Harvard University. Having been a recipient to many awards and fellowships it is, more than, safe to say that Beckert has the authority to write on the economic, social, and political history of capitalism on the specific commodity of cotton. Writing of such topics is what the book is primarily about, as he expresses why the history of cotton is so important today and revealing harsh information of capitalists, and what capitalism was five hundred or so years ago. Mentions of slavery were to be included as they had an extremely large influence with the history of cotton and the empire it was built on. The book although long, was not so boring because it really did teach the reader beyond what is learned in a text book. Personally an abundance
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The hunger for “success” and wealth these men had back in 1770’s truly left a lasting effect on global history today. Beckert states in “Capturing Labor, Capturing Land” that, and I roughly paraphrase, there was an exploding demand for cotton and the small quantities provided by white planters was not enough. Later the need to order cotton, just as sugar by ship was a necessity integrating it with their trade in slaves. “With fortunes to be made, European merchant in the Caribbean tried to secure more of the white gold.” (Beckert, p. 89). This is important in global history, although it was obviously not the first time, because it was like a domino effect because of the demand and need to meet the terms of what was wanted planters and buyers sought out more and more never having enough. New groups of planters were created each using more land and more slaves. This, personally, is felt to be the start of the bitterness capitalists have today. To back this information up, as to how the 1700’s had an effect on the “need” for imported cotton a figure on page 90 was provided showing that the growth of “West Indian cotton shipments to the United Kingdom, from 1750-1795, [grew] in millions of pounds” growing at about three million pounds imported in 1760 to about fourteen million in 1795. (Beckert,
The hunger for “success” and wealth these men had back in 1770’s truly left a lasting effect on global history today. Beckert states in “Capturing Labor, Capturing Land” that, and I roughly paraphrase, there was an exploding demand for cotton and the small quantities provided by white planters was not enough. Later the need to order cotton, just as sugar by ship was a necessity integrating it with their trade in slaves. “With fortunes to be made, European merchant in the Caribbean tried to secure more of the white gold.” (Beckert, p. 89). This is important in global history, although it was obviously not the first time, because it was like a domino effect because of the demand and need to meet the terms of what was wanted planters and buyers sought out more and more never having enough. New groups of planters were created each using more land and more slaves. This, personally, is felt to be the start of the bitterness capitalists have today. To back this information up, as to how the 1700’s had an effect on the “need” for imported cotton a figure on page 90 was provided showing that the growth of “West Indian cotton shipments to the United Kingdom, from 1750-1795, [grew] in millions of pounds” growing at about three million pounds imported in 1760 to about fourteen million in 1795. (Beckert,