2015年经济学人 棉花全球史 纺织传奇

Cotton, a global history

Spinning tales

A fine account of 900 years of globalization

Still a player, thanks to subsidies¹

Empire of Cotton: A Global History. By Sven Beckert.

GOOD economic history tells dramatic stories of ingenuity² and aspiration³, greed and national self-interest.

Sven Beckert writes good economic history. But why cotton?

Mr Beckert's answer is that for 900 years, until 1900, it was the world's most important manufacturing industry.

Cotton is relevant now because the story explains how and why an industry goes global.

It is a story of wildly fluctuating fortunes, from stunning⁴ wealth to dire⁵ social disasters.

India runs like a thread through this tale. Cotton was being spun⁶ in the Indus Valley in 3000BC;

Herodotus admired its quality. Spinning and weaving cotton (the word comes from qutn in Arabic)

were introduced to Europe by Muslim invaders⁷ in the tenth century.

In India cotton as a cottage industry was so successful that it established a substantial market in Britain.

This had two consequences. The first was technological⁸ innovation in the industrial north; spinning machines,

the invention of the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny and power looms⁹ were the forerunners¹⁰ of the Industrial Revolution.

The second, introduced in 1774 to assist English spinners and weavers¹¹, was protectionist legislation that made it illegal to sell imported cotton.

By 1800 mass-produced British cotton dominated world markets, including in India where the industry collapsed¹².

In the three decades to 1820 innovation helped productivity in Britain's new cotton factories increase 370 times.

Mr Beckert, a history professor at Harvard, calls this new economic order “War Capitalism” as it is based on imperial expansion, expropriation of land, and slavery.

Slaves and wide open spaces in the southern states transformed America's economy, too. Capital, raised mainly in London, financed the expansion.

By the late 1850s, 77% of the cotton consumed in Britain came from America. Profits soared on both sides of the Atlantic.

Manchester became a centre of the universe, always feeding on cheap labour, mostly women, who, unlike slaves, were paid a wage, albeit¹³ a poor one.

(This reviewer's great-aunt was among the first women to earn a guinea a week from piece-work in her Rochdale mill, in the 1920s.)

Deprived of raw American cotton when the civil war broke out in 1861, English manufacturers rediscovered India.

Railways were built in the newly acquired state of Berar to shift raw cotton for export to Bombay.

By 1862, 75% of Britain's cotton originated in India. The industry had gone global; Egypt and Brazil also provided new sources of supply.

When news of the Union Army's victories in 1865 reached India, property prices in Bombay collapsed, anticipating the renewed competition that the end of the war might bring.

In the event, as peace returned to the American South and former slaves became sharecroppers, the global industry recovered quickly, helped by a surge in demand.

In the late 19th century the cotton industry in England began to decline.

At the height of the Great Depression in 1932 only 11% of the world's mechanical spindles were operating in Britain, compared with 61% in 1860.

The terrible blight¹⁴ that has overwhelmed cotton towns such as Rochdale began then, and has grown worse since.

By the late 1960s Britain accounted for only 2.8% of global cotton exports.

Today the main sources of raw cotton are China (29%) and India (21%).

Supported by grotesque¹⁵ subsidies ($35 billion between 1995 and 2010), America clings on in third place.

Producers sell to the new merchants of cotton: global retailers¹⁶ such as Gap and Adidas.

Mr Beckert's story is both inspirational and utterly¹⁷ depressing,

a reflection of the white-knuckle ride that has been the characteristic of globalisation through the centuries.

1 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

3 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

4 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

5 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

6 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。

7 invaders   

入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They prepared to repel the invaders. 他们准备赶走侵略军。
• The family has traced its ancestry to the Norman invaders. 这个家族将自己的世系追溯到诺曼征服者。

8 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

9 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 forerunners   

n.先驱( forerunner的名词复数 )；开路人；先兆；前兆

参考例句：

• Country music was undoubtedly one of the forerunners of rock and roll. 乡村音乐无疑是摇滚乐的先导之一。
• Heavy clouds are the forerunners of a storm. 阴云密布是暴风雨的前兆。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 weavers   

织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Navajo are noted as stockbreeders and skilled weavers, potters, and silversmiths. 纳瓦霍人以豢养家禽，技术熟练的纺织者，制陶者和银匠而著名。
• They made out they were weavers. 他们假装是织布工人。

12 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

13 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

14 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

15 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

16 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

17 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。