Cotton Market Research Articles

Cotton market contagion: analyzing volatility spillovers across borders

PurposeThe paper analyzes the volatility transmission within the cotton markets by utilizing commodity futures prices from the USA, China and India, encompassing important global events that have significantly influenced the global cotton markets, like the China-USA trade dispute, the COVID-19 outbreak and the Russia–Ukraine conflict.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ a volatility spillover measure developed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012, 2014). Additionally, the methodology proposed by Baruník and Křehlík (2018), which divides the overall volatility spillover into short, medium and long-term segments has been used. To investigate the volatility connectedness, weekly (close-to-close) returns of the cotton futures contracts that are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade Dalian Commodity Exchange National Commodity Exchange of India (NCDEX), and Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) are considered.FindingsThe paper identifies the presence of long-term volatility transmission among the three cotton futures markets. It demonstrates that a global shock like the Russia–Ukraine conflict has a greater impact on volatility in other markets than USA–China trade disputes. It also highlights the weakening role of the US cotton futures markets as a price leader for Indian and Chinese markets.Research limitations/implicationsSince only three major markets have been studied, the future studies can explore the interconnectedness by including other important markets including Brazil, Turkey, Bangladesh, etc. Further, the moderating role of relationship between other important variables such as cotton production, harvest, inventory, exchange rate, oil price, trade policies, etc. can be examined. Furthermore, the interconnectedness with the regional spot markets in India can also be examined to study how the volatility from the futures market can affect the volatility in the spot markets and vice-versa.Practical implicationsThe understanding of domestic food price volatility and its transmission from international to domestic markets is crucial for designing effective policies to address excessive volatility and protect vulnerable groups like producers, consumers, etc.Social implicationsThe findings emphasize on the substantial market dependence with the US and the Chinese markets which have a significant impact on the Indian markets with considerable implications for hedgers, producers and exporters, particularly during periods of higher volatility.Originality/valueThis study assesses the interdependencies among three major cotton-producing countries and the influence of factors like the USA–China trade tensions in 2018, the COVID-19 crisis and the Russia–Ukraine conflict in order to gauge the degree of volatility interconnection among these key players in the cotton market.

COVID-19, the Russia–Ukraine war and the connectedness between the U.S. and Chinese agricultural futures markets

This study focuses on how recent global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war have affected the relationship between the U.S. and Chinese agricultural futures markets. By applying wavelet coherence analysis (WCA) and time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR), we obtain the following findings. First, both events have changed the correlation and lead–lag comovement between U.S. and Chinese soybean and corn futures returns but have little impact on the comovement between the two cotton futures returns. Second, U.S. agricultural markets transmit more volatility risk to Chinese markets than the risk spillover from the reverse direction. Third, the risk spillover enhancement effect from the war is stronger than that from the pandemic, which is obvious in both the soybean and corn futures markets but not in the cotton market. Our paper has implications for policy makers seeking to stabilize agricultural commodity prices during global crisis episodes and for designing strategies for cross-market hedging of spillover risks among commodity markets for international investors.

Factors influencing seed cotton marketing decisions by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

Economic reforms such as the liberalization of export and processing-linked marketing channels have encouraged farmers to produce more. Unfortunately, cotton production in Zimbabwe has been declining regardless of such interventions. Why is the production declining despite these interventions including the government-free inputs and supported extension services? Cotton marketing is one of the main factors that influence overall quantities of a commodity to be produced but the practices and behavior of farmers are relatively unknown and unpredictable in the cotton markets. Therefore, this study was to explore factors influencing smallholder farmers' cotton marketing decisions in three cotton-producing provinces of Zimbabwe. A representative sample of 1080 cotton farmers were randomly selected from these provinces and a double hurdle model was used to evaluate market participation and intensity guided by probit model and censored tobit model respectively. Results showed that the decision to participate in cotton marketing was exclusively influenced by experience in cotton production while the intensity of cotton marketing was exclusively influenced by household labour and access to information. Market prices did not significantly (P<0.05) influence both the participation and intensity of cotton markets. The source of inputs and affiliation to marketing associations influence both marketing decisions. It is recommended that the government of Zimbabwe should revise the existing cotton marketing policies to encourage many buyers into cotton markets. The establishment of cotton marketing hubs can increase cotton marketing participation and intensity through increased access to decentralised marketing options.

