The British Cotton Trade, 1660–1815
Editor: Beverly Lemire
978 1 85196 979 1: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
Cotton was the first industrialised global trade. An important consumer commodity, cotton provoked political and social debates from the sixteenth century onwards. This four-volume facsimile edition draws together sources relating to the British cotton trade and issues of consumption during the long eighteenth century.
The sources in this edition are placed in a global context. They reveal the ebb and flow of technology and commodities across the world. Indian cottons were the first global consumer commodity; Britain built on this foundation. At the same time, British experience of the cotton trade ? the debate about the early trade, the process of naturalization of cottons in Britain and the development of this sector ? reshaped British society and the wider world.