies.
In the early 1790s, the American South faced a critical moment. Tobacco, long the region’s main cash crop, depleted the soil and forced growers to struggle to produce cotton, which remained a costly and inefficient business.
The biggest obstacle was the physical constraints inherent in manual processing. An enslaved worker could spend an entire day cleaning just one pound of cotton. This was due to a specific type of cotton native to North America: short-fiber upland cotton. This cotton contains sticky seeds that are very difficult to separate from the fiber.
The farm system seemed destined to become a historical footnote due to its prohibitive labor costs and Britain’s restrictive commercial tariffs on the import of raw materials. But a single technological innovation fundamentally changed the economic landscape.
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a simple machine that used a comb to separate the seeds from the fiber. After the invention of gin, a slave working all day would now produce 50 pounds of cotton.
The cotton gin actually entrenched slavery by allowing cotton production to explode in the South. Before the invention of the gin, the cotton belt produced 3,000 bales of cotton for export.
In 1800, just seven years after gin was invented, the region produced 73,000 bales, an increase of more than 2300% in just seven years. The Cotton Belt became the ‘Cotton Kingdom’, supplying Britain’s textile mills.
Before the American Civil War, the American South accounted for about 75% of the cotton used in British mills.
The center of England’s cotton-based industrial revolution was Manchester, England, also known as Cottonnopolis. Before machines dominated local industry, home-made weavers produced textiles.
Cotton spurred the transition to machines such as the Spinning Jenny and Spinning Mule. Between 1750 and 1850, Manchester grew from a population of 18,000 to over 300,000, a growth rate of over 1,500%. This growth came to a halt with the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.
Manchester suffered greatly when the Union naval blockade cut off southern cotton supplies. Unable to secure essential raw materials for their machinery, the city’s factories face a crisis exacerbated by disruptions to global supply chains, including India’s struggle for independence.
The Lancashire cotton famine, caused by the collapse of the cotton supply chain, was a major blow to the British economy. Manchester, the largest city in the county of Lancashire, felt the immediate effects. Within four months, the mills ran out of cotton, causing widespread unemployment, poverty, and even famine among the workers.
Although the cotton shortage caused severe hardship across Lancashire, local workers remained steadfast. At a meeting held in Manchester on December 31, 1862, textile workers resolved to support the Union’s abolition campaign and decided to prioritize human freedom over their own economic survival.
In the 20th century, the technology that led to the British textile industry spread through Europe and into North America. The textile industrial revolution, previously monopolized by Britain, now spread globally, expanding cotton production around the world.
One of the greatest ecological disasters of the 20th century was the disappearance of the Aral Sea, directly related to cotton production.
The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but Soviet attempts to create a cotton kingdom in a region that could not support large-scale cotton cultivation led to the lake’s near disappearance.
Despite the rise of fast fashion trends and the introduction of synthetic fiber blends and polyester, the use of cotton has continued unabated. Cotton consumption intensified as manufacturing moved to developing countries and global transportation networks expanded.
Current global annual cotton production is typically around 24 to 26 million tons of lint cotton, but varies depending on weather, prices and planting decisions. Lint cotton refers to cotton from which the seeds have been removed for fabric production.
The world’s largest producing countries are China, India, the United States, Brazil, and Pakistan.
Cotton has followed a similar trajectory to many of the great driving forces in world history. Once a coveted luxury, cotton, which the ancient Greeks called “the wool of the trees,” is so common that it often goes unnoticed.
It fueled the Industrial Revolution, promoted slavery in the American South, and caused the disappearance of one of the world’s largest lakes.
Cotton is woven into every fabric of our daily lives, including bed linens, bathroom towels, and our favorite t-shirts.
It all started thousands of years ago when ancient people around the world figured out how to turn fuzzy plants into clothing.
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