SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 



By M. B. Hammond 



(From " The Cotton Industry," chap, iii, pp. 67-226, publications of the 

 American Economic Association, n. s., Vol. I, No. 1, 1897) 



IMPORTANT as were the changes in spinning and weaving 

 cotton brought about by the introduction of machinery and the 

 establishment of the factory system, and great as was the influence 

 of the saw-gin on the development of the cotton industry, these dis- 

 coveries and appliances in the mechanical arts do not suffice in 

 themselves to explain the remarkable expansion of this industry 

 during the succeeding years. Back of the machine production, 

 although greatly stimulated thereby, lay the demand for cotton 

 goods originating in the fashionable tastes of the higher classes, 

 but continuing in popularity when increased supplies of raw 

 material and cheaper modes of production had brought these 

 fashionable fabrics within the reach of the humbler members of 

 society. So, behind the invention of the saw-gin lay the forces 

 which really determined the supply side of the question. These 

 forces were the energy of the Southern people, the suitability of 

 their climate for cotton production, and most important of all, 

 the wide area within the Southern States on which cotton could 

 be successfully grown. The failure of the saw-gin to come into 

 general or even extensive use in India and the other cotton- 

 producing countries, shows that something more than its inven- 

 tion is necessary to explain the wonderful development of the 

 American cotton culture and trade during the succeeding century. 

 The invention of the saw-gin was only the unlocking of the door 

 of a great storehouse of cotton, so that all the world might draw 

 from its seemingly unlimited stock the material for its clothing. 



In 1793, when the invention of the saw-gin had removed the 

 last obstacle to the spread of cotton culture throughout the South, 



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