R&D Concentration in Soybean and Cotton Markets

R&D Concentration in Soybean and Cotton Markets

Long- and Short-Term Memory Model of Cotton Price Index Volatility Risk Based on Explainable Artificial Intelligence.

Market uncertainty greatly interferes with the decisions and plans of market participants, thus increasing the risk of decision-making, leading to compromised interests of decision-makers. Cotton price index (hereinafter referred to as cotton price) volatility is highly noisy, nonlinear, and stochastic and is susceptible to supply and demand, climate, substitutes, and other policy factors, which are subject to large uncertainties. To reduce decision risk and provide decision support for policymakers, this article integrates 13 factors affecting cotton price index volatility based on existing research and further divides them into transaction data and interaction data. A long- and short-term memory (LSTM) model is constructed, and a comparison experiment is implemented to analyze the cotton price index volatility. To make the constructed model explainable, we use explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) techniques to perform statistical analysis of the input features. The experimental results show that the LSTM model can accurately analyze the cotton price index fluctuation trend but cannot accurately predict the actual price of cotton; the transaction data plus interaction data are more sensitive than the transaction data in analyzing the cotton price fluctuation trend and can have a positive effect on the cotton price fluctuation analysis. This study can accurately reflect the fluctuation trend of the cotton market, provide reference to the state, enterprises, and cotton farmers for decision-making, and reduce the risk caused by frequent fluctuation of cotton prices. The analysis of the model using XAI techniques builds the confidence of decision-makers in the model.

Manchester’s Challenge to the Supremacy of the Liverpool Cotton Market c .1895 to 1914

Manchester’s Challenge to the Supremacy of the Liverpool Cotton Market <i>c</i> .1895 to 1914

Israel and Sudan: The Origins of Clandestine Relations (1954–1964)

ABSTRACT: The years 1954–1964 witnessed two phases of clandestine contacts pursued by Israeli and Sudanese representatives. During the first phase, 1954–1958, Israel developed secret ties with the Sudanese Umma party Israel in an attempt to establish the southern tier of the Periphery Alliance, with Ethiopia and Sudan against Nasser's Egypt but the attempt was sabotaged by the 1958 'Abboud coup. During the second phase, beginning in 1961, the Division for Politico-Economic Planning (DPEP) of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed secret ties with certain Sudanese officials with the aim of helping Sudan compete with its primary competitor in the cotton market, Nasser's Egypt, in order to deal a blow to the Egyptian economy and the Arab boycott of Israel. Although at first the DPEP supplied the 'Abboud regime with anonymous information, over time the Sudanese partners recognized and approve the identity of their Israeli benefactor. This article reveals the extent of the secret ties between Israel and Sudan and the ingenious ways in which Israel fought against Egypt and the Arab Boycott.

The Transmission Effect Test of China’s Rotation Mechanism on the Cotton Reserve Market

As an important strategic material in China, cotton policy has positive significance in stabilizing the safety of domestic cotton, ensuring cotton income, and stabilizing cotton output. At the same time, affected by the future market price, the cotton industry supply chain cost management is particularly important. Based on the data of China’s cotton price, consumption, yield, and wheeling-in and wheeling-out from 1978 to 2016, the simultaneous equation model is used to empirically analyze the transmission effect of the rotation mechanism of reserve cotton (RMRC) on cotton supply and demand. Studies have shown that China’s cotton reserve policy and the RMRC play a positive role in balancing the supply and demand of the domestic cotton market and preventing excessive fluctuations in cotton prices. The transmission effect of the RMRC on domestic cotton yield and consumption is significant and there are certain differences. The transmission effect of domestic cotton yield is stronger than the transmission effect on domestic cotton consumption. The difference is owing to the transfer path of the RMRC being different. We should improve the regulation and control effect of the RMRC on cotton demand, realize the normalization of the RMRC, and clarify the policy objectives of the RMRC.

