Editing Cotton (section)

===Early modern period===
====Mughal India====
{{Main|Mughal Empire|Muslin trade in Bengal}}
{{Further|Economic history of India}}
[[File:Renaldis muslin woman.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A woman in [[Dhaka]] clad in fine [[Muslin trade in Bengal|Bengali muslin]], 18th century]]

Under the [[Mughal Empire]], which ruled in the [[Indian subcontinent]] from the early 16th century to the early 18th century, Indian cotton production increased, in terms of both raw cotton and cotton textiles. The Mughals introduced [[agrarian reform]]s such as a new revenue system that was biased in favour of higher value [[cash crops]] such as cotton and [[Indigo dye|indigo]], providing state incentives to grow cash crops, in addition to rising market demand.<ref name="richards">[[John F. Richards]] (1995), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA190 ''The Mughal Empire'', page 190] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220230104/https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA190 |date=20 December 2017 }}, [[Cambridge University Press]]</ref>

The largest [[manufacturing]] industry in the Mughal Empire was cotton [[textile manufacturing]], which included the production of [[piece goods]], [[calico]]s, and [[muslin]]s, available unbleached and in a variety of colours. The cotton [[textile industry]] was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade.<ref name="schmidt">Karl J. Schmidt (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 ''An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History'', page 100] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220230104/https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |date=20 December 2017 }}, [[Routledge]]</ref> India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century.<ref>[[Angus Maddison]] (1995), ''Monitoring the World Economy, 1820-1992'', [[OECD]], p. 30</ref> Indian cotton [[textile]]s were the most important [[manufactured goods]] in world trade in the 18th century, consumed across the world from the [[Americas]] to [[Japan]].<ref name="Parthasarathi">{{Citation |title=Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850 |given=Prasannan |surname=Parthasarathi |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-49889-0 |page=2}}</ref> The most important center of cotton production was the [[Bengal Subah]] province, particularly around its capital city of [[Dhaka]].<ref name="Eaton">Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 ''The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760'', page 202] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627124201/http://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 |date=27 June 2014 }}, [[University of California Press]]</ref>

The [[worm gear]] roller [[cotton gin]], which was invented in India during the early [[Delhi Sultanate]] era of the 13th–14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire some time around the 16th century,<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', page 53], [[Pearson Education]]</ref> and is still used in India through to the present day.<ref name="LakGin"/> Another innovation, the incorporation of the [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]] handle in the cotton gin, first appeared in India some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA53 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', pages 53–54], [[Pearson Education]]</ref> The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in the villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the [[spinning wheel]] across India shortly before the Mughal era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era.<ref>[[Irfan Habib]] (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC&pg=PA54 ''Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500'', page 54], [[Pearson Education]]</ref>

It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, which is half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean {{convert|28|lb|kg}} of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce {{convert|250|lb|kg}} per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, and a few people's labour was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly.<ref>[[Karl Marx]] (1867). Chapter 16: "Machinery and Large-Scale Industry." ''[[Das Kapital]]''.</ref>

====Egypt====
{{Main|History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty}}
[[File:Cotton Picking in Egypt.tif|thumb|A group of Egyptian [[fellah]]s picking cotton by hand]]
In the early 19th century, a Frenchman named M. Jumel proposed to the great ruler of Egypt, [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Mohamed Ali Pasha]], that he could earn a substantial income by growing an extra-long staple Maho (''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'') cotton, in [[Lower Egypt]], for the French market. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in [[Egypt]]; and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops.

[[Egypt under Muhammad Ali]] in the early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of [[Spindle (textiles)|spindles]] per capita.<ref>{{cite book|title=Between Development and Underdevelopment: The Precocious Attempts at Industrialization of the Periphery, 1800-1870|author=Jean Batou|publisher=[[:fr:Librairie Droz|Librairie Droz]]|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjD4SCOE6IgC|page=181|isbn=978-2-600-04293-2}}</ref> The industry was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such as [[animal power]], [[water wheel]]s, and [[windmill]]s, which were also the principal energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870.<ref name="batou193">{{cite book|title=Between Development and Underdevelopment: The Precocious Attempts at Industrialization of the Periphery, 1800-1870|author=Jean Batou|publisher=[[:fr:Librairie Droz|Librairie Droz]]|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjD4SCOE6IgC&pg=PA193|pages=193–196|isbn=978-2-600-04293-2}}</ref> It was under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century that [[steam engine]]s were introduced to the Egyptian cotton industry.<ref name="batou193"/>

By the time of the American Civil war annual exports had reached $16 million (120,000 bales), which rose to $56 million by 1864, primarily due to the loss of the Confederate supply on the world market. Exports continued to grow even after the reintroduction of US cotton, produced now by a paid workforce, and Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903.