PRODUCTION AND PRICE OF COTTON FOR ONE 

 HUNDRED YEARS. 



rhere is no agricultural product of the United States that commands such universal 

 attention at home and abroad as cotton. This is because it is more extensively used 

 by foreign countries than any other of our products, and for the further reason that 

 we contribute to the world more than 60 per cent of the raw material consumed. Its 

 production not only engages the exclusive attention of several millions of our people, 

 but its handling for domestic and foreign markets, and its manufacture, employ the 

 labor and skill of several more millions; hence its annual production and consump- 

 tion and its fluctuations in its market prices are carefully studied and keenly watched 

 in all x^arts of the world. 



Nor is there any one of our staple products as to whose production and consumj)- 

 tion we have more accurate information. Unlike wheat or corn, its producer con- 

 sumes little or none of the raw material, but it is shipped off to some distant 

 market, and, unlike those products, it is marketed in such shape that almost every 

 bale may be traced from the plantation to the mill. 



The number of mills in each country and their spinning capacity are so well 

 known that the annual consumption of the world may be estimated with compara- 

 tive accuracy. Therefore, we may study with more satisfactory results the causes 

 of the great fluctuations which sometimes occur in the prices of this commodity — 

 how far prices have been governed by the law of supply and demand, and how far 

 affected by artificial causes. 



With this view the following tables have been prepared, showing the supply and 

 consumption and surplus stocks of cotton in the United States, Great Britain, and 

 Continental Europe, and its prices in the leading markets of the world. The 

 period under consideration, for convenience, is divided decennially, and begins and 

 ends with two of the most remarkable events in the history of cotton, namely, the 

 introduction of Whitney's saw gin (the invention was completed in 1793 and 

 patented in 1794) and the production of the largest crop the world has ever seen. 

 The figures prior to 1795 are given merely to show the rapid increase in the produc- 

 tion of cotton brought about by the invention of Whitney's saw gin. 



In the compilation of the tables the estimates and prices furnished by Levi Wood- 

 bury, Secretary of the Treasury, in 1836, the Liverpool Cotton Association, Thomas 

 Ellison, A. B. Shepperson, E. J. Donnell, B. F. Nourse, Ott-Trumpler, and Latham, 

 Alexander & Co., have been used. Other well-known and trustworthy authorities 

 have been consulted. 



It will be noticed that the commercial instead of the crop year is given ; thus the 

 crop year 1894 is the commercial year 1894-95, beginning September 1, 1894, and 

 ending August 31, 1895. 



Following each tal)le is a summary of some of the most interesting events relating 

 to the growth and consumption of cotton, and the most important facts affecting its 

 prices. 



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