PSCI 152 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Denim, Qing Dynasty, Bracero Program
31 May 2018
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PSCI 152| Lecture 6: Cotton
Travels of a Tshirt
a. Cotton grown in texas
b. Trucked to california
c. Shipped to China
I. Guiding Question
a. Why does the US export cotton to China
i. China produces more cotton than the US
b. Why make the shirt in China but print in US
c. A Brief History of US cotton
i. Industrial revolution leads to mass production
ii. Clothing is affordable to the general public
iii. Demand for cotton skyrockets
iv. US cotton production goes from near 0 to 2/3 of global production
v. Comparative advantage?
1. Labor AND capital needed to succeed
vi. Lol nope slavery
vii. Cotton growers avoided risks of labor market
1. Slavery lowered the minimal costs
2. Cotton gin- solved production bottle neck and met it much easier to clean
a. There was also property rights and patents which allowed for profit
3. Political institutions and incentives?
a. India- lack of property rights (wealth would be seized)
b. China- Qing dynasty opposed change and western modernization
viii. After abolishing slavery, cotton continues. Labor is managed through
1. Sharecropping
2. Crop lein laws (shut sharecroppers out of capital markets)
3. Company towns- we pay you not in cash but in credit at the store
4. Bracero program- taking mexicans and assigning them to a plantation during
WW2 because there is not enough labor
II. Virtuous Circle
a. Farmers
b. Private companies
c. Universities
d. Private companies
e. Example GM cotton
f. Benefits
i. Genetically modified cotton
ii. Machine innovation
iii. Pesticide
iv. Freezing "so the cotton dies at the right time and is easier to harvest"
g. Government intervention
i. Public poicy that advantaged land owners
ii. R and d through Texas Tec
iii. Argicultural Adjustment Act
1. Pay farmers for surplus if would drive costs below optimal
2. Pay farmers to let the land lie fallow
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