Want to learn the ideas in Empire of Cotton better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of Empire of Cotton

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Empire of Cotton, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Sven Beckert.

1-Page Summary of Empire of Cotton

Overall Summary

Sven Beckert’s book, Empire of Cotton, is a nonfiction account that explores the history of cotton and its impact on modern capitalism. The book goes back to the Industrial Revolution in England and follows it through to World War II. It shows how cotton affected trade between countries as well as slavery in America during the Civil War.

The story of cotton begins in England. Samuel Greg, who made his fortune from slavery, built a water-driven mill for spinning yarn. The industry was dependent on the slave trade at this time, and it’s no coincidence that most major players were involved with the slave trade. Even though Britain had banned slavery within its borders, they still took land from indigenous people around the world to help American slave traders capture slaves more easily. Furthermore, British textile industries relied heavily on cotton grown by slaves in America.

While Britain exported slaves to the Americas, it also used child labor in its domestic cotton mills. These workers were subject to harsh working conditions and corporal punishment. The factories relied heavily on these children and frequently used predatory contracts that imposed criminal penalties on those who left their jobs early. Because independent spinners and weavers lost their businesses, they had no choice but to work in the hot, tedious, dangerous environment of what William Blake called “satanic mills” (cotton factories).

In the 1860s, during the American Civil War, Britain struggled to get a hold of India’s cotton supply. The war cut off America’s supply of cotton and forced Britain to find another source for their textile industry. They did this by giving loans and infrastructure to farmers in India so they could produce more raw cotton than before. This hurt Indian farmers, who had less food since they were growing it for export instead of themselves.

After the Civil War, freed slaves in America had to be mobilized into labor. They didn’t want to return to cotton plantations because they were treated as poorly as when they were slaves. The quality of life was only marginally better than what it was like before.

During the first half of the 20th century, cotton manufacturing shifted from Western Europe and America to Asia and other parts of the world. This was due to increasing wages in Western Europe and America, as well as anti-colonial movements that weakened Great Britain’s hold on its colonies. By 1963, Britain’s reign over cotton was effectively at an end; it only accounted for 2.6% of global exports that year.

The book ends by examining the state of cotton in the 21st century. China and India are leading exporters, displacing the United States as a major exporter. The U.S., however, remains competitive because of subsidies to domestic growers and is able to export due to multinational retailers like Walmart that sell consumer goods made with cheap labor from Asia. While there’s less violence used on workers than before, they’re still not protected by labor laws that many in Western countries have come to take for granted.

Introduction

In the book, Beckert argues that perhaps more than any other industry, cotton is at the heart of every major development in modern capitalism. He writes, “This book is the story of European dominance in the world’s cotton trade and how this led to global economic growth.” To illustrate Europe’s dominance at its peak, he takes stock of a few statistics from 1860:

Yet, 100 years ago, the ancestors of these cotton men would have laughed at the thought of a cotton empire. In 1963, Britain’s cotton industry was almost nonexistent.