116 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



this period cotton sold as low as 6 cents in 1844, the 

 production increased 50 per cent. From 1844 to 1859 

 was a period of rising prices. The South was prosperous 

 in the decade from 1849 to 1859, and cotton averaged 

 over 10 cents, reaching 12 cents in 1850. Portions of 

 Texas and Arkansas were opened up, and as U. B. Phil- 

 lips has shown, the railroads from the coast to the in- 

 terior further increased production in inland North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. 15 



The Civil War marks a peak in the price of cotton. 

 The blockade and temporary stoppage of production ran 

 the price up to various levels reported at $1.80, highest 

 spot price, 70 cents, lowest spot, and 55 cents export 

 price. The crop of 1861 had been the second largest 

 thus far produced, and much of this became available 

 after the war at high prices. In 1865 over 2,000,000 

 bales were marketed at a price of 30 cents. Due to dif- 

 ficulties of political and industrial readjustments with 

 the human factors, it was not until 1877 that pre-war 

 production was reached, although over four million bales 

 were produced both in 1870 and 1875. Prices fell rapidly 

 until they reached 10 cents in 1878. For the twenty 

 years from 1879-99 production doubled, and prices con- 

 tinued to fall. Prices from 1891 to 1902 never saw 10 

 cents, and in 1898 fell to the lowest point in history, 

 5.6 cents. The view, sometimes expressed, that if con- 

 ditions made the cultivation of cotton wholly and pro- 

 spectively unprofitable, it would take a whole generation 

 to wean southern farmers from its culture, received ade- 

 quate proof in the 1890's. A slacking in the rate of 

 spread of the cotton area resulted in rising prices, which 



15 A History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt to 

 1860, chap. I. 



