Cotton From the Margins: An Analysis of the Indian Cotton Experiment

An exploration of the Indian Cotton experiment, which was devised by the British East India Company and took place in the early 1840s. The experiment included the relocation of ten American cotton planters. This essay focuses on the local, regional, and global structures that created this experiment. This work questions what it means to become global, and examines how people in the 1840s in America and in Britain were imagining the future of the cotton trade. It was a moment of globalization, one that is analyzed from the perspective of newspapers, parliamentary documents, and Consular papers.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.