Sven Beckert. Empire of Cotton

Centuries before mechanized cotton mills inaugurated the Industrial Revolution in Britain, cotton textile producers in the Indian subcontinent traded throughout the world. Approximately five thousand years ago, the cotton plant was domesticated independently in several parts of the tropics. A number of successful innovations in weaving technique and in dyeing prompted India to take the lead in long-distance trade in cotton textiles. By 1600, cotton textiles were among the main articles of trade in the Indian Ocean, which led European maritime merchants interested in Asian goods to set up bases in India. In the eighteenth century, cotton textiles emerged as a coveted consumer good in Western Europe and became integrated into the Atlantic slave trade as a medium of exchange in Africa. By the late 1700s, British manufacturers, merchants, and inventors had acquired sufficient knowledge of the market and the product to attempt to substitute imports, thus contributing to the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

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