Matthew Brown Hammond

“ Cotton is, he says, "the world's Golden Fleece; the nations are bound together in its globe-engirdling web; so that when a modern economist concerns himself with the interdependence of nations, he naturally looks to cotton for his most effective illustration". Whether cotton among fibres possesses any peculiar significance in the world's history, or is entitled to any higher rank as a civilizing force than, say, wool or flax, is perhaps a debatable subject, but in view of the numerous histories of cotton culture and cotton manufacture which have been written. ”

“ Among the important subjects which it is surprising to find are not considered at sufficient length are the growth of the cotton-seed oil industry, the damage wrought by the boll-weevil and the efforts made to overcome this danger, and the increasing tendency to supplant negro labor by white labor in the cultivation of cotton. ”

“ The subjects which are dealt with at considerable' length are the Industrial Revolution in England; the introduction of cotton cultivation in the United States and its effect in delaying the disappearance of slavery; the invention of the cotton gin; the influence of cotton culture in national politics; the effect of the Civil War upon the cotton trade; the cotton famine in Europe; the revival of cotton culture in the South by free labor ”