The Cotton Industry In The Industrial Revolution

First Published in 2005. The following study analyses several sequences of differentiation and a attempt to apply social theory to history. Such an analysis naturally calls for two components: (1) a segment of social theory; and (2) an empirical instance of change. For the first the author has selected a model of social change from a developing general theory of action; for the second, the British industrial revolution between 1770 and 1840. From this large revolution is the isolated the growth of the cotton industry and the transformation of the family structure of its working classes.

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE • A Pulitzer Prize finalist that's as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist. “Masterly … An astonishing achievement.” —The New York Times The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners. Sven Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with us today. In a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful politicians recast the world’s most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to make and remake global capitalism.

This is the first full-length history of the Scottish cotton industry, from its beginnings in the late eighteenth century to its premature decline in the years leading up to the First World War. The book examines the industry chronologically and through themes such as precursors, technology, capital and employers, markets, labor and work, placed within their broader economic and scoial contexts. Its account of the cotton industry is set within important historiographical debates such as proto-industrialization, the speed of industrial change, the diffusion of technology, the labor process, paternalism, workplace control, entrepreneurship and theories of industrial decline. Cotton was Scotland's premier industry during the Industrial Revolution and this book will be welcomed by specialists, students and interested readers alike.

Excerpt from Social Change in the Industrial Revolution: An Application of Theory to the British Cotton Industry 2 The Functional Dimensions treated as Sub-systems of S 3 The Boundary - interchanges within S 4 The Functional Dimensions of Industry C. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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.