Competition and trade policy in the world cotton market: Implications for US cotton exports

AbstractCotton is a cornerstone of global fiber markets, and many importing and exporting countries play important roles in the global cotton market. The US cotton sector has long been one of the world's largest. However, Brazil's cotton production has rapidly grown, and the country has become one of the leading cotton producers, accounting for an ever‐increasing share of world cotton production and trade. This meteoric rise has put Brazil's cotton sector in frequent competition with the United States over export sales and market share. We empirically investigate how the expansion of the Brazilian cotton sector has impacted the US cotton sector's position in world markets by quantifying the extent to which rising Brazilian production has caused reallocations of US exports. We also explore how the recent US–China trade war affected these market dynamics by assessing the impacts of China's retaliatory tariffs on US cotton. Our results show that Brazil's cotton production has caused a major disruption to US cotton exports, resulting in a significant reduction in US exports to large cotton importers such as China, Vietnam, and Pakistan, and that these trends were reversed (at least temporarily) by the US–China trade dispute. By illustrating how competitive forces and trade disputes have shaped recent market dynamics for this key commodity, our work adds to the growing literature examining the interplay between competition and trade policy in the global agricultural sector.

Analysis of Resource Use Efficiency and Constraints of Cotton Production in Odisha, India

The present study entitled "Analysis of resource use efficiency and constraints of cotton production in Odisha" was undertaken with the major objectives to analyse resource use efficiency in cotton cultivation and to elicit the constraints faced by the farmers in production and marketing of cotton in the study area. This study used both secondary and primary data. Multi-stage random sampling was taken for this study. The districts selected for study were Kalahandi, Balangir and Rayagada of Odisha state. A total number of 120 cotton farmers i.e 71 farmers from small and 49 farmers from large size groups were selected at random based on probability proportion. Analytical tools like Tabular analysis, Cobb-Douglas production function and Garrett’s ranking were used for the analysis. Cobb-Douglas production function was used taking Y i.e. yield of cotton as dependent variable and X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 i. e. for total human labour, farm power cost, manure cost, fertilizer cost, cost of pesticides, area under the crop respectively as independent variable. Among these variables, fertilizer, pesticide, human labour and machine labour were positive and significant for small farmers and manure, fertilizer, pesticide and machine labour were positive and significant for large farmers. Most of the significant resources were proved to be efficient. The major constraints in cotton yield as reported by farmers were high cost of labour, high cost of seeds, lack of regulated markets etc. in the study area. For the sustainable growth of cotton crop in the state, timely policy interventions were required by promoting contract farming and providing price incentives, so that cotton farmers of Odisha will get better profit for their crop and prosperity of agriculture in the state.

Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom by Kathryn Olivarius

Reviewed by: Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom by Kathryn Olivarius Savannah L. Williamson (bio) Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom. By Kathryn Olivarius. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2022. Pp. 352. $35.00 cloth; $19.25 ebook) Approximately every two to three years during much of the nineteenth century, yellow fever epidemics terrorized the city of New Orleans. Without a clear understanding of the disease, the only sure way a person was protected from future yellow fever outbreaks was to survive infection. Once an individual was acclimated, they were no longer a stranger to the city and used their immunity as a source of social, economic, and political status, which Olivarius terms "immunocapital." This bio-social currency, which was denied to Black survivors of the disease, allowed the white residents of New Orleans to enter and strengthen the city's strict racial hierarchy and exacerbated inequality in an already violent and rigid slave society. Throughout the tropical Atlantic, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—which thrive in tropical and subtropical climates—carried the viral disease and transmitted the infection to humans through a bite. The disease presents with fever, chills, body aches, nausea, headaches, appetite loss, abdominal and back pain, black vomit, and kidney and liver damage that can cause the skin to appear yellow—hence the name "yellow fever." In antebellum New Orleans, roughly half of those infected (or 8 percent of the population) died from an outbreak. By the end of the nineteenth century, yellow fever epidemics were responsible for as many as 150,000 deaths in the Crescent City. Rather than invest in public health initiatives, white elites profited from the chaos and instability caused by yellow fever outbreaks. Epidemics of malaria, yellow, and bilious fevers have often been called "great equalizers" because they undermine the privileges afforded to whiteness, making all demographics equal in the face of possible death. Olivarius argues that yellow fever epidemics did not weaken or dismantle the existing hierarchies of race and class. Instead, antebellum New Orleans became increasingly stratified between whites with immunity, whites who were not acclimated to the disease, and [End Page 78] free and enslaved Black populations. Surviving yellow fever was practically a requirement for white citizens hoping to enter elite society. For those with immunity, outbreaks were a source of economic opportunity to which white people felt entitled, since they viewed their survival as evidence of racial superiority. They monopolized on the fear, chaos, and instability caused by outbreaks to consolidate their power and wealth at the top of the cotton market, enact policies that furthered systematic inequality, enhance white supremacy, undercut the majority population, and weave epidemiological discrimination into law. Whereas immunity for white individuals provided prospects and social standing, "immunocapital" did not extend to Black individuals. Although they were protected from future yellow fever infections, their immunity provided social and economic opportunity to their white owners, rather than themselves. Antebellum whites argued, falsely, that Blacks were naturally immune to yellow fever infections to justify policies and laws that promoted slavery, racial and class inequality, and white supremacy. Necropolis provides a detailed and fascinating account of why so many unacclimated strangers died of yellow fever in nineteenthcentury New Orleans. Unlike other epidemics, which acted as socioeconomic equalizers, outbreaks of yellow fever, bilious fever, and malaria made for greater inequality. These diseases did not undermine existing hierarchies of class and race but served as the very foundation of such hierarchical structures. As yellow fever epidemics occurred more frequently throughout the nineteenth century, they contributed to greater racial and class stratification between "acclimated" whites with immunity, "unacclimated" strangers, and free and enslaved Blacks whose immune status provided social, economic, and political benefits to others, rather than themselves. "Immunocapitalism," therefore, highlights the ways in which antebellum political, economic, social, environmental, and immunological forces contributed to greater mortality and inequality in the Crescent City. [End Page 79] Savannah L. Williamson SAVANNAH L. WILLIAMSON is a historian at Sul Ross State University. Copyright © 2022 Kentucky Historical Society

Research on the Volatility of the Cotton Market under Different Term Structures: Perspective from Investor Attention

This study performed comprehensive investigations of the complex interconnections between investor attention and cotton futures price volatility under different term structures. In this paper, in-sample analysis, out-of-sample forecast, influencing mechanisms, as well as nonlinear connections are fully explored using several linear model specifications. The results can be summarized as follows: first, investor attention is the Granger causality of the cotton futures volatility and shows significant linear impacts on cotton volatility; second, models incorporated with investor attention significantly improve the prediction accuracy of cotton volatility in the long term compared with the commonly used AR benchmark model; third, the influence of investor attention on cotton volatility may occur through open interest; and fourth, investor attention presents nonlinear impacts on cotton volatility as well. Overall, the results of this article can provide strong supporting evidence for the important roles of investor attention in asset pricing applications.

Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition

In this ambitious book, Bronwen Everill considers the varied, contradictory economic arguments against slavery and the slave trade across the Atlantic World. She expands on studies of the transatlantic free produce movement (most recently, Julie Holcomb's Moral Commerce) to focus more broadly on production, consumption, and trade, or “legitimate commerce” (3). Everill illuminates African, as well as British, American, and to a lesser extent, French, perspectives on how to undermine slavery and create a more ethical global economic system. She also contributes to the scholarly literature on slavery (and antislavery) and capitalism by focusing on consumerist arguments for free labor goods. Abolitionist arguments that free labor was more efficient than slave labor, and their promise of cheaper consumer goods, Everill argues, shifted attention away from other ethical considerations, including the condition of labor.European and American arguments for a more ethical capitalism developed in conversation with their African trading partners. Across the late eighteenth-century Atlantic, political, social, and religious leaders reacted to the excesses of the slave trade by abstaining from goods produced by enslaved people. Abolitionists argued that consumer demand fueled the slave trade and slavery. As a result, boycotts turned the consumer into a moral agent, aware of their place in a global supply chain. Everill shows how abolitionists focused on consumers in Africa as well as Europe and North America. As the outcry against the slave trade increased, abolitionists searched for more acceptable (though still profitable) commodities and settled, at least initially, on guns. Though African traders wanted guns for many reasons, abolitionists ultimately redefined them as immoral because they believed that guns only encouraged the slave trade.Everill focuses on the recurring figure of Zachary Macauley, British abolitionist, governor of the Sierra Leone Company, chairman of the African Institution, and founder of the firm Macauley &amp; Babington, to show the pitfalls of defining certain types of commerce as ethical. Abolitionists emphasized the importance of consistency of beliefs and practices in legitimate commerce, but this exposed them to charges of hypocrisy when their opponents uncovered connections to slavery. Christian and Muslim societies alike viewed usury as immoral, but abolitionists like Macauley argued that credit was necessary to establish legitimate trade. At the end of the 1820s, however, Macauley's firm was unable to call in its debts and collapsed. Similarly, abolitionists argued against tariffs that protected goods produced by enslaved people, while lobbying for their own concessions from the government. One of Macauley's opponents accused him of having a “virtual monopoly” in his control over trade in Sierra Leone (140). Abolitionists opened themselves to criticism that they had conveniently defined a certain type of trade as ethical only to reap the profits.To replace the slave trade, abolitionists wanted legitimate commerce to be lucrative, but they argued that the benefits extended to former slave traders, former slaves, free settlers, and, most importantly, consumers. As Everill points out, their assertions of the positive economic impact of legitimate commerce increasingly emphasized the consumer. When prices did not immediately decline, British abolitionists turned to cheaper, often indentured, labor from distant parts of the world. Slavery's unique evil eclipsed their concerns over other forms of unfree or unfair labor even as the formerly enslaved disappeared from the conversation as either producers or consumers. In the United States, suspicions over the authenticity of imported free labor goods as well as the desire for a domestic market for free cotton meant that abolitionists saw white farmers as the prime beneficiaries of legitimate commerce.Everill's analysis traces abolitionists’ economic thought from the end of the eighteenth century through the American Civil War, and from Muslim reformers to British free traders to Philadelphia Quakers. Despite their small numbers, abolitionists’ evolving views of ethical commerce had a lasting impact on the development of international trade and continued to shape the moral choices of consumers and producers in the global market. Her broad scope means that the experiences of many of the entrepreneurs, merchants, traders, abolitionists, and consumers who cross her pages remain unexplored. For example, the reader will only glimpse Betsey Carew, a free Hausa butcher in Sierra Leone, who supplied meat to the army and then launched a successful importing and retail business, and James Mott, a Philadelphia abolitionist who tried to trade in free cotton before turning to wool (148, 98). As Everill shows, ethical capitalism created new winners and losers, and the beneficiaries changed with abolitionists’ arguments.

