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The Decline of the British Cotton Industry: Trick of History or Historical Invevitability   Term Paper ID:27204 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses two views of the fall of the British cotton industry, the Fatalist school which viewed it as the result of poor responses to random acts, & the Casualist school, which finds it the inevitable result of cause & effect.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses two views of the fall of the British cotton industry, the Fatalist school which viewed it as the result of poor responses to random acts, & the Casualist school, which finds it the inevitable result of cause & effect. Paper Introduction: The Decline of the British Cotton Industry: Trick of History, or Historical Inevitability At one time, and for more than 100 years, the cotton industry in Great Britain was the most powerful in the world, and indeed was one of the backbones of both the British Empire and World Economic Development in the 19th Century. One school of historians argue that the decline of the cotton industry in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s was "a trick history played on the managers of the British cotton industry" (McCloskey & Sandberg, 1971, 102; Bellamy, 1962, 106). This analysis will refer to them as the "Fatalists," and assert that their belief is that life (both social and economic) is nothing more than a series of random acts, some more important than others. To the Fatalists, the study of history is the study of mankind's and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Krupotkin, in his seminal 1912 work, Fields,Factories and Workshops creates one of the most prolific and astuteCausalist histories of the British Cotton market available. This caused Britain to begin trying to protect itsmarkets. Using this system, somewhat narrative, but cleanly cause and effectnow gives the random events mentioned above shade and texture. . McMillan & Co. (199 ) The British cotton industry andinternational competitive advantage: The state of the debates. Change is not easy for any society. Forthis argument to work, the acceptance of the following theories arerequired: A. The growth in these mills caused a concurrent decline in Britishexports of cloth it had once manufactured, and contributed to the declineof the industry. 16 145(14) Krupotkin, P. In describing the contemporary (that is, 1912) attitude of the Englishtoward its cloth-making prowess, he says, quoting a noted economist of thetime, Neumann Spallart, the statistician and almost the poet of world-trade: Our cloth is made out of fibres grown and wool sheared in all parts of the world. The East India Company was formed. (1968) Marketing organisation and policy in the cottontrade: M'Connel & Kennedy of Manchester, 1795-1835. Thecotton mills caused the effect of what is now known as the IndustrialRevolution. References Bellamy, J.M. Or perhaps we can peg as "the trick" as theAmerican Civil War that had such an incredible effect on both Britain'ssupplies of raw materiel as well as the rapid growth of the cotton millindustry in Bombay? By 187 there were 13mills in Bombay and by 1895 there were 7 mills; growing to 83 in 1915. To a dyed-in-the-wool Brit, change means failure, andfailure is not a construct the British care to deal with. If this concept is accepted, then thenext step in the argument is that narrower margins can be a fatal situationsince they lead to irrational behaviour (Mass & Lazonick, 199 , 22). 1 89(11) Mass, W. This is a quarrel between narrative and analysis and becomesproblematic only if it is assumed that language is separable from content,a basic contrarian mistake many fatalist historians make. F. Indeed, for much of its history the Empire was a less profitable place for British investments than the United States or Argentina. This"lock" led to inefficient economies of production scale, and therefore tonarrower and narrower margins. and a protective policy was definitely adopted), we find that even without protective duties the bulk of production in cottons increased three times, while the number of workers employed in that industry rose by only 26 per cent. Business History. if we consider the eighteen years which preceded 1879 (when the import duties were increased by nearly 3 per cent. D. Before the middle of thenineteenth century, India used to export cotton to Britain, and thenreimport the textile. G (187?) From damnation to redemption:Judgements on the late Victorian Robson, R. Kirby, M.W. Britain wanted more cotton. (1957) The cotton industry in Britain. In spite ofthe flowery prose of Spallart's summary of British cloth sources, it doespresent a fairly accurate picture of the British cotton industry in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Judd (1996), inhis excellent study of the British Empire puzzles over what motivated ournation to seek conquest: No one can explain the British imperial adventure -- neither strategic imperatives, desire for profits or international status, or the need to find a dumping ground for undesirables. Still others (Lazonick & Mass for instance) argue that the decline inthe British Cotton industry was as explicable as cancer and was the direct,inevitable result of the ways in which those same managers chose to produceand sell their cotton in the prosperous pre-War (WWI) years (Lazonick &Mass, 199 , 1-44). The