Journal article
Australia's Entanglement in Global Cotton
Agricultural History, Vol.96(1-2), pp.29-53
2022
Abstract
Cotton in Australia has always been entwined with America and England. From the ini tial stim u lus of the Amer i can War of Independence to the boost cre ated by the boll wee vil out break in the 1920s, the for tunes of Aus tra lian cot ton pro duc ers have been shaped by Amer i can his tory as much as their own nation's polit i cal and eco nomic imper a tives. Scientists and farm ers relied on Amer i can expe ri ence, importing seed, knowl edge, per son nel, and tech nol ogy. The global mar ket reflected fluc tu a tions in the US cot ton indus try and the demands of English cot ton mills. Australia relied on the imports of the English cot ton mills and an injec tion of funds by the Brit ish Cotton Growing Association (BCGA) in the 1920s to boost indus try. While Aus tra lian pol i ti cians pro moted cot ton as a domes tic eco nomic and demo graphic stim u lant, ful fil ment of these nationstate objec tives was deeply entangled with, and depen dent on, those of America and England. key words cot ton, United States, Australia, Great Britain, Brit ish Cotton Growing Association T his State is des tined to become a great and prosperous coun try, " prom ised Queensland pre mier Edward " Ted " Theodore in his 1923 re-elec tion pol icy speech. His Labor " gov ern ment's land set tle ment schemes which are in hand, the rapid devel op ment of the cot ton indus try, and the expan sion on other indus tries, will soon pro vide work and pros per ity for many thou sands of addi tional peo ple. " 1 An agrar ian social ist, Theodore regarded pop u lat ing Queensland with small, leased, fam ily-oper ated farms as a vital com po nent of state devel op ment. This vision reflected the nation's perceived needs to stim u late the econ omy, increase pop u la tion, defend the country , and ful fill the needs of the Brit ish Empire. But the suc cess of Queensland cot ton was con tin gent on the domes tic and inter na tional pol i tics and eco-nom ics of nation-states on the other side of the globe—the United Kingdom and the United States. Britain's Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s transformed global cotton as mech a ni za tion brought mass pro duc tion and the need to import vast quan ti ties of cot ton, pri mar ily Gossympium hirsutum (known as Amer i can upland) to meet demand. An interconnected " empire of cot ton " was cre ated "
Details
- Title
- Australia's Entanglement in Global Cotton
- Authors
- Margaret Cook (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sustainability Research Centre
- Publication details
- Agricultural History, Vol.96(1-2), pp.29-53
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- DOI
- 10.1215/00021482-9619788
- ISSN
- 1533-8290
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99649579002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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