Marketing of BT Cotton in Different Marketing Channels in Manchirial District, Telangana

The present study was conducted in Manchirial district of Telangana. Being the leading BT cotton producer in the country, cotton production in Telangana has many problems and constraints. The major problems faced by the cotton farmers were changing weather conditions, price fluctuations. There’s also been a labour scarcity, transportation and lack of preservation techniques which make the farmer to sell cotton at low cost. From Out of total blocks of Manchirial district one block has been selected purposely on the basis having high total area, production of BT Cotton for current study. Farmers growing BT Cotton is collected from Village Agriculture Assistant (VAA) and selected among them randomly. Highest quantity of produce was sold through channel I and comparably lowest quantity of produce was sold through channel III and channel II. Producer share in consumer price was highest in channel III i.e., 84.97% compared to channel I i.e., 84.64% and lowest in channel II i.e., 83.85%. Price spread was highest in channel I i.e., RS 1168/qtl compared to channel II i.e., RS 1037/qtl and channel III i.e., 1010. Marketing efficiency was highest in channel III i.e., 6.65% compared to channel II i.e., 6.19%% and channel III i.e., 6.51%.

Assessment of Level of Market Integration in Indian Cotton Markets

The current study is aimed at using co-integration in assessing the level of market integration among selected cotton markets in India. Monthly cotton price data were collected for the period 2008-09 and 2016-17 from the AGMARKNET website. The advanced time series econometric tools like Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, Johansen co-integration test and Granger Causality test were used to study market integration using E-Views software. The price series for cotton in selected markets were subjected to the consequences of unit root and were stationary at first difference. The long-run equilibrium relationship among the cotton markets indicated that these markets were integrated with each other. This implied that prices in Indian cotton markets tend together in response to changes in the demand and supply of cotton. Granger Causality test revealed that the Salem market was the lead cotton market because it influenced the prices of Kurnool and Warangal cotton markets.

An Approach for Obtaining Stable, Reproducible, and Accurate Fibrogram Measurements from High Volume Instruments

Fiber length is a crucial property throughout many textile processing steps. The high volume instrument (HVI) is the most commonly used tool to assess the properties of cotton fibers. The HVI currently reports two length parameters, the upper-half mean length (UHML) and uniformity index (UI). The UI is the ratio of mean length (ML) to the UHML expressed as a percentage. UHML and ML are extracted from the fibrogram. These parameters are used in the current U.S. cotton classification and global cotton marketing systems. The two values are highly correlated and characterize only the longer fibers in a sample. The fibrogram holds more descriptive information than the two measurements provided by the HVI. However, limited information is available about the stability and repeatability of the fibrogram measurement. This study aims to investigate the stability of the fibrogram, assess the reproducibility across multiple instruments, and determine if corrective actions are required. Three different raw cotton sample sets were tested for this three-stage experiment. The obtained results demonstrate that for a given HVI, the entire fibrogram is stable over both the short term and long term; however, differences among HVIs were observed. The proposed correction procedure effectively reduces the differences among the four HVI lines.