Fatalist view of this situation, espoused by McCloskey(and others cited later) will be examined first.Did History Play a "Trick?": The Fatalist View The difficulty of analyzing historical moments as the result of a"trick" (or a random, unpredicted event) is first seen in determining whichtrick the authors are talking about? Forhistorians like McCloskey to choose one of these "facts" (even though it iscalled a "trick") and argue that it caused a major event like the declineof the cotton industry is fallacious. plain clothing and fancy dress, while we are sending them in exchange the produce of our higher intelligence, our technical knowledge, our powerful industrial and commercial organizing capacities! And in spite of efforts to turn the Empire into a closed trading area in the interwar period, countries like Canada continued to be drawn into the American sphere of economic influence (Judd, 1996, 114).That says it all. (1912) Fields, factories and workshops: Industrycombined with agriculture and brainwork with manual work. Certain facts of the British/Indianrelationship have become almost myth. At what cost has it beenobtained, and how long will it last?" (Krupotkin, 1912, 77). Basic. BecauseBritain wanted and needed India, it created a company called the East IndiaCompany to handle procurement of cotton. C. The East India Company causedunrest in India so British military came into help defend the company.This had the effect of getting more cotton into England, but it was alsothe cause of English sheepherders growing nervous and demanding protectionfor their products. A great wave of changewas about to engulf them. NewYork. Britain decided to make its own cotton. One school of historians argue that the decline of thecotton industry in Britain during the 192 s and 193 s was "a trick historyplayed on the managers of the British cotton industry" (McCloskey &Sandberg, 1971, 1 2; Bellamy, 1962, 1 6). The school of historical research that they representin this debate is sometimes called "Casualist," since the belief is thathistory is nothing more than a series of situations (causes) that causesuccesses or calamities (effects). Business History. The prairies of America and Australia; the mountains and steppes of Asia; the frozen wildernesses of the Arctic regions; the deserts of Africa and the depths of the oceans; the tropics and the lands of the midnight sun are our tributaries. His researchand work is often quoted in many of today's scholarly works, includingthose cited at the beginning of this essay. Therefore British capital waslocked into areas and techniques of production that became obsolescent andoutdated as more advanced products and technologies were discovered. In discussing thegrowth of the British Cotton Industry before tariff protectionism, hestates: . All races of men contribute their share in supplying us with. He used cotton as his weapon, and convinced theIndian people to stop importing or exporting British cotton. BusinessHistory. This analysis will refer to themas the "Fatalists," and assert that their belief is that life (both socialand economic) is nothing more than a series of random acts, some moreimportant than others. New York. in bulk: Since that time, from 189 to 19 , it has doubled once more, the quantity of raw cotton worked in the Russian factories having increased from 255, to 52 ,7 cwts., and the number of spindles having grown from 3,457, to 6,646, in 19 , and to 8,3 6, in 191 . B. These arguments could continue forever, and adiscussion of them may be entertaining and enlightening but hardlyevidentiary in a search for the decline of the British Cotton Industry.One example shall serve to illustrate the illogic of the Fatalist or"trick" theory of argument. . For, in fact and in theory, thedecline of the British cotton industry was not a single effect of onecause. Was theopening of the first Indian cotton mill, "The Bombay Spinning Mill," in1854 the watershed event? A closer look at that work isinstructive. If we were toanalyze a small part of that narrative in Fatalistic format, we would havethe following: A. Is it necessary? This edictwas met with force, which was roundly criticized in the world press, whichforced the British government and industry leaders to begin accepting theconcept of change. Instead, it was an example of multiple effects caused by multiple(and widely diverse) causes that were analyzable in hindsight, and inhindsight only. The historian wishing to understand all of themany confluencing events that led to the decline could easily while awayseveral hours with Krupotkin, especially studying his analytical productiontables.The Fatalistic and Causalist Views Combined In this, there is no greater master than Krupotkin, who constantlyweighs events (dates, letters, shipping reports, tonnages, etc) withanalyses of what these collections of raw data imply. Second, Britain's very success anddomination of the world marketplace led to a major shortsightedness on thepart of the leaders of the textile industries who failed to recognize thehistorical inevitabilities of progress, and this shortsightedness led tothe eventual collapse of the industrial power Britain had created (Kirby,1974, 157). Here we have six verified historical events, or moments. During the next nine years(188 -1889) the yearly returns were more than doubled, attaining therespectable figure of ,49, , in money and 3,2 , cwts. The Industrial Revolution Began. (1962) Cotton manufacture in Kingston upon Hull.Business History. Premise 2: There was a cotton source in India.Conclusion: Therefore, Britain wanted and needed India. It must also be remarked that, with a population of 165, , inhabitants, the home market for Russian cottons is almost unlimited; while some cottons are also exported to Persia and Central Asia (Krupotkin, 1912, 91).Personal Opinions Regarding the Decline It is obvious to me that Britain's remarkable industrial and financialdominance in the middle decades of the nineteenth century was bound to beeventually challenged, for the simple reason that Britain industrializedbefore any other nation (Robson, 1957, 12). This is a debate well worth exploring since an examination will revealtwo important economic facts germane to the British cotton industry.First, for over a century, Britain was the world leader in both cottonimports and cotton manufacturing (Mass & Lazonick, 199 , 14). It discovered a source in India. However, Gandhi in 1915, returned to India and began making his visionof a free India come true. Krupotkin then traces the yearly production of each worker noting thatindividual productivity grew from ,45 to ,117. Besides India, however, British cotton manufacturers werefaced with competition from Germany, France, Italy and Japan which wasusing technology created by the British (Lee, 1968, 97). . Rather, the imperial impulse was fed by all of these in different -- and differing -- measures. By focusing much of its attention on the "India problem" textilemanagers and government officials lost track of the main problem, which washow to remain competitive in the world textile marketplace. It is instructive to explore both ofthese schools of thought when examining an issue as complex as the rise andfall of the British cotton industry. Historic events, when related in a "cause-effect" sequence like thistend to be more memorable and have the added advantage of giving clues tothe contemporary observer. . Itis assumed that had there not been a man called Gandhi that this gradualdecline would not have been so accelerated. 32 9(56) McCloskey, D. It was particularly difficult forBritain who, as the United Kingdom boasted control of most of the world'ssurface area (remember the old maps when British Empire nations wereprinted in Pink?). and Lazonick, W.H. E. Lee, C.H. In tracing thehistory of the British cotton industry, it is to the causalists that wemust turn.The Causalist Theory: The Decline Was Inevitable To understand how causalist history differs from fatalist history,take the six events listed above and apply to them the traditionalAristotelian syllogism structure for proving arguments: Premise 1: Britain wanted and needed more cotton. Krupotkin's comment on that jingoistic quote is "Grand it may be, butis it not a mere nightmare? In 182 the total textile import cost the Indiansonly 35 , rupees. 4 91(17) Judd, D.(1996) Empire: The British imperial experience from 1765 tothe present. The Decline of the British Cotton Industry: Trick of History, or Historical Inevitability At one time, and for more than 1 years, the cotton industry in GreatBritain was the most powerful in the world, and indeed was one of thebackbones of both the British Empire and World Economic Development in the19th Century. In fact, itsexpertise in this area led to the development of an economic historybenchmark: The Industrial Revolution. They just did not know it. However, these costs escalated tremendously until in186 textile imports stood at 19.3 million rupees. The leaders of the British textile industries were nodifferent than any other Brit during that period. Thomas Nelson &Sons, London. Is it not a grand sight, this busy and intricate exchange of produce all over the earth which has suddenly grown up within a few years? & Sandberg, D.G. English sheepherders wanted protection for their products. Which event along the long time linethat describes Britain's cotton industry was most important? In historical writings, there is apparent a seemingly endless tensionbetween Causalists who narrate the past as a story of connecting events andthose who would merely recount the facts as they happened, or theFatalists. For A-F above arestatements of fact, and as fact they stand isolated, unconnected. To the Fatalists, the study of history is the studyof mankind's and societies' reactions to the events with which they areconfronted. (1974) The Lancashire cotton industry in the inter-waryears: A study in organizational change. The cherished narrative known toevery school lad concerns tales of British visionaries and Indianscoundrels, the Rajs, the battles, the wars, and the money. The actions (or non-actions) of the leaders of the British textileindustries cannot be judged in isolation; rather they must be judged asjust one part of an empire-wide social and economic restructuring which noone was aware of in the 192 s. This protection in turn led to the decision to establish its owncotton mills, thereby solving the problem of protecting its markets. If weanalyze each of them in isolation, and then suggest that that event was the"cause" of subsequent behavior, we are in murky waters. B. Of all thesecompetitive markets, the British decided to move against the Indians.Hoping to regain control of the lucrative cotton market they once had. The Indian problem will be argued first. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.