Losing the Thread: Cotton, Liverpool and the American Civil War

The outbreak of the American Civil War, the Confederate embargo of cotton exports, and Union blockade of cotton ports led to short-time working and significant distress in the cotton districts of Lancashire. It was a pivotal moment in the history of the global textile trade. Surprisingly, the topic has attracted little attention and been the subject of even less debate. Jim Powell has written a highly readable and sometimes polemical account that addresses this gap. In doing so, he takes a wide-ranging perspective that goes beyond the crisis of the war years to investigate the structure of the global textile trade, the strategy of industry leaders, and the relationship between capitalism and slavery. The juxtaposition of local and international events means the book will appeal to historians of Liverpool and the global textile trade alike. The focus naturally is on transatlantic trade, the American South, and cotton as an export crop. Along with historians of agriculture, commodities, and trade, students of industrial northern England will gain valuable, new perspectives.Powell's perspective is international, giving due recognition to recent interpretations of the evolution of the global cotton market by Sven Beckert, Giorgio Riello, and Prasannan Parthasarathi. Chapter 1 reviews their arguments and surveys the evolution of the cotton trade to the eve of the Civil War, including the prewar boom that flooded Lancashire's markets, and profiles those who stood to gain or lose from a sudden interruption in cotton supplies.Managing and responding to uncertainty was certainly a perennial issue for the Lancashire textile industry, and even before the war, its leaders sought to reduce dependence on American cotton. Their strategies secured neither a united response nor government intervention, notwithstanding the claims of Beckert's Empire of Cotton (2015), which Powell's evidence strongly contests. As he explains in chapter 2, the search for alternative sources was unrealistic. Their relative unattractiveness confirmed Lancashire's dependency on American cotton for reasons of quality and price, despite being vulnerable to interruption in supply. That in turn left Lancashire susceptible to speculation, which amounted to betting on how long the war would last. As chapter 3 shows, following an initial period of complacency, there was a middle period of endemic speculation before a collapse in prices in September 1864.There is a consensus among textile historians that reduced production during the war was the consequence not of reduced supply but of overproduction in the three years prior. Chapter 4 questions this view, arguing that rising raw cotton prices caused by the shortages made new production unattractive when markets were already well stocked with cheaper intermediate and final products. As a result, the Lancashire cotton industry emerged from the war significantly smaller than it might have been, effectively losing the equivalent of four years' average growth. Chapter 5 questions the assumption that Liverpool was sympathetic to the Confederacy, showing that sympathies were split according to business interests. If anything, financial and commercial players had stronger ties with the Union. In another significant divide, most merchants wished for a swift end to the war, whereas speculators wished for its prolongation. The length of the war exceeded expectations, and speculators profited accordingly. Liverpool brokers, notionally the agents of the spinners, enriched themselves, as explained in chapter 6, by trading on their own account and in both buy- and sell-side transactions, thereby profiting at the expense of Manchester and the rest of Lancashire. Selling brokers and banks profited exceptionally from the speculation. Sell-side profits drew brokers into increasingly exposed positions, reliant on short-term bank finance, which, as chapter 7 illustrates, led to several bankruptcies once prices began to fall.Price was a crucial determinant of cotton-trade dynamics and structure, a factor neglected in prior interpretations. It explains why American, as opposed to Indian, cotton remained the dominant supply source before and after the war. Following the end of slavery, the cotton supply continued as before and at lower prices. The concluding chapter shows how technical and institutional changes, independent of the war and its effects, transformed Liverpool. The transatlantic cable, the creation of a clearinghouse, and the establishment of a futures market were Liverpool's 1860s equivalent of London's Big Bang of the 1980s. The changes were intended to control speculation. Whether they succeeded is not examined here, nor are the subsequent market corner operations that posed new threats to Liverpool's reputation and price stability in the manufacturing hinterland. These events are beyond the reasonable scope of a book that offers an accessible and insightful account of the impact and changes wrought by the crisis of the early 1860s and makes a significant contribution to the wider history of cotton.

Comparative analysis of the competitiveness of Beninese and Brazilian cotton exports in international trade from 2006 to 2018

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the competitiveness and orientation of Brazilian and Beninese cotton exports in international trade from 2006 to 2018. The cotton category in this article refers to “neither carded nor combed” (HS: 5201). To measure competitiveness, we chose to calculate the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCAI) and Symmetric Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (SRCAI), proposed by Balassa (1965) and Laursen (1998) respectively. The Regional Orientation Index (ROI), proposed by Yeats (1997), of cotton for Asia and EU-28 is used. The data were collected from the International Trade Center (ITC) /Trade Map and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The results found indicate that the Brazilian’s and Beninese’s cotton has been increasing values and above the unit showing its competitiveness in the international market. In addition, Benin was more competitive than Brazil because it has, on average, a higher SRCAI than Brazil (0.99 and 0.7 respectively). Concerning the ROI, it was found that Brazilian and Beninese cotton exports are strongly directed towards Asia, the main consumer market for Beninese and Brazilian cotton. As for the EU-28, both Benin and Brazil do not direct their cotton sales to this economic block.

Current status of cotton industry development and ways to increase efficiency in the republic of Uzbekistan

This article discusses the current state and prospects of the international cotton market for the development of the cotton industry in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The decree on measures was highlighted.

How America Became an Economic Powerhouse on the Backs of African-American Slaves and Native Americans

How America Became an Economic Powerhouse on the Backs of African-American Slaves and Native Americans